By Barbara J. Olexer. ISBN 0-9722740-4-9. Soft cover, 2005, bibliography, index, 5 1/2 X 8 1/2 inches, 244 pages, $16.95.

Scroll down to see the table of contents and read an excerpt.

Reactions to The Enslavement of the American Indian in Colonial Times 

"...an extraordinary book. The research is solid and the story flows."

Darnell Williams, Ph.D.
Director, Langston University Center for International Development 

"Your title is excellent. May the Great Mystery continue to guide and protect..."

Russell Means
Indigenous Rights/Constitutional Rights Activist, Actor, Artist, and Author

 "This book will be a special addition to my collection."

The Honorable Daniel K. Inouye
U.S. Senator, Hawaii

"I've been learning a lot about Native Americans this summer, some with dismay, thanks to your informative, well-documented book. It must be quite a contribution to the field."

Horst von Dorpowski, Ph.D.
Assistant Dean, College of Education
Penn State University

Selected as required reading for her class: "Reading Institute for Integrating Literacy into Content Area Teaching."

Fannye Love, Ph.D.
University of Mississippi

  Excerpt from Chapter III 

     During his loyalty trial at Plymouth, Wamsutta was taken ill. An English doctor ministered to him but only made the illness worse. Weetamoe finally gained permission to take her husband home for treatment by his own physicians. This permission was granted only on the condition that they leave their two sons in Plymouth as hostages. 
     Wamsutta was carried by his men as far as the Taunton River where his condition worsened and after a short halt on the banks of the river, Wamsutta died. Weetamoe took the news to Philip. She and Philip believed that the colonists had poisoned her husband. Quite possibly they were right -- an entry in the records notes the purchase of poison to rid the colony of a pest at about that time.
     Whatever the cause of Alexander's demise, Philip, at age twenty-four, succeeded his brother's one year reign. Howe states: 

"On the rock now called King Philip's Throne, on the east side of Mount Hope, he donned the nine-foot stole of wampum, fringed with red deerskin and embroidered with beasts and birds, the headband with two flags behind, the breastplate engraved with a star, and the scarlet cloak that were his royalties."

      There is no physical description of Philip, but a description of the Wampanoags is contained in a letter written by Verrazzano in 1524 that extols them as the: 

"goodliest people, and of the fairest conditions, that we have found in this our voyage, they exceed us in bigness, are comely, with long black hair that they are careful to trim; their eyes are black and quick, and their color various shades of brasses. Their bodies are well proportioned, as appertaineth to any handsome man. The women too, are very handsome and well favored." 

     Mary Rowlandson, who was a captive during the war, provides some insight into the character of Weetamoe, who was a chief in her own right, owning Aquidneck Island, now Newport County in Rhode Island, and Pocasset in what is now named Massachusetts. She remarried after Wamsutta's death and her husband, Quinnapin, bought Mrs. Rowlandson soon after her capture and presented her to Weetamoe as a gift. Mrs. Rowlandson wrote: 

"A severe and proud dame she was, bestowing every day in dressing her self neat as much time as any of the gentry of the land, powdering her hair, and painting her face, going with Neck-laces, with Jewels in her ears, and Bracelets upon her hands. When she had dressed her self, her work was to make girdles of Wampon and Beads." 

     For nine years Philip kept the peace, becoming more convinced that war must be the final result of the abuses and insults heaped upon him and his people by the English. When Philip became exasperated at the loss of his lands, Howe quotes the chief, "But little remains of my ancestors' domain, I am resolved not to see the day when I have no country."
     The Indians' crops were despoiled by the colonists' livestock, Indian lands were absorbed by an ever-increasing European population, Indian children were kidnapped and held as slaves, Indian food sources, game, and fish were being destroyed, laws were passed forbidding Indian ownership of weapons and ammunition, and religious differences were adding to the provocation.
     The Massachusetts government decreed the death penalty for Indians as well as colonists who were found guilty of blasphemy, which included the denial of God or the derogation of the Christian religion. Plymouth forbade all Indian activity on the Sabbath, which prohibited Indians from hunting, fishing, or carrying burdens on Sunday, a day that had no significance for them as they had their own religion which served them perfectly well. Missionaries wished to Christianize the tribes, and had some success, as with the Mohegans and a few groups called Praying Indians. The Wampanoag Federation politely requested the missionaries to abstain from preaching. Ninigret, a Niantic Chief, advised a missionary who asked permission to preach to his people to "go and make the English good first."
     The colonial authorities in 1671 became so suspicious of Philip's loyalty that they ordered him, as they had ordered Wamsutta, to come and prove his fidelity. At Taunton, Philip faced the demand that to prove his good faith, he must surrender his arms. In the enemy's stronghold, surrounded and outnumbered, Philip had no choice. He and his seventy men laid down their arms and Philip signed a treaty of peace.
     The English believed that all of Philip's people would surrender their weapons. As Chief of the Wampanoag Federation, Philip governed more than thirty tribes, but he could not compel them all to surrender their arms even if he had so desired it. He was called to return and once again had to sign a peace treaty.
     Josephy says that after Philip had signed the first treaty but had failed to turn in more guns, the Plymouth people were preparing to send a punitive expedition against him: 

