The English Role In The Pequot War
The English Role In The Pequot War
One of the most hazardous tasks a historian tackles is determining what motivated the actions of a past society. Even for a present-day society, this task is fraught with perils. Are a society's motivations the sum of its adult participants? Do we give special weight to the goals of its leaders? Should we regard the society's stated goals as accurate communications of motivation, discard them as intentionally deceptive, or dissect those statements as indications of deeper desires that are too painful to directly discuss? Consider the tremendous range of motives ascribed to the United States for its involvement in Southeast Asia in the period 1954-75.
Now, consider what happens when we add the complexity of examining the motives of a society no longer present, and which had far less complete records than are normally kept by governments today. A paucity of evidence can provide a rich opportunity for ideologues to ascribe any motive that they find convenient. The purpose of this paper is to examine the motivations behind the Pequot War; see how well the evidence matches up to the various theories of intent currently popular in the academic community; and suggest an alternative theory in which the English are not the protagonists, but pawns of intertribal warfare.
There are at least three theories of motivation for the Pequot War. The oldest theory, reflecting a traditional view of white and Indian relations, is that the Pequots, who had recently arrived in Connecticut, were "a more fierce, cruel, and warlike People than the Rest of the Indians, ... and became a Terrour to all their Neighbors...." After repeated atrocities committed against both Indians, Dutch, and English settlers, the English and their Indian allies insisted that the Pequots turn over the killers of one Captain John Stone; once battle with the Pequots was fully engaged, it became necessary to burn their fortifications at Mystic, Connecticut, causing an enormous loss of life.[1] According to this view, the Indian allies of the English had their own grievances against the Pequots, but the driving force behind the war was the English colonists.
As early as 1856, historians began to argue a different theory of motivation that was not prepared to accept the Pequot War as a "just war" against an aggressive and dangerous tribe,[2] and saw the English colonists as a group almost as savage in their actions as...