Publisher's Synopsis
King Philip's War (sometimes called the First Indian War, Metacom's War, Metacomet's War, or Metacom's Rebellion) was an armed conflict between American Indian inhabitants of present-day New England and English colonists and their Indian allies in 1675-78. The war is named for Metacomet, the Wampanoag chief who adopted the English name Philip due to the friendly relations between his father and the Mayflower Pilgrims. The war continued in the most northern reaches of New England until the signing of the Treaty of Casco Bay in April 1678.Metacom (c. 1638-1676) was the second son of Wampanoag chief Massasoit, who had coexisted peacefully with the Pilgrims. He succeeded his brother in 1662 and reacted to rising tensions between the Wampanoags and the colonists. At Taunton in 1671, he was humiliated when colonists forced him to sign a new peace agreement that included the surrender of Indian guns. Officials in Plymouth Colony hanged three Wampanoags in 1675 for the murder of an Indian, and Metacom's followers and allies launched a united assault on colonial towns throughout the region. Metacom's forces gained initial victories in the first year, but then the Indian alliance began to unravel. By the end of the conflict, the Wampanoags and their Narragansett allies were almost completely destroyed. Metacom anticipated their defeat, and returned to his ancestral home at Mt. Hope, where he was killed fleeing an English attack. The war was the single greatest calamity to occur in seventeenth century Puritan New England and is considered by many to be the deadliest war in the history of European settlement in North America in proportion to the population. In the space of little more than a year, twelve of the region's towns were destroyed and many more damaged, the colony's economy was all but ruined, and its population was decimated, losing one-tenth of all men available for military service. More than half of New England's towns were attacked by Indians. King Philip's War began the development of an independent American identity. The colonists faced their trials without significant English government support, and this gave them a group identity separate and distinct from those who lived in Britain.................. John Stevens Cabot Abbott (September 19, 1805 - June 17, 1877), an American historian, pastor, and pedagogical writer, was born in Brunswick, Maine to Jacob and Betsey Abbott.John Stevens Cabot Abbott (September 19, 1805 - June 17, 1877), an American historian, pastor, and pedagogical writer, was born in Brunswick, Maine to Jacob and Betsey Abbott. Early life He was a brother of Jacob Abbott, and was associated with him in the management of Abbott's Institute, New York City, and in the preparation of his series of brief historical biographies. Dr. Abbott graduated at Bowdoin College in 1825, prepared for the ministry at Andover Theological Seminary, and between 1830 and 1844, when he retired from the ministry in the Congregational Church, preached successively at Worcester, Roxbury and Nantucket, all in Massachusetts.[1] Literary career Owing to the success of a little work, The Mother at Home, he devoted himself, from 1844 onwards, to literature. He was a voluminous writer of books on Christian ethics, and of popular histories, which were credited with cultivating a popular interest in history. He is best known as the author of the widely popular History of Napoleon Bonaparte (1855), in which the various elements and episodes in Napoleon's career are described. Abbott takes a very favourable view towards his subject throughout. Also among his principal works are: History of the Civil War in America (1863-1866), and The History of Frederick II, Called Frederick the Great (New York, 1871). He also did a forward to a book called Life of Boone by W.M. Bogart, about Daniel Boone in 1876. In general, except that he did not write juvenile fiction, his work in subject and style closely resembles that of his brother, Ja
