The Issue - English colonization of the tribal Abenaki lands in modern-day New England and North East Canada. Date - The conflict was one of extreme hot and cold periods between the 1670s and 1760s usually reignited by wars and events in Europe. Combatants - British regulars, colonial militia, and settlers vs. Abenaki warriors and French regulars Key Figures British - Cpt. William Turner/Major Robert Rogers/James Wolfe French - Hertel de Rouville/Louis de Baude, comte de Frontenac/Louis-Joesph de Montcalm Abenaki - Wampanoag sachem Metacomet known to the English as King Philip/Woronoke sachem Grey Lock Key Battles - Turners Falls/Schenectady/Salmon Falls/Casco Bay/Deerfield/the Plains of Abraham/the siege of Quebec/St.Francis Result - Abenaki tribes displaced and dispersed by the English colonial forces.
When the English colonists first came to the New World there was friction but, given the limits of the colonists population and power, no large scale conflict. The Abenaki homelands consisted of most of modern day New England and North East Canada. At first they had no issue with the English, so long as they stuck to the coasts. The fishing and fur trading hubs created by the newcomers was as a commercial positive for the Abenaki. The issue arose when the English population grew and the colonists began to settle the interior lands. The Abenaki were hard pressed as they fought the mighty Iroquois for domination of the fur trade and now found themselves dealing with a growing threat from the Europeans. The slaughter and sacking of a key Pequot village along the Mystic River in 1637 was one of many such defeats that finally made the situation clear to the Abenaki; the only way for them to maintain their homelands was through violence...
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Abenaki Wars
The Issue - English colonization of the tribal Abenaki lands in modern-day New England and North East Canada.
Date - the conflict was one of extreme hot and cold periods between the 1670s and 1760s usually reignited by wars and events in Europe.
Combatants - British regulars, colonial militias, and settlers vs. Abenaki warriors and French regulars
Key Figures - British - Cpt. William Turner/Major Robert Rogers/James Wolfe
French - Hertel de Rouville/Louis de Baude, comte de Frontenac/Louis-Joesph de Montcalm
Abenaki - Wampanoag sachem Metacomet knkown as King Philip to the English/Woronoke sachem Grey Lock
Key Battles - Turners Falls/Schenectady/Salmon Falls/Casco Bay/Deerfield/the Plains of Abraham and the siege of Quebec/St.Francis
Result - Abenaki tribes displaced and dispersed by the English colonial forces
When the English colonists first came to the New World there was friction but, given the limits of the colonists population and power, no large scale conflict. The Abenaki homelands consisted of most of modern day New England and North East Canada. At first they had no issue with the English, so long as they stuck to the coasts. The fishing and fur trading hubs created by the newcomers was as a commercial positive for the Abenaki. The issue arose when the English population grew and the colonists began to settle the interior lands. The Abenaki were hard pressed as they fought the mighty Iroquois for domination of the fur trade and now found themselves dealing with a growing threat from the Europeans. The slaughter and sacking of a key Pequot village along the Mystic River in 1637 was one of many such defeats that finally made the situation clear to the Abenaki; the only way for them to maintain their homelands was through violence.
King Philip’s War (1675-1676), named after the promienet warrior Metacomet, kicked off with a coalition of tribes combining to fight the now hated English. The warriors of Metacomet had some early success and used terror and ferocity to good effect in cowing the colonists to some degree and scaring away settlers. But in a scene that would play out over and over in these wars, in 1676 Cpt William Turner hired on some native scouts and used them to find and put to flame the winter stores of the entire Abenaki coalition. Without supplies to survive the harsh winter, the coalition cracked and then dispersed. Metacomet, the so called King Philip, was hunted down and savagely killed by English soldiers once again led by native scouts. This method, of hiring on natives or in some cases impressing them into service, was used over and over in the Abenaki Wars and throughout the so called Indian Wars from 1600s across the continent and throughout the 17,18, and early 1900s.
