Muse

Today I'm telling you the story of one of the most deadliest wars in American history per capita, King Philip's War. The following events cover one of the most transformative moments in the history of this country, as well as one of the craziest survival stories you will ever hear, the captivity of Mary Rowlandson, and a summarized narration of her story as she wrote it. Viewer discretion is advised. before mary rolandson became one of the most famous captives in american history she was living a quiet puritan life in lancaster massachusetts her husband joseph rolandson was the town minister mary was a wife a mother and a part of a small frontier community on the edge of the english settlement that was exposed isolated and surrounded by wilderness for years Mary's life had been built around home, church, children, and survival on this frontier, but by 1676, a war had been burning across New England, and it was moving closer, and soon it would reach her front door. By the time Mary was living in Lancaster, New England had changed. By 1675, they had spread across Massachusetts, Plymouth, Rhode Island, and the Connecticut River Valley. New towns were pushing inland, forests were being cleared, farms were spreading. English livestock wandered into native fields trampling crops and food stores. To native leaders, it looked like their world was being swallowed piece by piece. So when King Philip's war finally broke out, it did not come from nowhere. At the center of this war was a Wampanoag leader, the English called King Philip. His father had kept peace with Plymouth for decades, but Philip inherited a very different world. To the English, Philip became the face of a rebellion, but to many native people, he represented resistance, a final attempt to stop their world from being swallowed by the colonies. As tensions grew, Philip began looking for allies, and New England moved closer to war. The final spark came from a man named John Sassaman. Sassaman was a Christian native interpreter who moved between both worlds. He knew the English, but he also knew Philip's people very well. He warned Plymouth that Philip had been preparing for war, and soon after, Sassamon disappeared. His body was found beneath the ice in a pond in the wilderness. The English blamed three Wampanoag men. They were arrested, tried, and hanged at Plymouth. In June of 1675, the first open violence broke out at Swansea. A group of Poconoket warriors first attacked isolated homesteads and burned several houses. And then on June 23rd, a local boy shot and killed one of their men near his home. The next day, the warriors came back in full force, and on June 24th, they launched a full

attack on the Swansea and killed three settlers. This small spark would escalate into one of the most bloody wars in American history per capita. Plymouth and Massachusetts sent militias in response, and within days, the fighting spread. By August of 1675, the war had reached Brookfield, Massachusetts. Captain Thomas Wheeler led a small colonial party into native territory, thinking they were there to negotiate. Instead, they walked into an ambush. The native warriors attacked from the woods, Wheeler's men were cut off guard, and eight colonists were killed in the first attack. On September 12, 1675, a group of colonists was moving harvested crops from Deerfield the Hadley. But near a stream, later called Bloody Brook, native warriors ambushed them. The attack was devastating. Around 40 militiamen and 17 teamsters were slaughtered. Less than a month later, the war reached Springfield, Massachusetts. Springfield was one of the largest English settlements on the Connecticut River. Homes, buildings and even the grist mill all were lit up in flames and this is where things begin to escalate. In December of 1675 the colonies went on the offensive. The Narragansett tribe had tried to officially stay neutral. They were accused of sheltering Wampanoag fighters, women, and children. So the English gathered one of the largest armies New England had ever seen, roughly 1,000 colonial militia with about 150 native allies and marched into Rhode Island in the middle of the winter. The Narragansetts had retreated into a massive fort hidden inside a frozen swamp near present-day South Kingstown. Normally the swamp helped protect them but that December the water froze. The colonial armies crossed the ice and attacked and what followed was a massacre. The fort was stormed, set on fire, and destroyed. 600 Narragansetts were killed, and their winter food stores were burned with the fort. The English won the battle, but they paid heavily for it too, with around 70 men being killed and many more wounded. Now the Native Coalition struck back harder, and one of the next towns in the path was Lancaster, Massachusetts. isolated exposed and far from real protection Mary Rowlandson was there with her children her husband was away and on the morning of February 10th in 76 Mary's life changed forever it started around sunrise she heard gunshots outside when she looked out houses in Lancaster were already burning smoke was rising into the sky people were dragged out of their homes some were killed on the spot. Others were taken alive. King Philip's war had reached her front door. Mary later wrote

