(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved. Contact us for information about using this image.
label levels:
Metacom, or "King Philip", as called by the English, was a son of Massasoit, the Wampanoag leader who is well known in the Pilgrim Thanksgiving story. King Philip's War (1675-1676) was a very sad 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 leaders. His history, edited by his son, remains one of the best-known writings about King Philip's War.