"Hastening to Boston and playing the White man's own game by setting colony against colony, Philip convinced the Massachusetts Bay leaders that the Plymouth officials were being unreasonable to him. The Bostonians, who wanted no Indian war, intervened with Plymouth and got the expedition called off in return for Philip's signing a new agreement with the English. This time the Wampanoag chief promised to pay one hundred pounds worth of goods to Plymouth and to obey the government of that colony." 

     The authorities still distrusted him. One of Philip's letters to the governor of Plymouth Colony survives. It was probably written by John Sassamon who had been secretary to Massasoit and who had attended Harvard. Howe quotes the letter, but provides no date: 

"King Philip desires to let you understand that he could not come to the Court, for Tom his interpreter has a pain in his back, that he could not travil so far, and Philip sister is very sick. Philip would entreat that favor of you and aney of the majestrates, if aney English or Enjians speak about aney land, he pray you to give them no answer at all. This last somer he made that promis with you, that he would sell no land in 7 yers time, for he would have no English trouble before him that time. He will come as sune as possible he can speak with you, and so I rest Your verey loveing friend Philip, dwelling at mount hope nek" 

     This letter did not satisfy the Plymouth authorities and they sent another summons. Exasperated, Philip replied curtly, quoted by Howe, "Your governor is but a subject. I shall treat only with my brother, King Charles of England. When he comes, I am ready."
     Relations between the two peoples steadily worsened. Lauber records that the Indians sold members of their own tribes to the Europeans for a specified time as punishment and that families sometimes sold their own members into temporary bondage. Indians also offered themselves or their children as security for loans, default meaning slavery. Occasionally, a disgraced or outcast Indian sold himself into slavery to escape tribal punishment and to receive protection. It was the treachery of the colonists who refused to free Indians at the expiration of specified terms of service, or who sold them abroad, that caused most of the trouble.
     Earle quotes an entry from the diary of the Rev. Peter Thatcher from Milton, Massachusetts, who had bought an Indian slave for ten pounds in 1674: 

"Came home and found my Indian girl had liked to have knocked my Theodorah on the head by letting her fall. Whereupon I took a good walnut stick and beat the Indian to purpose till she promised to do so no more." Earle comments, "Mr. Thatcher was really a very kindly gentleman and a good Christian, but the natural solicitude of a young father over his firstborn provoked him to the telling use of the walnut stick as a civilizing influence." 

