Rebellions, Conflicts & Indian Wars in Colonial America

From the arrival of Columbus in the New World in 1492, to the expulsion of the French in 1763 after the French & Indian War, the North American continent was the setting for many conflicts, between whites and Native Indians, whites and whites, and slaves and whites.

The First Powhatan War: Members of the Powhatan tribe eyed the newcomers wearily, but saw the benefits of a relationship between themselves and the Europeans, mostly as a way to gain an advantage over other Indian rivals. However, when the starving colonists at Jamestown raided Indian food supplies, the relationship turned tense. The first Powhatan War raged after Lord De La Warr introduced “Irish Tactics” against the Indians. The marriage of Pocahontas to John Rolfe ended the war in 1614.

The Indian Massacre of 1622 (also known as the Jamestown Massacre) occurred in Virginia on Good Friday, March 22,1622. About 347 people, or almost one-third of the English population of Jamestown, were killed by a coordinated series of surprise attacks of the Powhatan Confederacy.

This inspired the Virginia Company to call for “a perpetual war without peace or truce.” The goal was to eliminate the Powhatan tribes completely.

The Second Powhatan War: Resulted in the banishment of the Chesapeake Indians from the colonies; only 10 % of the Powhatan population survived the effects of disease and wars.

The Pequot War: 1637 This was an armed conflict in 1637 between an alliance of Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth colonies, with Native Indian allies against the Pequot tribe. Conflict over the fur trade sparked the war, which saw the elimination of the Pequot as a sovereign power Pequot people were killed by the colonists and their allies; hundreds more were captured and sold into slavery in Bermuda. Those who survived dispersed to the West.

King Philip’s War: Was an armed conflict between the Indians of southern New England and English colonists and their Indian allies. Nearly one in twenty persons overall among Indians and English were wounded or killed. King Philip's war was one of the bloodiest and most costly in the history of America.

Hostility developed over the steady succession of land sales forced on the Native Americans by their growing dependence on English goods. Suspicious of Philip, the English colonists in 1671 questioned and fined him and demanded that the Wampanoag surrender their arms, which they did. In 1675 a Christian Native American who had been acting as an informer to the English was murdered, probably at Philip's instigation. Three Wampanoags were tried for the murder and executed.

Incensed by this act, the Native Americans in June, 1675, made a sudden raid on a border settlement. Other raids followed; towns were burned and many whites—men, women, and children—were slain. The colonists then began to raid Indian towns in retaliation.

By the end of the war, King Philip’s wife and son were sold into slavery, and he was drawn and quartered, his head placed on a pole in Plymouth Fifty-two Puritan towns had been attacked and twelve destroyed. 3,000 Indians & 600 colonists were dead. Many Indians were sold into slavery; this marked the last serious Indian challenge to a New England settlement.

Bacon’s Rebellion: 1676 A group of young rebels in Virginia attacked the Indians, whether they were friendly or not to whites. The men were angry at the Indian policy of Governor Berkeley. Berkeley was driven from Jamestown and the rebels burned the city. The rebels then went on a rampage of plundering. During the rebellion, Bacon suddenly died of disease; after they lost their leader, Berkeley was able to brutally crush the rebellion, he hanged 20 rebels.

Bacon’s rebellion exposed resentment between inland frontiersman and landless former servants against gentry on coastal plantations. The rebellion was suppressed, but resentment remained. The upper class planters searched for laborers less likely to rebel, and this helped lead to large-scale African slavery.

King William’s War: 1689 – 1697 & Queen Anne’s War: An extension of the War of the League of Augsburg in Europe & the War of Spanish Succession, these conflicts played out in guerrilla warfare in the colonies. Indians allies of the French and Spanish torched and tomahawked the British colonial frontiers; the colonists fought back, but not too successfully. However, the Treaty of Ultrecht rewarded the victorious British with land in present-day Canada.

The War of Jenkin’s Ear (King George’s War): 1744 – 1748 (War of Austrian Succession) War between the British and the Spanish after the British captain Jenkins had his ear sliced off by a Spaniard due to a trading dispute. This war was confined to the Caribbean Sea and the colony of Georgia. King William’s War, Queen Anne’s War, and the War of Jenkin’s Ear were all a preview of the coming French and Indian War.

Stono’s Rebellion: 1739 The largest slave rebellion prior to the Revolutionary War. On the morning of September 9, 1739, 20 slaves met in secret near the Stono River in South Carolina to plan their escape to freedom. Minutes later, they burst into Hutcheson's store at Stono's bridge, killed the two storekeepers, and stole the guns and powder inside. The group of slaves grew in number as they headed south.

When the slave owners caught up with the rebels, the whites engaged the 60 to 100 slaves in battle. More than 20 white Carolinians, and nearly twice as many black Carolinians, were killed. As a result, South Carolina's lawmakers enacted a harsher slave code. This rebellion was one of 250 by slaves from the colonial era through the antebellum period.

Patterns emerging from Colonial America: European powers play out their conflicts in the colonies culminating in the French & Indian War. Relations between Natives & settlers generally resulted in decimation of Natives and expulsion of tribes to the West. Slave rebellions resulted in stricter laws and harsher treatment of the slaves. Conflict between coastal gentry and inland rebels frequently flared.