AC. They Roasted Their Flesh, Then Handed It Around, Eating It: The Pequot War in Connecticut, 1637

They Roasted Their Flesh, Then Handed It Around, Eating It: The Pequot War in Connecticut, 1637

Connecticut 1634. The Peekquats Indians are a strong and warlike tribe living in the southeastern portion of the colony along the Mystic and Pockatuck rivers. In 1622, they had defeated the Naraganzit Indians and taken much of their land, pushing them east into Rhode Island. They were regarded by the Naraganzits and their other enemy, the Moheagans, as a very formidable foe.

Most of the towns of the British colony of Connecticut were located to the west along the Connecticut River. The colonists were on peaceful terms with the Moheagans and Naraganits. But in 1634, the Peekquats would begin committing brutal depradations upon the Connecticut settlers. Many English traders were brutally murdered by the Peekquats, and the settlers of New England were especially appalled at the kidnapping and murder of two young girls.

In this episode, we will hear about the subsequent all-out war between the English and the Peekquats that ensued. We will be reading from this book, Mirror of Olden Time Border Life by Joseph Pritz. This book was published all the way back in 1849. So, here is the story of the Peekquats War that took place in Connecticut, beginning with the death of the first Englishman in 1634.

There was a tribe of Indians which inhabited the borders of Connecticut River from its mouth to within a few miles of Hartford called Peekquats. A fierce, cruel, and warlike tribe and the infeterate enemies of the English, never failing to improve every opportunity to exercise toward them the most want acts of barbarity.

In June 1634, they treacherously murdered a captain Stone and a Captain Norton, who had been long in the habit of visiting them occasionally to trade. In August 1635, they inhumanly murdered a Mr. Weeks and his whole family, consisting of a wife and six children, and soon after murdered the wife and children of a Mr. Williams, residing near Hartford.

Finding, however, that by their unprovoked acts of barbarity they had enkindled the resentment of the English, who aroused to a sense of their danger, were making preparations to exterminate this cruel tribe. The Peekquats dispatched messengers with gifts to the governor of the new colonies, the Honorable Josiah Winslow.

He, being, however, inflexible in his determination to revenge the deaths of his friends, dismissed these messengers without an answer. The Peekquats, finding the English resolute and determined, and fearing the consequence of their resentments, they the second time dispatched a messenger with a large quantity of wampam, Indian money, as a present to the governor and council, with whom the latter had a considerable conference, and at length concluded a piece on the following terms articles.

One, the Peekquats shall deliver up to the English those of their tribe that are guilty of the deaths of their countrymen. Two, the Peekquats shall relinquish to the English all their right and title to the lands lying within the colony of Connecticut. Three, the English, if disposed to trade with the Peekquats, shall be treated as friends.

To these articles, the Peekquats readily agreed and promised faithfully to adhere and at the same time expressed desire to make peace with the Naraganit Indians, with whom they were then at war. Soon after the conclusion of peace with the Peekquats, the English to put their fair promises to the test sent a small boat into the river on the borders of which they resided with the pretense of trade.

But so great was the treachery of the natives that after succeeding by fair promises and enticing the crew of said boats on shore, they were by them inhumanly murdered. The Peekquats, despairing of again deceiving the English in the manner they had lately done, now threw off the mask of friendship, and devouring themselves the natural enemies of the English, commenced open hostilities against them, barbarously murdering all who were so unfortunate as to fall in their hands.

A few families were at this time settled at or near Weathersfield, Connecticut, the whole of whom were carried away captives by them. Two girls, the daughter of Mr. Gibbons of Hartford were in the most brutal manner put to death. After gashing their flesh with their knives, the Indians filled their wounds with hot embers.

In the meantime, mimicking their dying groans, the Peekquats, encouraged by the trifling resistance made by the English to their wanton acts of barbarity on the 20th of June 1636, besieged Fort Sabbrook, in which there were about 20 men stationed. The Indians were to the number of about 150. They surrounded and furiously attacked the fort at midnight, horribly yelling and mimicking the dying groans of such as had fallen victims to their barbarity.