about this and described it as the most terrible day she had ever seen. There were five persons taken into one house. The father and mother and a sucking child they knocked on the head. The other two they had took and carried away alive. Another there who was running along was shot and wounded and fell down. He begged of them his life, promising them money. They knocked him on his head, stripped him naked, and split open his bowels. Some in our house were fighting for their lives, others wallowing in blood, the house on fire over our heads, and the bloody heathens ready to knock us on the head if we stirred out. Then I took my children to go forth and leave the house. But as soon as we came to the door and appeared, the Indians shot so thick that the bullets rattled against the house, as if one had taken a handful of stones and threw them, so that we were forced to give back 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 the bullets flying thick one went through my side and the same through the bowels and hand of my poor child in my arms lord protect us one of my elder sister's children named william Had his leg broke which the Indians perceiving they knocked him on the head My eldest sister being yet in the house and seeing those woeful sights and her eldest son telling her that her son William was dead She said out loud Let me die with them Which was no sooner said but she was struck with a bullet and fell down dead over the threshold 12 were killed 24 were taken alive and Mary Rowlandson was one of them she'd been shot through the side her child was wounded in her arms bleeding from her bowels her family was scattered dead or captured they did not go far that first night only about a mile they climbed a hill still within sight of Lancaster close enough that Mary could look back toward the town she had just lost. And that first night was, in her words, the worst night she had ever seen. Around her, the camp was loud. People were shouting, singing, dancing, and celebrating. Animals taken from Lancaster were being cooked and eaten. For her captors, it was a night of victory, and for Mary, it was complete ruin. The next morning, her wounded child was placed on a horse, and Mary was forced to walk behind. The young girl kept moaning the same words over and over again. I shall die. I shall die. Mary eventually insisted that she take her child off the horse and carry her in her arms. As she was bleeding, exhausted, and trying to carry a dying child through the winter woods, her strength finally gave out. She collapsed, and after that, the Indians put Mary on a horse with the wounded child in her lap, but there was no saddle or proper

equipment. As they went down a steep hill, Mary and the child both fell over the horse's head, the Indians around them laughed and mocked them. Somehow they survived that night and the next morning Mary was forced to move again. One of the native men got on a horse and Mary was placed behind him with her wounded child in her lap. By late afternoon they had reached an Indian town called Winnemesset. It was there that a captive Englishman named Robert Pepper came to see her. He had been wounded earlier in the war and told Mary that he treated his wounds with oak leaves so mary did the same she placed oak leaves on her own wound and according to her account it helped heal her but nothing helped the child mary sat for days with the child in her lap as the wound got worse the child moaned day and night for nine days mary sat on her knees holding her wounded daughter finally they told her to carry the child to another wigwam mary believes that they got tired of watching the child die and it was that night around two in the morning her daughter Sarah had died. She was only about six years old. In the morning, Mary tried to pick up the body and carry it with her, but they told her to leave it. There was nothing she could do. Later, she found out they had buried Sarah on a hill, and Mary went to the place, saw the fresh dirt, and was forced to leave her child there in the wilderness. Then Mary went looking for her other children. Her 10-year-old daughter was in the same Indian town, but they would not let her near her. When the girl saw her mother, she began to cry. Her captors immediately ordered Mary away. One child was dead. Another was close but unreachable. Then, right as she was starting to believe that her older son was dead, he unexpectedly came to see her. He had survived and had been held about six miles away. With tears in his eyes, he asked his mother if his little sister Sarah was dead, and he wept when he heard the news. For a moment, Mary had proof that at least two of her children were still alive, but the war kept moving, and the next day native fighters returned from the attack of Medfield. According to Mary, they had killed 23, and when they got back into the camp, they brought English scalps with them. At one point, Mary had been acquainted with a pregnant English woman. Soon after they separated, the woman started begging to go home. She was near the end of her pregnancy and had a two-year-old child with her. What Mary describes next is absolutely horrific. They stripped her naked and set her in the midst of them and when they had sung and danced about her in their hellish manner as long as they pleased, they had knocked her on the head and the child in her arms with her. When they had done that they made a fire and put them both into it and told the other children that were there with them that if they attempted to go home they would serve them in like manner. The next move happened because the English army was getting close. could tell by the way they moved. They were no longer traveling normally. They moved fast, like

