Welcome to The History of the Americans Podcast. My name is Jack Henneman, and I'm telling the history of the lands now encompassed by the United States from the beginning, without presentism.
All content for The History of the Americans is the property of Jack Henneman and is served directly from their servers
with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
Welcome to The History of the Americans Podcast. My name is Jack Henneman, and I'm telling the history of the lands now encompassed by the United States from the beginning, without presentism.
[Attention Boston-area listeners: We will do a meet-up on Wednesday, June 25, 2025 at 5:30 at a venue TBD. I'll also post information in a blog post on the website for the podcast, and on X and Facebook, links below. Send me an email at thehistoryoftheamericans *at* gmail if you think you can make it or have a suggestion for a convenient venue, and I can respond to that when it is nailed down.]
It is the fall of 1675, and "King Philip's War" rages on. The English colonies of Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Connecticut have been at war with the Wampanoag nation and its powerful allies, the Nipmucs, since late June. The Indians are beating the English everywhere, in part because the English cannot easily distinguish friendly and neutral Indians from enemies.
The still neutral Narragansetts were the most powerful nation in the region. Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth did not, however, believe that the Narragansetts were in fact neutral, in part because some of their young fighters had gone rogue and joined with Nipmucs and also because the Narragansetts would not turn over Wampanoag refugees who had taken shelter in their lands. Paranoic fear of the Narragansetts would lead the New English to the most catastrophic diplomatic and military blunder in the history of European settlement up to that time. This is that story.
Facebook – The History of the Americans Podcast – https://www.facebook.com/HistoryOfTheAmericans
Selected references for this episode (Commission earned for Amazon purchases through the episode notes on our website)
Matthew J. Tuininga, The Wars of the Lord: The Puritan Conquest of America’s First People
Nathaniel Philbrick, Mayflower: Voyage, Community, War
Thomas Church, The History of Philip's War: Commonly Called the Great Indian War, of 1675 and 1676
The Great Swamp Fight (Wikipedia)
The History of the Americans
Welcome to The History of the Americans Podcast. My name is Jack Henneman, and I'm telling the history of the lands now encompassed by the United States from the beginning, without presentism.