     It was this same solicitude for their children, the desire to protect them from such civilizing influences, kindly gentlemen, and good Christians that finally drove the Wampanoags to war.
     An incident precipitating King Philip's War involved some English seamen and the child of Squando, a Tarratine chief. Squando's wife and child were in a canoe when the sailors idly wondered if Indian children must be taught to swim or if they swam from instinct. They overturned the canoe. The child sank to the bottom, the mother dove for it and took the child to shore. Shortly afterwards, the child died and the Indians believed that the near-drowning was the cause. Squando was inconsolable and set out to do as much harm as possible to the race of barbarians who had killed his child. Contemporary colonial accounts agree that Squando forbore to torture his English captives, and all things considered, treated them remarkably well.
     Another event was the colonists interference when Philip had Sassamon executed. Sassamon went to Plymouth in March of 1675 and gave Governor Josiah Winslow full information regarding Philip's intentions, strength and strategy insofar as he knew them. Learning that his secretary had turned traitor, Philip ordered him to be executed and sent three men to carry out the order. The executioners broke Sassamon's neck and, to make it appear that he had drowned while hunting and to avoid awkward questions the colonial officials might ask, they pushed him under the ice of Middleboro Pond, leaving his gun and some ducks on the bank close by.
     The English authorities did not believe the evidence and promptly arrested, tried and convicted Philip's men, Wampapaquam, Mattashunannonma and Tobias. The English and Indian jury accepted their guilt as proved because Sassamon's body was reported to have bled afresh when one of them approached it. Two of the Indians were hanged and one month later, the third was shot. Philip was enraged by such meddling in what was a universally accepted response to a breach of security. After three months of preparations, Philip struck.
     Swansea, Massachusetts, was looted and burned on June 24, 1675, and nine settlers were killed. Captain Samuel Mosely, commanding 110 volunteers, set out from Boston for Swansea on June 26. Philip kept the initiative all that summer and wreaked vengeance and destruction on towns the length of New England. Taunton, Middleborough and Dartmouth followed Swansea while survivors sent frantic messages for help to Plymouth and Boston.
     Captain Benjamin Church, who had been a good friend to the Indians until the outbreak of the war, marched to the aid of Dartmouth but arrived too late to save it. Seeking safety in the turmoil, 160 of the Dartmouth Tribe who were part of the Wampanoag Federation but who were not involved in the war, surrendered themselves to Church who promised them kind treatment. He sent them to Plymouth, but much to his disgust, the authorities disregarded his promise and sold the Indians into slavery. Lauber reports that on August 4, 1675, they were "transported out of the Country, being about Eight-score persons."
     John Eliot wrote to the Governor and Council at Boston, protesting the policy of enslavement. He told them that it was likely to prolong the war, besides which, it was the design of Christ "not to extirpate nations, but to Gospelize them."
     The colonists, terrified lest the Narragansetts throw their army in with Philip's, forced Canonchet to sign a treaty on July 15. This treaty demanded that the Narragansetts turn over to the colonists all the Wampanoags then taking refuge with them, for whom they would be paid bounties. For each Wampanoag scalp they would be paid two yards of cloth, worth five shillings the yard; four yards for each live Wampanoag; forty yards for Philip dead and eighty yards for Philip alive. The Narragansetts would also be considered non-combatants and would be immune from English reprisals.
     Hospitality was sacred among the Narragansetts and it seems clear that Canonchet had no intention of surrendering Wampanoags to the English. They had allowed Philip to leave his women and children and old people with them and they meant to keep them safe, but it was also expedient for Canonchet to sign the treaty and make some motions of fulfilling its terms. Trustingly, 150 Narragansetts went to Plymouth and put themselves under the colony's protection.
     The colonists were aware that the Narragansetts were harboring Philip's wounded, as well as his non-combatants, in their fort in the swamp near the present Kingston, Rhode Island. It was reported that Philip might be there and that Weetamoe and Quinnapin were certainly there. Using the fact that Canonchet had not surrendered Weetamoe as justification, the English planned to attack the fort. As one colonist, quoted by Howe said, "If she be but taken, her lands will more than pay for all the charges we have been at in this unhappy war."
     Canonchet was again summoned to Boston. He signed a treaty on October 18 agreeing to surrender Weetamoe within ten days and Governor Winslow rewarded him with a silver-trimmed coat. But Weetamoe was not delivered within the specified time so Plymouth Colony officials sold 144 of the Narragansetts who had come in the preceding July, although it was known that they had nothing to do with the hostilities. They were sent to Cadiz, Spain and averaged a price of two shillings and two-pence each.
     Discussions of Indian warfare raise the images of torture and cruelty, but John Easton, quoted in Original Narratives wrote: 

"It is true the Indians genaraly ar very barbarus peopell but in this war I have not herd of ther tormenting ani but that the English army Cote an old Indian and tormented him. He was well knone to have bine a long time a veri decreped and harmless Indian of the queens" (That is, of Weetamoe's.) 