people running for their lives. After some distance, they stopped and chose some of the strongest men to go back and delay the English while everyone else escaped. The elderly, children, women, wounded men, captives, and supplies all moved together through the woods. Some carried their elderly mothers, others carried their sick. Eventually, they reached the Bakwag River. Mary was weak and faint and she asked her mistress for one spoonful of the meal. The woman refused. At the river, the group started cutting dry trees to build rafts. They had to get everyone across before the English caught up. Mary crossed on one of the rafts to the other side of the river, thanking God that she did not get wet in the ice cold waters. And on Saturday, they boiled an old horse's leg and drank the broth. By now, Mary was starving enough that food she once would have rejected started to taste good. She was also forced to work. She had been knitting white cotton stockings for her mistress. And when the Sabbath day came, Mary refused to work and said she would do more the next day. But they threatened to break her face. And on Monday, the native camp burned the wigwams behind them and moved on. That same day, the English army reached the river. They saw the smoke from the abandoned camp. By afternoon, they reached Squakiag, where the native group spread across abandoned English fields looking for food. Some picked through ruined wheat, others found corn, some dug for ground nuts. Mary found two ears of Indian corn, but when she turned her back, one was stolen. Desperate and hungry, Mary recalls eating in a way that she never would have imagined. There came an Indian to them at the time with a basket of horse liver. I asked him to give me a piece. He asked, can you eat horse liver? I told him I would try if he would give me a piece, which he did. And I laid it on the coals to roast, but before it was half ready, they got half of it away from me, so that I was forced to take the rest and eat it as it was, with the blood about my mouth, and yet a savory bit it was to me. For to the hungry soul, every bitter thing was sweet. The next morning, Mary was supposed to cross the Connecticut River to meet King Philip. Two canoes already crossed. Mary was about to step into the next one, when there was a sudden cry in the camp. English scouts had been spotted nearby. Some Indians ran one way, some ran another. Mary was pulled back from the canoe and forced several miles farther upriver, and around noon they stopped. While Mary sat there, her son Joseph unexpectedly came to her again. She had not known where he was, and for a short moment, mother and son were together again in the middle of captivity. Mary gave him her Bible, and they read it together for comfort. The next morning, Mary finally crossed the river into King Philip's camp. When she reached the other side, she was surrounded by a huge crowd.

They gathered around her, asking questions, laughing, and celebrating their victories. For the first time since her capture, Mary broke down and cried right in front of them. One man asked why she was crying. Mary told him she thought they were going to kill her. He told her that no one was going to hurt her. And then one person gave her two spoonfuls of meal, another gave her half a pint of peas, and then she was taken to King Philip himself. He invited her in, told her to sit, and offered her tobacco, which she refused. Phillip then gave her work. He asked her to make a shirt for his son and paid her a shilling. And with that money, Mary bought a piece of horse flesh. Mary again got separated from her son. And after two weeks of not seeing him, she asked about his fate. And one man told her a cruel lie that her son had been roasted and eaten she was unsure as to whether it was a lie or not another night mary moved a stick near the fire so she could feel the heat this angered a native woman who then threw hot ashes into her eyes mary thought she might go blind but by morning her sight had came back mary then met another english captive named john gilbert of springfield lying outside in the cold sick and barely clothed Beside him was a dying native child whose parents had been killed. Mary helped John to get a fire, but then she was accused of trying to escape with him. They threatened to knock her on the head and find her to a wigwam. Soon after, her son came to see her again. After being told the lie that he was roasted and eaten, she was very happy to see him. But he was covered in lice and very hungry. Mary had nothing to give him. His master eventually showed up and beat him for staying too long and then sold him to another man. and Mary would not see him again for the rest of her captivity and the next morning they boiled deer blood inside the animal's stomach but Mary could not bring herself to eat it after three straight days of travel she saw the Wachusett hills in the distance but first they had to cross the swamp Mary was already exhausted and the mud and water came up to her knees she thought she might sink there and never get out and then King Philip came up to her took took her by the hand, and told her, Two weeks more, and you shall be a mistress again. This gave Mary a little hope. And when they reached Wachusett, she found her master again, and he asked her when she had last washed. She told him not in a month, and he brought her water himself, and had food brought to her. Then two native messengers arrived with a second letter from the English council about redeeming the captives. Mary broke down crying when she saw them. The Sontjums gathered and called Mary before them, and they asked how much her husband would pay to redeem her.