But the English, being fortunately provided with a piece of cannon or two, caused their savage enemies to groan in reality, who, after receiving two or three deadly fires from the besieged, retreated, leaving behind them dead or mortally wounded about 20 of their number. The English sustained no loss in this attack.

The governor and council of Massachusetts colony alarmed at the bold and daring conduct of the Peekquats on the 20th of August dispatched Captain Endicott of Salem with 90 men to avenge the murders committed by them unless they should consent to deliver up the murderers and make reparations for the injuries which the English had sustained.

Captain Indicott was directed to proceed first to Block Islands, then inhabited by the Peekquats, put the men to the sword, and take possession of the islands. The women and children were to be spared. Then he was to proceed to Peekquat country, demand the murders of the English, a thousand fathom of Wampam, and a number of children as hostages.

Captain Indicott sailed from Boston on the morning of the 20th. When he arrived at Block Island, about 60 Indians appeared on the shore and opposed his landing. His men soon, however, affected a landing, and after a little skirmishing, drove the Indians into the woods, where they could not be found. The English continued two days on the island, in which time they destroyed 100 wigwams and about 50 canoes, when they proceeded for the Peekquat country.

When they arrived in Pekquat Harbor, Captain Indicott acquainted the enemy with his designs and determination to avenge the cruelties practiced upon his countrymen. In a few moments, nearly 500 of the enemy collected upon the shores, but as soon as they were made acquainted with the hostile views of the English, they hastily withdrew and secreted themselves in swamps and ledges inaccessible to the troops.

Captain Indicott landed his men on both sides of the harbor, burnt their wigwams, and destroyed their canoes, killed an Indian or two, and then returned to Boston. Enough indeed had been done to exasperate, but nothing to subdue a hottie and warlike enemy. Sasicus, the chief sichum of the Peekquats, and his captains were men of great and independent spirits.

They had conquered and governed the nations around them without control. They viewed the English as strangers and mere intruders who had no right to the country nor to control its original proprietors, independent princes and sovereigns. They had made settlements at Connecticut without their consent and brought home the Indian kings of other tribes whom they had conquered and restored to them their authority and lands.

They had built a fort and were making a settlement without their approbation in their very neighborhood. Indeed, they had now proceeded to attack and ravage the country. The Peekquats, in consequence, breathed nothing but war and revenge. They were determined to extrapate or drive all the English from New England. For this purpose, they conceived the plan of uniting the Indians generally against them.

They spared no art or pains to make peace with the Narroanitants, and to engage them in the war against the English, to whom they represented that the English, who were merely foreigners, were overspreading the country and depriving the original inhabitants of their ancient rights and possessions, that unless effectual measures were immediately taken to prevent it, they would soon entirely dispossess the original proprietors and become the lords of the continents.

They insisted that by a general combination they could destroy or drive them from the country, that there would be no necessity of coming to open battles, that by killing their cattle, firing their houses, laying ambushes on the roads, in the fields, and wherever they could surprise them, they might accomplish their wishes.

They represented that if the English should affect the destruction of the Peekquats, they would soon also destroy the Naraganzits. So just and politic were these representations that nothing but that thirst for revenge which inflames the savage heart could have resisted their influence. Indeed, it is said that for some time the Naraganits hesitated.

The governor of the colonies to prevent a union between these savage nations and to strengthen the peace between the Narroaganzit Indians and the colonies dispatched a messenger to invite Mayan Tinomi their chief sichum to Boston. The invitation was accepted by Mayanomi and while at Boston with the governor and council entered into a treaty the substance of which was as follows.

That there should be a firm peace maintained between the English and Naraganitants and their posterity. that neither party should make peace with the Peekquats without it being first mutually ascented to that the Narroansit should not harbor the enemies of the English, but deliver up to them such fugitives as should resort to them for safety.

The English were to give them notice when they went out against the Peekquats, and the Naraganits were to furnish guides. In February 1637, the English and Connecticut colony represented to the governor and council their desire to prosecute more effectually the war with the Peekquats, who yet continued to exercise toward them the most wanted acts of barbarity.