     The colonists also massacred one hundred, twenty-six Indians at Natick and at Springfield they had an old Indian woman torn to pieces by dogs. There are also stories of housewives who stoned to death an Indian caught alone in town.
     Some Indians killed a family near Lancaster on the 22^nd of August. Captain Mosely apprehended an Indian named David and undertook to make him confess to the killings. His method was simple. David was bound to a tree and the guns were aimed at his chest. If he didn't confess, he'd be summarily shot; if he did confess, he would be executed by a firing squad.
     Among the party of Englishmen and Indians who were interrogating him were the eleven Indians who had turned David's brother Andrew over to the Englishmen, who had then shot him. Seeing a chance to save his own life and, at the same time, revenge himself on his brother's betrayers, David accused them of the Lancaster killings. The Englishmen promptly put them on trial and seemed on the verge of convicting them when another Indian was brought in. This Indian testified that he knew the Nipmuck chief One-Eyed-John had committed the murders. Another captive shortly after confirmed this, leaving David to face a charge of perjury. He was convicted of bearing false witness and of shooting at a boy who was watching over some sheep at Marlborough. He was condemned to slavery and sold.
     Incidents such as these and remembrance of past wrongs were gaining Philip allies among the tribes. Matoonus and One-Eyed-John, both Nipmuck chiefs, led an attack on Mendon, Massachusetts, on July 14. Squando and the Tarratines had been fighting from the first. Madakawando led the Penobscots to join Philip. Canonchet and the other Narragansett leaders knew that it was only a matter of time before they were drawn openly into the hostilities.
     On August 30, a council held in Boston proclaimed that any Indians who wished to be considered friendly should come to the plantations and submit to English supervision. Also, that any Indians found harboring strange or enemy Indians, or receiving plunder, would be considered enemies and treated as such.
     Awashonks, the woman chief of the Saconnets, shilly-shallied for a while, although her tribe was part of the Federation. She finally threw her men in with Philip. Eventually, Philip's allies included at least parts of the Androscoggins, the Kennebecks, the Pennacooks, the Abenakis, the Malecites, the Niantics, the Nashuas, and the Wabaquasetts, besides those already named. There may have been other tribes involved in the alliance. Uncas and the Mohegans remained firmly with the Englishmen, along with several groups of Praying Indians. 
     Philip and his allies were raging up and down the Connecticut Valley in early August. Northfield, Deerfield, Hadley, Wrentham, and a dozen other villages fell in rapid succession. The volunteer forces raced madly from village to village, unable to protect any but trying to protect all. Philip sometimes caught these forces between towns and ambushed them. On the eighteenth of September the Indians trapped a supply train and killed sixty-eight of the men.
     Springfield fell that autumn. Drake quotes a Boston merchant: 

"On the 12^th of October, a Body of Indians came to Springfield, who immediately fired the Town, and consumed thirty-two Houses, and almost as many Barns, with their Corn and Hay. The Indians that did this Mischief, were a Company of those Sort Called Praying Indians, about forty in Number, that always dwelt near to Springfield, and at that Time were confined to their Town and about a Mile about it: but for their usual Civility Sake, were permitted daily to have Converse with the Town about what Business they had, and at Midnight they did their Exploit. The Neighboring Towns hearing it, and that it was done by them, Rose without any Commander or Leader, and slew all they could find, which was about thirty."

     History has absolved these Praying Indians of any complicity in the destruction of Springfield and it seems certain that the mob knew these Indians were innocent. It undoubtedly was easier and safer to vent frustration and rage on thirty peaceful Indians in a settlement than to take a chance on finding a highly mobile and dangerous war party.
     During that December, Philip made a journey to the Mohawks to enlist them as allies. On the Hudson River, at the site of present day Schaghticoke, Philip met with the Mohawk leaders. They were engaged in a profitable fur trade with the Englishmen and their traditional enmity toward the New England tribes was too strong. Philip got a flat refusal.
     Drake quotes a contemporary account which says that the Mohawks refusal to join them, 

"did very much daunt and discourage the said Northern Indians; so that some hundreds came in and submitted themselves to the English at Plimouth-Colony; and Philip himself is run skulking away into some Swamp, with not above ten Men attending him; Nor doubt we shortly to have a good Account given of the prime Incendiary; there being severall of our Troops daily abroad in Quest of him." 

