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Metacom, or "King Philip" as he was known to the English, was a son of Massasoit, the Wampanoag sachem who figured so prominently in the Pilgrim Thanksgiving story. King Philip's War (1675-1676) was a searing and tragic event in Native American/Colonial relations. It killed an estimated eight hundred English and dozens of towns were destroyed and abandoned. The Indians of Southern New England fared even worse; over three thousand died out of an estimated population of twenty thousand. Hundreds more who did not flee to the north and west were captured and sold into slavery, including Philip's own wife and son. Next to Philip himself, Captain Benjamin Church is among the war's most famous participants. His history, edited by his son, remains one of the best-known contemporary accounts of King Philip's War.