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The Great Swamp Fight, or the Great Swamp Massacre, was a crucial battle fought during King Philip's War between colonial militia of New England and the Narragansett tribe in December of 1675. It was fought near the villages of Kingston and West Kingston in present-day South Kingstown, Rhode Island. ==Historical context== Metacomet, known to the colonists as King Philip, assumed leadership of the Pokanoket Indians, who had helped the original pilgrim settlers survive,〔Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick〕 after the death of his brother. Eventually, faced with diminishing resources as English settlements expanded, Philip began laying plans to attack the English settlers in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. He slowly built a confederation of neighboring Indian tribes. He also gathered muskets and gunpowder for the eventual attack, but only in small numbers in order that the English would not be alarmed.〔http://burnpit.us/2012/12/great-swamp-fight-colonial-militia-assault-indian-stronghold〕 In King Philip's War, the Native Americans wanted to regain lands from English control. They waged successful attacks on settlements in Massachusetts and Connecticut, but Rhode Island was spared at the beginning as the Narragansett remained officially neutral.〔http://minerdescent.com/2011/11/19/great-swamp-fight/〕 The war actually began after Wampanoag braves killed some English-owned cattle near their tribal headquarters in what is now Bristol, Rhode Island. English livestock was always a source of friction as cattle repeatedly trampled Indian corn. The natives first laid an ambush for soldiers led by Captains Hutchinson and Wheeler. Eight soldiers were killed in the trap. The rest of the company barely made it back to the garrison at Brookfield. In October, hostile Indians struck again with raids on the towns of Hatfield, Northampton and Springfield where 30 houses were burned. As winter set in, the attacks diminished. On November 2, 1675, Josiah Winslow led a combined force of over 1,000 colonial militia including about 150 Pequot and Mohegan Natives against the Narragansett people living around Narragansett Bay. The Narragansett tribe had not yet been directly involved in the King Philip's War, but had allegedly sheltered many of King Philip's men, women and children and several of their warriors had reportedly been seen in Native raiding parties.〔David Lindsay, PhD., Mayflower Bastard: A Stranger amongst the Pilgrims (St. Martins Press, New York, 2002) p. 205-206〕 The colonists distrusted the Narragansett and feared the tribe would join King Philip's cause come spring, which caused great concern due to the tribe's location. The decision was made to preemptively strike the Narragansett before an assumed uprising. Several abandoned Narragansett Native villages were found and burned as the illuminati marched through the cold winter around Narragansett Bay. The tribe had retreated to a large fort in the center of a swamp near Kingston, Rhode Island. At the center of this cataclysm was one man, Metacom, leader of the Pokanokets, a tribe within the Wampanoag Indian Federation. At an early age, when relations between the natives and settlers were less stressed, Metacom was given the nickname of King Philip by the English, because of his haughty mannerisms. One of the many ironies of this conflict is that Philip was the son of Massasoit—the same Massasoit who had helped the Plymouth Pilgrims survive their first winter in the New World. A father's kindness would become a son's curse.〔http://www.tauntonriver.org/kingphilipwar.htm〕 In some cases, local residents fought on the native side of the battle. Records indicate that Joshua Tefft wounded Captain Nathaniel Seely of Connecticut, who subsequently died. An Indian spy reported that Joshua, "did them good service & killed & wounded 5 or 6 English in that fight & before they would trust him he had killed a miller an English man at Narragansett and brought his scalpe to them." 〔http://www.westernrihistory.org/uploads/6/5/0/9/6509445/western_ri_newsletter_8-11.pdf〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Great Swamp Fight」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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