They represented that on the 10th of January, a boat containing three or four of their countrymen, was attacked by the enemy as it was proceeding down the river, that the English for some time bravely defended themselves, but were at length overpowered by numbers. that the Indians, when they had succeeded in capturing the boat’s crew, ripped them up from the bottom of their bellies to their throats, and in like manner split them down their backs, and thus mangled hung them upon trees by the riverside.

They represented that the affairs of Connecticut colony at this moment wore a most gloomy aspects that they had sustained great losses in cattle and goods the preceding years but were still more unfortunate to the present that a most dreadful and insidious enemy were now seeking opportunity to destroy them.

That they could neither hunt, fish, or cultivate their fields, nor travel at home or abroad, but at the peril of their lives. that they were obliged to keep a constant watch by night and day, to go armed to their daily labors and to the houses of public worship, and although desirous to prosecute the war more effectually with the common enemy, they were not in a situation to do it, and therefore humbly prayed for assistance.

The report of the horrid and unprovoked cruelties of the Peekquats practiced upon the defenseless inhabitants of Connecticut colony roused the other colonies to harmonious and spirited exertions against them. Massachusetts determined to send 200 and Plymouth 40 men to assist their unfortunate brethren in prosecuting the war.

Captain Patrick with 40 men was sent forward before the other troops in order that he might be enabled seasonably to form junction with the troops in Connecticut who notwithstanding their weak and distressed state had engaged to furnish 90 men. On Wednesday the 10th of May the Connecticut troops proceeded to their fort at Sabbrook.

They consisted of 90 Englishmen and 70 Moheaggan and river Indians. The latter commanded by Ankus Sichchum of the Moheagans and the former by Captain John Mason who was accompanied by the Reverend Mr. Stone of Hartford. The Moheagans being detached from the English on their way to Sabbrook fell in with a considerable body of the enemy whom they attacked and defeated.

They killed 22 and took 18 of them prisoners. Among the prisoners there was one who was recognized as a perfidious villain. He had lived in the forts with the English sometime before and well understood their language. He remained detached to their interests until the commencement of hostilities with the Peekquats, when he deserted the garrison and joined the enemy, whom he served as guide, and through whose instigation many of the English had been captured and put to death.

Ankus and his men insisted upon executing him according to the custom of their ancestors, and the English, in the circumstances in which they then were, did not judge it prudent to interfere. The Indians enkindled a fire near which they confined the prisoner to a stake, in which situation he remained until his skin became parched with the heat.

The Moheagans then violently tore him limb from limb, barbarously cutting his flesh in pieces. They handed it round from one to another, eating it, while they sung and danced around the fire in a manner peculiar to savages. The bones and such parts of the unfortunate captive, as were not consumed in this dreadful repast, were committed to the flames and consumed to ashes.

On the 19th, Captain Mason and his men proceeded for Naragans at Bay, at which place they safely arrived. On the 21st, Captain Mason marched immediately to the plantation of Canonikas, a naranzit sichum, and acquainted him with his designs, and immediately after dispatched a messenger to Mayanomi to inform him likewise of the expedition.

The next day, Mayanomi with his chief counselors and warriors met the English. Captain Mason informed him that the cause of his entering the country with an armed force was to avenge the injuries which the Peekquats had done to the English and desired a free passage to their forts which they intended to attack. After a solemn consultation in the Indian manor, Mayanomi observed that he highly approved of the expedition and would send men to assist the English, but that they were too few in number to fight the enemy. that the Peekquats were great

warriors and rather slighted the English. Captain Mason landed his men and marched to the plantation of Mayan Tanomi, which by previous agreement was to be the place of General Rendevu. In the evening, an Indian runner arrived with the information that Captain Patrick with the men under his command, had arrived at the plantation of Roger Williams in Providence, and was desirous that Captain Mason should postpone his march until such time as he could join him.

Captain Mason, after mature deliberation, determined, however, not to await his arrival, although a junction was considered important. His men had already been detained much longer than was agreeable to their wishes, and the Moheagans apparently were impatient for battle. The little army therefore consisting of 90 Englishmen, 60 Moheaggan and river Indians, and about 200 naraganits, commenced their march on the 24th, and in the evening of that day reached Nihantik, which bounded on the country of the Peekquats.

