The Name of War

by Jill Lepore

  Abbreviations

  NARRATIVES OF KING PHILIP’S WAR

  Brief and True Narration

  Anonymous. A Brief and True Narration of the Late Wars Risen in New-England: Occasioned by the Quarrelsom disposition, and Perfidious Carriage of the Barbarous, Savage and Heathenish Natives There (London, 1675).

  Church, Entertaining History

  Benjamin Church, The Entertaining History of King Philip’s War, which began in the Month of June, 1675. As Also of Expeditions More Lately Made Against the Common Enemy, and Indian Rebels, in the Eastern Parts of New-England (Boston, 1716; Newport, 1772); reprinted in The History of Philip’s War, Commonly Called The Great Indian War of 1675 and 1676 (Exeter, N.H.: J. & B. Williams, 1829; Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, 1989).

  Easton, “Relacion”

  John Easton, “A Relacion of the Indyan Warre, by Mr. Easton, of Roade Isld., 1675,” in Narratives of the Indian Wars, 1675-1699, ed. Charles H. Lincoln (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1913), 7—17.

  Farther Brief and True Narration

  Anonymous. A Farther Brief and True Narration of the Late Wars Risen in New-England, Occasioned by the Quarrelsome Disposition and Perfidious Carriage of the Barbarous and Savage Indian Natives there. With an Account of the Fight, the 19th of December last, 1676 (London, 1676); reprinted in A Farther Brief and True Narration of the Great Swamp Fight in the Narragansett Country December 19, 1675 (Providence: Society of Colonial Wars, 1912).

  Folger, “Looking Glasse”

  Peter Folger, “A Looking Glasse for the Times” [1676], in Florence Bennett Anderson, A Grandfather for Benjamin Franklin (Boston: Meador Publishing Company, 1940).

  Gookin, “Historical Account”

  Daniel Gookin, “An Historical Account of the Doings and Sufferings of the Christian Indians in New England, in the Years 1675, 1676, 1677. Impartially Drawn by One Well Acquainted with that Affair, and Presented unto the Right Honourable the Corporation Residing in London, Appointed by the King’s Most Excellent Majesty for Promoting the Gospel among the Indians in America” [1677], in Collections of the American Antiquarian Society 2 (1836): 423-534.

  Harris, A Rhode Islander Reports

  William Harris to Sir Joseph Williamson, August 12, 1676, as edited and transcribed by Douglas Leach in A Rhode Islander Reports on King Philip’s War: The Second William Harris Letter of August, 1676 (Providence: Rhode Island Historical Society, 1963).

  Hubbard, Narrative

  William Hubbard, A Narrative of the Troubles with the Indians in New-England, from the first planting thereof in the year 1607. to this present year 1677. But chiefly of the late Troubles in the two last years, 1675. and 1676. To which is added a Discourse about the Warre with the Pequods In the year 1637 (Boston, 1677); reprinted in The History of the Indian Wars in New England, ed. Samuel Gardner Drake (New York: Burt Franklin, 1865; Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, 1990).

  Hutchinson, Warr in New-England Visibly Ended

  R[ichard] H[utchinson], The Warr in New-England Visibly Ended King Philip that barbarous Indian now Beheaded, and most of his Bloudy Adherents submitted to Mercy, the Rest fled far up into the Countrey, which hath given the Inhabitants Encouragement to prepare for their Settlement, Being a True and Perfect Account brought in by Caleb More, Master of a Vessel newly Arrived from Rhode Island, And Published for general Satisfaction (London, 1677); reprinted in Lincoln, Narratives of the Indian Wars, 103-6.

  Massachusetts Council, To Our Brethren

  Massachusetts Council, To Our Brethren and Friends the Inhabitants of the Colony of the Mattachusets (Cambridge, 1675), brs.

  Mather, Brief History

  Increase Mather, A Brief History of the Warr with the Indians in New-England. From June 24. 1675 (when the first Englishman was Murdered by the Indians) to August 12. 1676. when Philip, alias Metacomet, the principal Author and Beginner of the War was slain. Wherein the Grounds, beginning, and Progress of the War, is summarily expressed (London, 1676); reprinted in The History of King Philip’s War, ed. Samuel Gardner Drake (Albany, N.Y.: J. Munsell, 1862; Bowie, Md.: Heritage Books, 1990).