Mary knew her family's property had been destroyed, but she also knew if she named too small a price that they might refuse. So she said 20 pounds, and it was around this time that warriors returned from the Sudbury fight. One man who had fed her pork and groundnuts was pointed out as having killed two Englishmen at Sudbury. Behind her were the bloody clothes of the men they had killed, still marked with bullet holes. After the destruction at Sudbury, Mary's captors moved again. They went a few miles and built a huge wigwam, large enough to hold around 100 people. A major dance was being prepared, but Mary was afraid her freedom might still fall apart. And then on Sunday afternoon, John Hoare arrived with two native messengers, Tom and Peter. The men in the camp fired their guns around Hoare's horses, showing they could kill him if they wanted to. Only after they finished talking did they allow Mary to approach him. Mary's master eventually agreed to let her go if whore gave him liquor. And then King Philip got involved and asked Mary what she would give him to speak a good word for her. He wanted coats, money, seed corn, and tobacco. She was finally released. And as she left, some shook her hand, some asked her to send them bread, others asked for tobacco. After nearly 12 weeks in captivity, no one stopped her. and by sunset they reached Lancaster this is where Mary had lived for years with her family neighbors and church community now there was not one Christian person there they slept that night in a surviving farmhouse with only straw for bedding eventually they got to Boston where she finally reunited with her husband their daughter Sarah was dead their other children were still missing. Mary was safe, but her family was not whole. They heard their son Joseph had been brought to Major Waldron at Portsmouth, and they went there and found him. He had been redeemed for seven pounds. They then found their daughter Mary in Providence. She had survived three days of travel with almost nothing to eat or drink. except water and green huckleberries mary was released near the turning point of the war by the spring and summer of 1676 phillips coalition was beginning to break food was running low native families were scattered through swamps and forests colonial forces and their native allies were hunting smaller bands as they tried to plant crops or return to old villages the mohawks also attacked phillips people from the west making the situation even worse for the native coalition. For a short time it looked like Phillips forces might burn New England to the ground, but now the momentum was shifting. And on May 19th, 1676, colonial forces struck back hard. Captain William Turner led about 150 militia volunteers against a native fishing camp on the Connecticut River, now called Turner's Falls. The camp was

attacked by surprise and around 200 native people were killed but as the English left they found themselves being ambushed in a counter-attack as Turner's men tried to escape many of them were cut down and Turner himself was killed after Turner's Falls the war changed Philip who had once seemed close to breaking New England was now being hunted he retreated back to Mount Hope in Rhode Island but by then he was running out of people places and time and by August of that year Philip's coalition had collapsed. Benjamin Church and his colonial forces were tracking him. He was shot by John Alderman, a native ally fighting with the English, and afterwards the English quartered his body. Philip's head was taken to Plymouth and displayed for years, and that was the end of the war in southern New England. Hundreds of native captives were punished after the war, some were executed, others were forced into labor, many were sold out of New England and shipped to places like Bermuda, Barbados, Jamaica, and the Azores. Survivors were scattered from their homelands. Philip's death ended the main war, but the fighting would continue on and off for decades. And that is the story of Mary Rowlandson's captivity and the deadliest war in American history per capita. Up next is a three-part series of the American Revolution and the events that led up to it. I'm going to take my time with this one, so you might not see me for a few weeks or maybe even a month. I really want to get this one right. I'm going to be increasing my budget for this quite a bit. I'm going to be using the most state-of-the-art newest AI video generation technology to bring that entire event to life. And if you'd like to help support this effort, please consider joining my AI cinematic directors community on school.com, where I have over 20 lessons teaching you exactly how I do my workflow, how I make these videos. You'll also get early access to my new releases. anytime I make a video I post to school first. It'd be a great way to support my channel and I'll have that linked in the bio as well as the comments. I'm hosting a tour with Luke Caverns and Michael Collins in Greece in November. Please check that out. It's going to be a lot of fun. Hope you'll join us. I'll have it linked in the description. Stay tuned. The next three episodes are going to be wild. Thanks for watching everybody. Hope you like and subscribe and take care.