Nihantic was the seat of a Naragans at Sichchum, who seemed displeased with the expedition, and would not suffer the English to enter his fort. Captain Mason, suspecting the treachery of this fellow, placed a sentinel at night at the entrance of the fort, determined that as he could not be permitted to enter, no one should come out to advise the enemy of his approach.

On the morning of the 25th, Captain Mason was joined by an additional number of the Naraganzits and a few of the Nihantics. They formed a circle and brandishing their scalping knives made protestations how gallantly they would fight and what numbers they would kill, etc. Captain Mason had now under his commands near 500 Indians, in addition to his former force, with whom he early resumed his march for the headquarters of the enemy.

The day proved uncommonly warm, and the men, through excessive heat and want of provision, were only enabled by night to reach Pockatuck River, where the Narroanits began to manifest great fear and inquire of Captain Mason his real designs. He assured them that it was to attack the Peekquats in their fort at which they appeared greatly surprised and exhibited a disposition to quit the English and return home.

We quash a Peekquat Sichchum who had revolted from Sasicus was the principal guide of the English and he proved faithful. He gave such information respecting the distance of the forts of the enemy from each other and the distance they were then from that of the chief sichchums as induced Captain Mason to determine to attack the ladder which his guide represented as situated at the head of Mystic River.

He found his men so much fatigued in marching through a pathless wilderness with their provision arms and ammunition that his resolution appeared to be absolutely necessary. The little army, accordingly, on the morning of the 26th, proceeded directly for Mystic, and at about sundown, penetrated a thick swamp, where, imagining that they could not be far distance from the fort, they pitched their little camp between two large rocks now known by the name of Porter’s Rocks.

The Sentinels, who were then considerably advanced in front of the main body of the English, distinctly heard the enemy singing and dancing through the nights at their fort. The important day was now approaching when the very existence of Connecticut was to be determined by sword in a single action, and to be decided by the valor of less than 100 brave men.

About 2 hours before day, the men were aroused from their slumbers, and after commending themselves and their cause to the Almighty, proceeded with all possible dispatch for the enemy’s fort. When within a few rods of the fort, Captain Mason sent for Ankus and Wquwash, and desired them in their Indian manner to herang and prepare their men for combat.

They replied that their men were much afraid, and could not be prevailed upon to advance any further. “Go then,” said Captain Mason, and request them not to retire, but to surround the fort at any distance they please, and see what courage Englishmen can display. The day was now dawning and no time to be lost.

The fort was soon in view. The soldiers pressed forward, animated with the reflection that it was not for themselves alone that they were about to fight, but for their parents, wives, children, and countrymen. As they approached the fort within a short distance, they were discovered by a Peekquat sentinel who roared out, “Oh, Englishmen, Englishmen.

” The troops pressed on, and as the Indians were rallying, poured in upon them the contents of their musketss, and instantly hastening to the principal entrance of the fort, rushed in sword in hand. An important moment this, for notwithstanding the blaze and thunder of the arms of the English, the Peekquats made a manly and desperate resistance.

Sheltered by their wigwams and rallied by their sichchums and squaws, they prepared themselves and in some instances attacked the English with a resolution that would have done honor to Romans. After a bloody and desperate conflict of near 2 hours continuence, in which hundreds of the Indians were slain and many of the English killed and wounded, victory still hung in suspense.

In this critical state of action, Captain Mason had recourse to his successful expedience, rushing into a wigwam within the fort. He seized a brand of fire, and in the meantime, crying out to his men, “We must burn them,” communicated it to the mats with which the wigwams were covered. By which means the whole fort was very soon enwrapped in flames.

As the fire increased, the English retired and formed a circle around the fort. The Moheagans and Narroaganzans, who had remained idle spectators to the bloody conflict, now mustered courage sufficient to form another circle in rear of them. The enemy were now in a deplorable situation. Death inevitably was their portion.