  Mather, Exhortation

  Increase Mather, An Earnest Exhortation To the Inhabitants of New-England, To hearken to the voice of God in his late and present Dispensations As ever they desire to escape another Judgement, seven times greater then any thing which as yet hath been (Boston, 1676); reprinted in Richard Slotkin and James Folsom, eds., So Dreadfull a Judgment: Puritan Responses to King Philip’s War (Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1978), 165-206.

  Mather, Historical Discourse

  Increase Mather, An Historical Discourse Concerning the Prevalency of Prayer Wherein is shewed that New-Englands late Deliverance from the Rage of the Heathen, is an eminent Answer of Prayer (Boston, 1677).

  Mather, Relation

  Increase Mather, A Relation of the Troubles which have hapned in New-England, By reason of the Indians there: From the Year 1614 to the Year 1675. Wherein the frequent Conspiracyes of the Indians to cutt off the English, and the wonderfull providence of God, in disappointing their devices, is declared. (Boston, 1677).

  Mather, C., Magnalia

  Cotton Mather, Magnalia Christi Americana (1702; Hartford, Conn., 1840).

  News from New-England

  Anonymous. News from New-England, Being A True and last Account of the present Bloody Wars carried on betwixt the Infidels, Natives, and the English Christians, and Converted Indians of New-England, declaring the many Dreadful battles Fought betwixt them: As also the many Towns and Villages burnt by the merciless Heathens. And also the true Number of all the Christians slain since the beginning of that War, as it was sent over by a Factor of New-England to a Merchant in London (London, 1676).

  Nowell, Abraham in Arms

  S[amuel] N[owell], Abraham in Arms: Or The first Religious General with his Army Engaging in a War For which he had wisely prepared, and by which, not only an eminent Victory Was obtained, but A Blessing gained also. Delivered in an Artillery-Election Sermon, June, 3, 1678 (Boston, 1678); reprinted in Slotkin and Folsom, So Dreadfull a Judgment, 271-300.

  Randolph, “Short Narrative”

  Edmund Randolph, “A short narrative of my Proceedings an Several Voyages to and from New England to White Hall to the Lords of the Privvy Council. [London, October 12, 1676],” in Hutchinson Papers (Albany: Prince Society, 1865), 2:226.

  Rowlandson, Soveraignty

  Mary Rowlandson, The Soveraignty & Goodness of God, Together, With the Faithfulness of His Promises Displayed; Being a Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. Commended by her, to all that desires to know the Lords doings to, and dealings with Her. Especially to her dear Children and Relations (Cambridge, 1682); reprinted in Slotkin and Folsom, So Dreadfull a Judgment, 315-69.

  Saltonstall, Continuation

  N[athaniel] S[altonstall], A Continuation of the State of New-England; Being a Farther Account of the Indian Warr, And of the Engagement betwixt the Joynt Forces of the United English Collonies and the Indians, on the 19th of December, 1675, With the true Number of the Slain and Wounded, and the Transactions of the English Army since the said Fight. With all other Passages that have there Hapned from the 10th of November, 1675, to the 8th of February 1675/6. Together with an Account of the Intended Rebellion of the Negroes in Barbadoes (London, 1676); reprinted in Lincoln, Narratives of the Indian Wars, 53-74.

  Saltonstall, New and Further Narrative

  N[athaniel] S[altonstall], A New and Further Narrative of the State of New-England; being a Continued Account of the Bloudy Indian War. From March till August 1676, Giving a Perfect Relation of the Several Devastations, Engagements, and Transactions there; As also the Great Successes Lately obtained against the Barbarous Indians, The Reducing of King Philip, and the Killing of one of the Queens, etc., Together with a Catalogue of the Losses in the whole, sustained on either Side since the said War began, as near as can be collected (London, 1676); reprinted in Lincoln
, Narratives of the Indian Wars, 77-99.

  Saltonstall, Present State

  N[athaniel] S[altonstall], The Present State of New-England with Respect to the Indian War, Wherein is an Account of the true Reason thereof, (as far as can be judged by Men), Together with most of the Remarkable Passages that have happened from the 20th of June, till the 10th of November, 1675. Faithfully Composed by a Merchant of Boston and Communicated to his Friend in London (London, 1675); reprinted in Lincoln, Narratives of the Indian Wars, 24-50.

