Settlers versus Natives: the Wessagusset Massacre of March, 1623

The response of Natives to Settlers and Explorers who arrived on their shores was generally one of curiosity and hospitality.  Without the help of men like Squanto, Samoset and Massassoit, the first colonies in New England wouldn't have survived an entire winter.  The Natives would soon discover that no good deed went unpunished and the first of many bitter incidents between Natives and Whites would take place only two years after that first harvest feast in Plimouth (now Plymouth).

Plimouth Colony was a religious experiment.  Its purpose was to bring families to settle in a land where they might worship without persecution.  In contrast, what was then called the Weston Colony was founded for trade.  In those days, colonies were under the control of joint stock companies who funded them and provide settlers, support personnel, money, ships and supplies.  While Plimouth chose to order its life around the precepts of the Bible and a settled English town, the founders of the Weston Colony had one idea in mind, profit.  Thomas Weston was a prosperous London ironmonger (dealer in iron and iron ware), who was associated with a joint stock colony called the Plymouth Association for New England.  Several years before the Pilgrims, they had attempted to plant a trading colony in what is now Phippsburg, Maine.  That colony was short lived due to conflicts among the colonists rather than starvation or other factors and quickly abandoned.

Now, in 1623, Weston was ready to try again.  To avoid family bickering, he chose as colonists all able-bodied men.  However, none of them had any survival or wilderness skills to speak of.  There were fifty or sixty settlers, some military personnel to serve as scouts, a doctor and a lawyer.  They settled in an area known as Wessagusset, now Weymouth, Massachussetts in July, 1622.   At first, relations between Plimouth and Wessagusset were decent enough.  The men of Wessagusset helped Plimouth gather in its harvest, which, as we know from history was a scant one.  Plimouth soon accused Wessagusset of stealing part of the harvest and relations went downhill from there.  Apparently, there was other stealing going on.  Nearby Natives of the Masssachussett tribe accused Wessagusset of stealing their corn.  Plimouth promised to rebuke the neighboring colony and left it at that. 

The Wessagusset settlers were consuming their rations too quickly and asked Plimouth for help.  Plimouth, without Squanto to keep everyone focused on the job at hand, had spent more time on houses and fortifications and not sufficient time planting and harvesting.  Their harvest would not last the winter.  The two colonies pooled resources and negotiated a trade for foodstuffs with neighboring Natives, using trade goods brought from England by Wessagusset.  The colonies divided up the proceeds and called it good, or so everyone thought.  By January, those food stuffs were running out and the colonists were doing manual labor for the Natives in exchange for food.  There were reports of more stealing, and a man was hanged, but sources disagree as to whether he was the guilty party, or a man who was dying anyway.  Either way, the Natives were not appeased.  They only had enough corn and other foodstuffs to trade to see them through the winter, too.  Wessagusset approached Plimouth for a joint attack on the Natives, but Plimouth rejected the plan. 

The Settlers at Wessagusset could see that the Natives around them were becoming more hostile.  Rumors of an impending attack reached Wessagusset and they sent a representative to Plimouth, again demanding help.  Meanwhile, Massassoit had developed a good working relationship with Edward Winslow, the author of Mourt's Relation, who had cured him with English medicine during an illness.  Massassoit put Winslow wise that a gathering of Native tribes not under his control were planning to attack bot Wassagusset and Plimouth.  His message to Plimouth was clear.  They needed to get control of what was going on at Wessagusset.  In response, in late March, Plimouth dispatched a small force under Miles Standish to Wessagusset. 

On March 26, 1623, Standish called all the colonists at Wessagusset into their stockade.  He also invited Pecksuot, a Massachussett sachem from whom Weston's colony had bought their land, and four other Native leaders to the meeting.  What happens next depends on who told the story.  At some point the four Native leaders were in a room alone with Standish.  English sources later said that the Natives asked for the private meeting to have an opportunity or pretext of killing Standish.  More than likely, Standish had arranged the meeting as part of a parley, but things turned in a different direction.  Legend propagated by Longfellow's poem says that Standish became angry and lost his temper.  Standish struck first, killing Pecksuot with his own knife.  The other Native leaders were killed, as well as several Natives also in the stockade.  Five Englishmen were killed and the head of one of the Natives cut off and sent to Plimouth to be displayed as a warning to others inclined to rise against either colony. 

After the killings, the Wessagusset colonists knew they would face a general uprising and could no longer stay in the area.  Most opted to return to England, while others chose to move to Plimouth.  The Wessagusset colony was dissolved less than a year after it had started.  Tensions between Natives and Settlers were on a downward spiral that would lead ultimately to the Pequot War (1636-38) and King Phillip's War (1675-1678).