Un-Complete Nts On Massacre at Mystic

Massacre at Mystic
Shay's Rebellion


1637 English and Allies attacked Natives
1st time English engaged in wholesale slaughter on Natives
1620-1440 People mainly Puritans left from England to New World, for religion
Puritans not expecting Natives
Pequot most powerful group in Southern New England - wealthy, numerous, politically dominant, advanced trade. Man claims sharing is base of their culture
Trade is sort of an understanding between settlers and Natives
Wampang - shell beads originally sacred became trade item, Wampang was needed from coastal tribes to trade with interior tribes
Women were treated as equals, traders, leaders in Pequots.
Women produced most food around 80%
Oppositely organized cultures women had full roles in Native tribes, to natives it seemed they babied wives
1700, 14000 to 4000 Pequots, less heavely affected by disease than other Tribes
Tribes competed with each other for flow of goods from English
As tribes get weaker, English grow bolder
View of land creates boiling pt for Natives and English
English thought of Wilderness as devil, devil children = wilderness people; to tame land is their duty
Natives used land seasonally
Dutch see trade, English see land
Land doesn't need trade
1635-1637 tensions at breaking points; leaders got together and decided Pequots are now enemy (greedy for land)
small raiding parties by natives to harass because they suspected the unpure intentions of Englishmans
English raised to destroy enemies completely by Europe's war
1637 tension about to errupt; May of that year they decided to attack Pequots, to make an example of them 
English landed in Naraggansset; Nar. & Mohheikens allied themselves as they marched to kill Pequots
In Native warfare no killing of Children and women
John Underhill and John Mason leaders of the massacre
Attacked in dark of night while Natives were sleeping
Mason realized that hand to hand waas too dangerous, got a torch and let wigwams & fort burn
Mason & Underhill were professional soldiers, burning was plan B for sucess
Brutality was shocking to Nar. & Moheikens; they even asked English to stop
1 hour for Massacre to kill hundreds of Pequots
Other Pequots came to investigate and see what was wrong
Natives don't fight wars to eliminate whole populatons
English began (week or so) to find and kill all Pequots left
Many Pequots are sold to Bermudas or killed
Treaty of Heartford ended war, most gone already; the Treaty  was cultural genocide, language, customs ALL outlawed
1676 - King Phillips War Narraganssets were all killed


Pequots survivers given to Narraganssets continued to resist
John Winthrop Jr. & Pequot man who was a servant in tribe became friends
300,000 acres for Pequot
1950's Connecticut erased the Pequot name
3 women began a revolution to come back
1960s 1970's group of Pequots began to come back in tribal reservation
1986 they won a land suing suit, they needed a real money making business. They built a casino










Comprehension Questions: 
1. How would you describe relationships between the Puritan settlers and the Pequot 
before the Pequot War? Why do you think these relationships changed so quickly? 



2. Before the arrival of the British, what was the status of the Pequot in the 
Connecticut River Valley? How would you describe their relationships with other 
Native American tribes? 

3. Why did the Puritans travel to the New World? What were their intentions upon 
arrival? 

4. Compare and contrast Puritan and Pequot ideas about the following: land and 
property, division of labor and gender, and warfare? Give examples to back up 
your discussion. 

5. In this program, one commentator suggests that the Dutch colonists favored trade, 
while the British prioritized land. How did the difference in focus shape their 
interactions with Native Americans, and their goals in the New World? 

6. Why were British settlers unhappy with the way Pequot organized their economy 
and relationship to the land? Do you think there was any validity to their concerns? 
Who do you think, if anyone, ultimately had the right to decide who should 
control the land? 

7. Why do you think the Narragansett and Mohegan tribes fought with the Puritans 
against the Pequot? Were you surprised by their actions? Discuss. 

8. One commentator, Tall Oak, ponders how the early colonies would have been 
different if the Puritans had come in peace. How would you answer this question? 
Do you think a different outcome in relations between the Pequot and the Puritans 
was possible?

9. How did the Pequot manage to resurrect their community hundreds of years after 
the massacre? How do you think it would feel to go from devastation to prosperity? 

10. Describe the details of the 1638 Treaty of Hartford, which ended the war. Why 
was the treaty considered to be cultural genocide for the Pequot? 

11. What sources do you think historians used in order to recount the story of the 
massacre at Mystic? What sources might you use if you were trying to create a 
documentary about the early colonies? Do you think this documentary offers a 
balanced and informed view of the massacre? Discuss. 

12. How did the massacre at Mystic changed the United States?