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Metacomet (1638 – August 12, 1676), also known as Pometacom,[1]: 205 Metacom, and by his adopted English name King Philip,[2] was sachem (elected chief) to the Wampanoag people and the second son of the sachem Massasoit. His older brother Wamsutta (or King Alexander) briefly became sachem after their father's death in 1661. However, Wamsutta also died shortly thereafter and Metacom became sachem in 1662.
His brother's widow Weetamoo, female sachem of the Pocasset, became Metacom's ally and friend for the rest of his life. It is unclear how many children they had or what happened to them. Wootonekanuske and one of their sons were sold into slavery in the West Indies following the defeat of the Native Americans in what became known as King Philip's War.[3]
Initially, Metacom sought to live in harmony with the colonists. As a sachem, he took the lead in much of his tribes' trade with the colonies. He adopted the European name of Philip.[4]
The colonies continued to expand. To the west, the Iroquois Confederation also was fighting against neighboring tribes in the Beaver Wars, pushing them from the west and encroaching on Metacom's territory. Finally, in 1671, the colonial leaders of the Plymouth Colony forced major concessions from him. Metacom surrendered much of his tribe's armament and ammunition, and agreed that they were subject to English law. The encroachment continued until hostilities broke out in 1675.
Name change
In the spring of 1660, Metacom's brother Wamsutta appeared before the court of Plymouth to request that he and his brother be given English names in accordance with Wampanoag custom, in which new names marked significant moments in time (such as, in this case, Wamsutta's father's death). The court agreed and Wamsutta had his name changed to Alexander, and Metacom's was changed to Philip. Author Nathaniel Philbrick has suggested that the Wampanoag may have taken action at the urging of Wamsutta's interpreter, the Christian neophyte John Sassamon.[5] Metacom was later called "King Philip" by the English.
The death of King Philip as depicted by Harper's Magazine in 1857The site of King Philip's death in Miery Swamp on Mount Hope "King Philip's Seat", a meeting place on Mount Hope, Rhode Island
King Philip used tribal alliances to coordinate efforts to push European colonists out of New England. Many of the native tribes in the region wanted to push out the colonists following conflicts over land use, diminished game as a consequence of expanding European settlement, and other tensions.
As the colonists brought their growing numbers to bear, King Philip and some of his followers took refuge in the great Assowampset Swamp in southern Massachusetts. He held out for a time, with his family and remaining followers.
Hunted by a group of rangers led by Captain Benjamin Church, King Philip was fatally shot by a praying Indian named John Alderman, on August 12, 1676, in the Miery Swamp near Mount Hope in Bristol, Rhode Island. He was shot by Alderman for killing his brother. After his death, his wife and nine-year-old son were captured and sold as slaves in Bermuda. Philip's head was mounted on a pike at the entrance to Plymouth, Massachusetts, where it remained for more than two decades. His body was cut into quarters and hung in trees.[6] Alderman was given Philip's right hand as a trophy.
In his short story "The Devil and Daniel Webster" (1937), Stephen Vincent Benét portrays Metacom as a villain to the colonists, and as being killed by a blow to the head (he was shot in the heart). Webster is portrayed as respecting Metacom as one of those who "formed American history." Metacomet, together with other famous historical villains, is a juror in the "trial of the damned". When convinced that his damnation resulted in his loss of admiration for the natural world, he ultimately takes Webster's side against the Devil. In the film he is replaced by Asa, the Black Monk.
Metacom is featured in the 1995 film The Scarlet Letter as the Wampanoags' new chief after his father's death.
David Kerr Chivers' Metacomet's War (2008) is an historical novel about King Philip's War.
Narragansett journalist John Christian Hopkins's novel, Carlomagno, is a historical novel that imagines Metacom's son becoming a pirate after having been sold into slavery in the West Indies.
The novel My Father's Kingdom (2017) by James W. George focuses on the events leading to King Philip's War.
King Philip Stockade, a large park named after the chief, where the Pocumtuc Indians planned and began the Sack of Springfield, is now a part of Forest Park in Springfield
^Silverman, David (2019). This Land Is Their Land. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing.
^Lepore, Jill. The Name of War: King Philip's War and the Origins of American Identity, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1998. Note: King Philip "was also known as Metacom, or Metacomet. King Philip may well have been a name that he adopted, as it was common for Natives to take other names. King Philip had on several occasions signed as such and has been referred to by other natives by that name."
^Lepore, J. (2019). "Chapter 2: Rulers and the Ruled". In These truths: A History of the United States. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