     This writer's wishful thinking was not so easily realized. Philip still had a good force. The Narragansetts had been driven into open alliance with him when the colonists had marched against them, hoping to trap Weetamoe and perhaps even Philip. Governor Winslow led a force of 520 men from Massachusetts, 150 from Plymouth, 300 from Connecticut and 150 Mohegans. Their object was the strongly built Narragansett fort situated in the middle of a swamp, accessible only by a log bridge and surrounded by log palisades.
     On December 19, 1675, Captain Church was entrusted with leading the Plymouth and Connecticut men in attacking the rear of the fort while Winslow led the Massachusetts Bay men in an attack on the front gate. The men in the frontal assault were shattered by heavy fire from within but Church carried the rear gate.
     This battle was fought in the midst of a blizzard and Church tried to stop the men from firing the fort because they would need the supplies of corn and its shelter for themselves. He was overruled and the six hundred houses were put to the torch. Many of the Indians were burned alive, others were killed as they sought to escape. Some retreated into the swamp where they were safe from their pursuers.
     When it was over, more than six hundred Indians lay dead, as Cotton Mather put it, "terribly Barbikewd." The colonists lost eighty dead and about one hundred and sixty wounded. Many of the wounded on both sides died that night in the bitter cold for lack of shelter and care. Philip had not been in the fort and Weetamoe and Quinnapin were among those who escaped to the swamp. Canonchet also escaped.
     The Indians were again on the offensive by February. The tenth of that month they attacked and took Lancaster, where they captured Mary Rowlandson, the minister's wife, among others. She has left an account of her captivity. 

"Came the Indians with great numbers upon Lancaster: Their first coming was about Sun-rising. About two hours they had been about the house before they prevailed to fire it. But out we must go, the fire increasing, and coming along behind us, roaring, and the Indians gaping before us with their Guns, Spears and Hatchets to devour us. No sooner were we out of the House, but my Brother-in-Law fell down dead, wherat the Indians scornfully shouted, and hallowed, and were presently upon him, stripping off his cloaths, the bullets flying thick, one went through my side, and the same (as would seem) through the bowels and hand of my dear Child in my arms. One of my elder Sister's Children, named William, had then his Leg broken, which the Indians perceiving, they knockt him on head. My eldest Sister being yet in the House, and seeing those wofull sights, the Infidels haling Mothers one way, and Children another, and some wallowing in their blood: and her elder Son telling her that her son William was dead, and my self was wounded, she said, And, Lord, let me dy with them; and fell down dead over the threshold. Of thirty-seven persons who were in this one House, none escaped either present death, or a bitter captivity, save only one. There were twelve killed, there were twenty-four of us taken alive and carried Captive."

     After destroying Lancaster, the Indians fled in the face of a rescue expedition led by Captain Samuel Wadsworth from Sudbury. They attacked a house near Sudbury, killed seven people and carried some away captive. Three hundred Indians attacked Medfield and burned fifty houses, killing and capturing some of the inhabitants. Philip left a letter of challenge and defiance at Medfield, quoted by Thomas: 

"Know by this paper that the Indians that thou hast provoked to wrath and anger will war this twenty-one years, if you will. There are many Indians yet. We come three hundred at this time. You must consider the Indians lose nothing but their life. You must lose your fair houses and cattle." 

     Peter-ephraim, a Nipnet chief, commanded an Indian company and had a commission from the government. About the same time that Lancaster and Medfield were attacked, news came that Rehoboth was under fire. A party of Englishmen from Medfield formed a relief expedition and Peter-ephraim went along with his company of twenty-nine. The snow was deep, discouraging the colonists who soon turned back. Peter-ephraim continued and during the night he came upon an Indian camp. He and his men surrounded the camp and early the next morning offered the Indians quarter. Eight men refused and were shot. The rest accepted, being about forty-two in number, and Peter-ephraim turned them over to the colonial authorities.
     The tide of war was still with the Indians that early spring; even the large towns were threatened. Eighty houses were burned in Providence and on March 26 the Indians struck only five miles north of Plymouth. Six weeks later Philip actually entered Plymouth and burned sixteen houses. The war was going well for Philip. He had crops planted in the fields of deserted and destroyed Deerfield. Angered at such audacity, the colonists sent a hundred men, under Captain William Turner of Boston, to put a stop to the reclamation project.
     Tebbel says that Philip lost three hundred men in a battle with this force. One militiaman had been killed outright when the noise of the battle brought Indian reinforcements. Turner's force ultimately lost a third of its men, including the commander. It was a victory for Philip but with the loss of so many men, his resources were fast running out.
     Drake quotes an anonymous writer of 1676 as saying that in early April: 

"Maj. Palmer, having been scouring the Narragansetts' Country, brought in 30 of the Enemy, and 60 of Ninicroft's People, which were about 30 fighting Men, who delivered themselves to our Protection. We kept their Wives and Children safely, as Hostages, and made the Men go abroad with our Parties, who did us great Service in clearing the Woods." 

     The Niantic scouts gave the colonists a tremendous advantage. Now they had guides who had recently been fighting with Philip and who knew how and where he was apt to strike and having struck, where he would rest.