As the colonies of all three regions grew, they pressed onto Native lands. Native nations traded, allied, negotiated and, when those failed, fought. Four conflicts of the 1600s show the pattern and its variety.
Key idea
The Pequot War (1636 to 1638) and King Philip's (Metacom's) War (1675 to 1676) in New England; Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia (1676), an uprising of colonists against their governor; and the Pueblo Revolt (1680), which drove the Spanish out of New Mexico for twelve years.
Why it works
The conflicts grew from competition for land, trade and power. English farms and livestock spread over Native fields and hunting grounds; colonial courts favored colonists; disease had already weakened many nations. Native leaders had choices to make: some allied with the English against rivals, some resisted. Colonists were divided too, as Bacon's Rebellion showed.
- Pequot War: English colonists, with Mohegan and Narragansett allies, fought the Pequot. In May 1637 they burned a fortified Pequot village at Mystic, killing some 400 to 700 people, most of them women, children and elders. The Treaty of Hartford (1638) scattered the surviving Pequot.
- King Philip's War: Metacom, son of Massasoit and leader of the Wampanoag, led a coalition against the spreading colonies. Dozens of towns were burned and thousands died; measured against population, it was one of the deadliest wars in American history. Metacom was killed in August 1676, and many captives were sold into slavery.
- Bacon's Rebellion: Nathaniel Bacon led frontier settlers, including poor freed servants and some enslaved Africans, who were angry that Governor William Berkeley would not wage war on Native peoples to open land. They attacked Native villages, some of them peaceful, and burned Jamestown in September 1676. The revolt collapsed after Bacon died.
- Pueblo Revolt: on August 10, 1680, Pueblo peoples led by Popé rose against Spanish forced labor and the suppression of their religion. They drove the Spanish from Santa Fe; Spain did not return until Diego de Vargas's campaign of 1692.
Worked example: Why does Bacon's Rebellion matter?
Historians often connect Bacon's Rebellion to the growth of slavery in Virginia. What is the link?
- Bacon's army joined poor freed servants and some enslaved Africans against the colony's leaders.
- Planters grew wary of a large class of poor, armed, landless former servants.
- In the following decades they bought more enslaved Africans and fewer indentured servants.
Answer: Many historians see it as one reason planters shifted toward slavery; others stress the falling supply of servants. Both factors were at work.
Common mistake
Avoid treating Native nations as only victims or only enemies. Nations chose allies (the Mohegan and Narragansett fought beside the English against the Pequot), traded, negotiated and fought to protect their lands, and the Pueblo Revolt won twelve years of independence. Also, Bacon's Rebellion was a revolt by colonists against their own government, not a war between colonists and one Native nation.