Sallying forth from their burning cells. They were shot or cut in pieces by the English. Many of them perceiving the vigilance of the troops threw themselves voluntarily into the flames. The violence of the flames, the reflection of the light, the clashing and roar of arms, the shrieks and yells of the savages in the fort, and the shoutings of the friendly Indians without, exhibited a grand and awful scene.

In less than 2 hours from the commencement of the bloody action, the English completed their work. 80 wigwams were burnt and upwards of 800 Indians destroyed. Parents and children, the Senith and [ __ ] the aged and the young, perished in promiscuous ruin. The loss of the English was comparatively trifling, not exceeding 25 and killed and wounded.

After the termination of this severe engagement as the English were proceeding to embark on board their vessels, which fortunately for them at this moment arrived in the harbor, they were attacked in the rear by about 300 of the enemy who had been dispatched from a neighboring fort to assist their brethren.

The English gave them so warm a reception that they soon gave way and fell back to the field of action. where viewing for a few moments with apparent marks of surprise and horror, the shocking scene which it presented. They stamped, bellowed, and with savage rage tore their hair from their heads, and then with a hideous yell pursued the English as if with a determination to avenge the deaths of their friends, even at the expense of their own lives.

They pursued the English nearly six miles, sometimes shooting at a distance from behind rocks and trees, and sometimes pressing hard upon them and hazarding themselves in open field. The English killed numbers of them, but sustained no loss on their part. When a Peekquat fell, the Moheagans would cry out, “Run and fetch his head.

” The enemy, finding at length that they discharged their arrows in vain, and that the English appeared to be well supplied with ammunition, gave over the pursuits. In less than 3 weeks, from the time the English embarked at Sabbrook, they returned, with the exception of the few killed and wounded, and safety to their respective habitations.

Few enterprises were ever perhaps achieved with more personal bravery. And few have so great a proportion of the effect of men of a whole colony, state, or nation been put to so great and immediate danger. And few have a people been so deeply and immediately interested, as were the English inhabitants of Connecticut at this important crisis.

In these respects, even the great armaments and battles of Europe are of comparatively little importance. And it ought never to be forgotten that through the bravery and unconquerable resolution of less than 100 men, Connecticut was once saved, and the most warlike and terrible tribe of Indians in New England, completely exterminated.

The few Peekquats that now remained alive, conceiving it unsafe to inhabit longer a country so exposed to invasion, removed far to the westward. Among them was Sasacus, their principal Sichchum. On the 25th of June, the Connecticut troops under command of Captain Mason, together with a company from Massachusetts, commanded by Captain Staten, were sent in pursuit of them.

They proceeded westward and on the 27th fell in with, attacked, and defeated a considerable body of them. They took about 50 of them prisoners, among whom were two sichchums whose lives were offered to them on condition of their serving as guides to the English. The English on their march frequently fell in with small detached parties whom they captured or destroyed, but could not obtain any information relative to the main body commanded by Sasacus.

Finding that the two Sichchan prisoners would not give them the information required, they on the 29th beheaded them at a place called Menatuk, now Guilford, from which circumstance the place still bears the name of Sichum’s Head. The English on the 30th arrived at Quinnipac, now New Haven, where they were informed by a friendly Peekquatch that the enemy were encamped in a swamp a few miles to the westward.

The troops pushed forward and in the succeeding day arrived at the border of said swamp, which they found to be a thicket so extremely boggy as to render it inaccessible to anyone but the natives. The English therefore thought it most advisable to surround the swamp and annoy the enemy as opportunity presented.

The Indians, after a few skirmishes, requested a parley, which being granted them Thomas Stanton, interpreter to the English, was sent to treat with them. He was authorized to offer life to such as had it not shed the blood of Englishmen upon which the sichum of the place together with about 300 of his tribe came out and producing satisfactory proof of their innocence were permitted to retire.

But the remaining Peekquats boldly declared that they had both shed and drank the blood of Englishmen and would not upon such terms accept of life, but would fight it out. The English, unwilling to brookke the threats and insulting language of the Peekquats, attempted now to devise means to attack the whole body of them without further delay.

