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Analyze The Motives For The Pequot War

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The Pequot War is one that many are not aware of but should still be of outmost importance because casualties were suffered on both opposing sides. Due to this ordeal, this particular war enhanced the image on the Native Americans and contributed towards the start of the United States. The motives for the Indians to start a war with the British were for control of trade of furs, wampum and land. The Dutch and the Pequot Tribe traded peacefully, until the interference of the British colonists in the early 1630s. The Dutch and Pequot Indians dominated the region known as present day Connecticut with trade, which included wampum and furs. The first sign of war, was the attack on John Stone, a British settler who was trading with allied tribes, …show more content…

The alliances in the war portrayed a huge ordeal because in 100 years the Indians would no longer be part of this region. “The more fortunate captives were given to Mohegan and Narragansett sachems who had assisted the Puritans in their war against the Pequots.” These allies assisted to help win the war over the Pequots. John Underhill and John Mason were leaders during this war, they were one of many leaders who help assist to lead victory against the Pequots. First of all, the English should’ve established a peace treaty in order to trade, but instead they failed to do so, and led to several English captains such as John Stone and other Englishmen to be murdered. So, the Connecticut colony officially declared war against the Pequot’s in May 1, 1637 because of the sick killings that the Pequot tribe was doing against the …show more content…

The advantages proved to work, “in little more than an hour betwixt three and four hundred of them were killed, and of the English only two —one of them by our own muskets, as is thought. For the Narragansets beset the fort so close, that not one escaped.” One most famous battles known as the (Battle of Mistick Fort) when John Mason’s and Underhill’s forces, along with the Mohegan and Narragansett tribe marched to mystic, chaos erupted immediately.” One recalled that dead and dying Indians in the fields surrounding Fort Mistic were "so thick in some places that you could hardly pass along." These battles were very bloody due to the number of casualties that occurred during the night of the Mistic massacre, 400 Pequots were killed in less than an hour, which included children and women, some of them were burned due to the allies burning the fort. This battle gave the victory to the English during the Pequot

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