The War of the Leaugue of Augsburg kicked off in Europe and by extension started King William’s War (1689-1697). The English faced a real threat as the French under Louis de Baude, comte de Frontenac organized a concerted effort to cut up the colonial settlements along the coast and then push the survivors into the sea. Three columns of mixed French, Algonquin, Abenaki warriors struck the towns of Schenectedy, Salmon Falls, and Casco Bay. Coincidentally, I live in a small town on the Maine coast that has its own story of an Abenaki raid with the townsfolk that survived fleeing to nearby Garrison Island, which, you guessed it, is where the garrison was. The three French and Native victories again put on full display the ferocity and violence of war in the New World. The French and Abenaki forces however couldn’t conquer Boston and eventually the English fought back and won their own victories at Port Royal and elsewhere. Neither side could seemingly win the elusive decisive victory and by 1697 the Treaty of Rijswijk ended the war.
For five years.
The War of the Spanish Succession, kicked off in 1701 and the new world offshoot was known as Queen Anne’s War (1702-1713). As I covered in more detail a few years back, the French under Governor de Rouville led his regulars and a large band of Abenaki across 250 miles to the town of Deerfield. In a winter raid the town was sacked and over 100 captives force marched to Montreal. The propaganda generated by the event was a boon for the English and used to great effect in terms of recruiting and general fervor for the cause. The truth of the so called “death march” is more layered and complex and if you are interested I suggest you listen to the episode for more detail and context. In 1710 the English captured Port Royal and three years later the treaty of Utrecht was signed. The French did their ally dirty in the treaty, signing away the Abenaki lands to the English colonists.
Grey Lock’s War (1723-1727) was a slightly different situation as the Abenaki acted alone. The French and English were in a quiet period between wars and so had no quarrel and were not fighting. The Abenaki leader Grey Lock gathered warriors into a few war bands and raided New Hampshire and Massachusetts with few loses and gaining loads of plunder. These swift, seemingly unimpeded victories, led to a swelling of Grey Lock’s numbers and reputation. The problem was not a matter of ability but one of staying power. The Abenaki forces just couldn’t seem to strike the finishing blow and after a few years, although never defeated, Grey Lock and his army dispersed.
King George’s War 1744-1748 was the bastard child of the War of the Spanish Succession. The fighting was again brutal and the French and their Abenaki warriors pushed the English out of Vermont entirely.
The Seven Year’s War, the first true world war in my opinion, was known in North America’s as the French and Indian War, and stands as the last of the Abenaki Wars. This is the war that is, I believe, the earliest childhood memory of American Military History. The rest are known of but are just too far beyond the horizon to have any shape in or collective memory. The French and Indian War with its scalps and sieges and foreboding forests full of warriors and columns of hapless redcoats falling over themselves to die marks the beginning of a sense of America. It’s a conflict you can imagine on some level. By 1759 the French and Abenaki forces had won several paper victories but the English momentum was building after a disastrous start to the fighting. The famous or infamous battle of the Plains of Abraham, depending on your point of view, saw the fated General James Wolfe die in victory over Montcalm. While the major victory was won outside the walls of Quebec, Major Robert Rogers and his Rangers, aided by native scouts, found, sacked, and burned the main Abenaki village of St. Francis. Abenaki support for the French cause was broken. Again, I covered this war and some if it’s battles more in depth back in the Siege of Fort William Henry episode, so if you find this stuff interesting go and give a listen. Or better still, just go watch Last of the Mohicans.
With the French defeat in the final colonial war between the British and French, the Abenaki had no military or diplomatic support. The boats from Portland and Portsmouth kept traveling across the Atlantic and arriving in the new Portland and Portsmouth, each one unloading a belly full of hungry settlers looking to stake their claim in the New World. The Abenaki could not stand against the waves of white men and women coming for their land and so were forced to drift further and further north and west.
Next week we are moving on to the letter B with Babur, the Babylonian Empire, Nathaniel Bacon, Badajoz, and Baghdad.
Next main show pod will be out next week as well, we are covering the battle of Remagen