The officers were, however, divided an in opinion as to the mode of attack, some were for setting fire to the swamp, others for cutting their way through it with hatchets, and others for surrounding it with a high fence or palisado, neither of which plans were, however, fully adopted. As night approached, the English cut through a part of the swamp, by which means its circumference was much lessensed, and they enabled so completely to surround the enemy as to prevent their escape during the night.

Early the ensuing morning, the Indians, perceiving themselves completely hemmed in by the English, made a violent attempt to break through their lines. [snorts] They were, however, driven back with great loss. They next attempted to force the line formed by Connecticut troops, but here they met with a much warmer reception.

The contest now became close and severe. The Indians, who were about 600 in number, appeared determined not to yield, but at the expense of their lives. One of the most resolute of them walked boldly up to Captain Mason with an uplifted tomahawk and when about to give the fatal stroke received a blow from the ladder, who with his cutless severed the head of the Indian from his body.

The enemy soon after made another attempt to break through the lines of the English and in which after a violent struggle they succeeded, about 60 of their bravest warriors escaped, the remainder being either killed or taken prisoners. The loss of the English was 11 killed and about 20 wounded. The prisoners taken were divided among the troops, some of whom were retained by them as servants, and the remainder sent to the West Indies and sold to the planters.

The prisoners reported that the whole tribe of Peekquats was now nearly exterminated. that in different engagements there had been upwards of 2,000 of them killed and about 1,000 captured, among whom were 13 sichchums, and that six yet survived, one of whom was Sassicus, who had fled with the fragments of his tribe to the country bordering on the Hudson River, inhabited by the Mohawks.

After the swamp fight, the Peekquats became so weak and scattered that the Moheagans and Naraganits daily destroyed them and presented their scalps to the English. The few that fled with Sasacus to the westward were attacked and totally destroyed by the Mohawks. The scalp of Sasacus was in the fall of 1638 presented to the governor and council of Massachusetts.

So that’s it for this episode on the first Indian war in New England and perhaps the second major war in the American colonies after Powatan’s war in the Jamestown settlement in 1622. The Peekquat seemed to have been somewhat similar to the Eerie Indians who had also be almost completely exterminated about 20 years after these events in 1656.

In both cases, other Indian tribes played a large part in bringing about their ends. And both of these tribes had been very warlike and powerful, which turned the other tribes against them. While the English did not fight directly with the Eerie Indians, they helped to arm the Irakcoy who fought against them.

And it was the Mohawks and Irakcoy tribe who dealt the final blow to the Peekquats by destroying Sasicus’ bands and bringing his scalp and presenting it to the Massachusetts authorities. We also heard that in the main attack on the Pekquat’s village known as Mystic Fort, it was the English who took the lead in attacking the fort, the Naraganit and Moheaggan allies were too scared to attack the fort and they created a large perimeter on the outside while the English went in first.

This type of behavior among Indians where they seemed less willing to storm a fortified position during war has been noted by other historians like JW Wilberger in his book Indian Depradations in Texas. He and other true historians have noted several cases where the Indians could have won a battle or a war that in some cases would have exterminated all the whites in a particular region, but they were not willing to attack a fortified position if it meant that some of them would die.

We also heard about the brutal torture and execution practices carried out by these tribes, including the Naraganins who were allied with the whites. They roasted and then ate the body of one of the Peekquats who had been responsible for many deaths. As you might expect, there have been many recent journalists and so-called historians who have condemns the Peekquat war as a genocide.

One is Steven M. Wise, who in his 2009 book, An American Trilogy: Death, Slavery, and Dominion on the Banks of the Capefir River, called it the Puritans Genocidal Indian War, where 1,000 Indians were killed. In September of 2020, the town council of Windsor, Connecticut, voted 54 to remove the statue of John Mason, who had led the attack at Mystic River, but it is unclear if it has yet been removed.

If you live near Windsor, Connecticut, then perhaps you can go check and see if John Mason’s statue is still standing in the historical districts. And let us know in the comments. Also, let us know in the comments what you think about these events. And if you think the English, Naragansits, and Moheagans were justified in carrying out this war against the Peekquats.

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