  Tompson, New England’s Crisis

  Benjamin Tompson, New Englands Crisis. Or a Brief Narrative, of New-Englands Lamentable Estate at present, compar’d with the former (but few) years of Prosperity. Occasioned by many unheard of Crueltyes practised upon the Persons and Estates of its united Colonyes, without respect of Sex, Age or Quality of Persons, by the Barbarous Heathen thereof. Poetically Described. By a Well-wisher to his Countrey (Boston, 1676); reprinted in Slotkin and Folsom, So Dreadfull a Judgment, 213-33.

  True Account

  Anonymous. A true Account Of the Most Considerable Occurrences That have hapned in the Warre Between The English and the Indians in New-England, From the Fifth of May, 1676, to the Fourth of August last; as also of the Successes it hath pleased God to give the English against them: As it hath been communicated by Letters to a Friend in London (London, 1676).

  Walker, “Captan Perse”

  Philip Walker, “Captan Perse & his coragios Company,” edited and with an introduction by Diane Bornstein in AAS Proceedings 83 (1973): 67-102.

  Wharton, New-England’s Present Sufferings

  [Edward Wharton], New-England’s Present Sufferings under Their Cruel Neighboring Indians. Represented in two Letters, lately Written from Boston to London (London, 1675).

  Wheeler, Thankefull Remembrance

  Thomas Wheeler, A Thankefull Remembrance of Gods Mercy To Several Persons at Quabaug or Brookfield: Partly in a Collection of Providences about them, and Gracious Appearances for them: And partly in a Sermon Preached by Mr. Edward Bulkley, Pastor of the Church of Christ at Concord, upon a day of Thanksgiving, kept by divers for their Wonder full Deliverance there (Cambridge, 1676); reprinted in Slotkin and Folsom, So Dreadfull a Judgment, 227-57.

  Winslow and Hinckley, “Narrative”

  Josiah Winslow and Thomas Hinckley, “Narrative shewing the manor of the beginning of the present Warr with the Indians of Mount hope and Pocassett,” PCR 10:362-64.

  Winthrop, Some Meditations

  W[ait] W[inthrop], Some Meditations Concerning our Honourable Gentlemen and Fellow-Souldiers, in Pursuit of those Barbarous Natives in the Narragansit Country; and Their Service there. Committed into Plain Verse for the Benefit of those that Read it (n.p., 1675; New London, 1721).

  ARCHIVES AND SERIALS

  AASY American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass.

  AHR American Historical Review

  AICRJ American Indian Culture and Research Journal

  AIQ American Indian Quarterly

  AQ American Quarterly

  CCR J. Hammond Trumbull, ed., The Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut (Hartford: F. A. Brown, 1850-90)

  CSP W. Noel Sainsbury, ed., Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series, America and the West Indies (London, 1893)

  EAL Early American Literature

  HNAI Handbook of North American Indians, vol. 15, The Northeast, ed. Bruce G. Trigger (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1978)

  IJAL International Journal of American Linguistics

  JAH Journal of American History

  JCB John Carter Brown Library, Brown University, Providence Mass

  Mass. Arch. The Massachusetts State Archives, State House, Boston

  MCR Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, ed., Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England (New York: AMS Press, 1968).

  MHS Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston

  MHSC Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society

  MHSP Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings

  NEHGR New England Historical and Genealogical Register

  NEQ New England Quarterly

  PCR David Pulsifer, ed., Records of the Colony of New Plymouth in New England (Boston: William White, 1861; reprinted New York: AMS Press, 1968)

  RICR Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in New England (Providence, 1857)

  RIHS Rhode Island Historical Society, Providence

  RIHSC Collections of the Rhode Island Historical Society

  RIHSP Rhode Island Historical Society Proceedings

  WMQ William and Mary Quarterly (all references are to the third series, unless otherwise noted)

  Notes

  WHAT’S IN A NAME?

  1Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays of Montaigne, trans. Donald M. Frame (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1968), 152. Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, ed. Richard Tuck (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), 31.

  2Michael Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations (New York: Basic Books, 1977), 16.

  3Elaine Scarry, The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), 96. My discussion of the nature of war is more generally indebted to pp. 60-96 and 133-57 and to Wzlzer, just and Unjust Wars, especially Chapters 1-3.

  4Some of these “War is …” quotes are more recognizable than others, but all can be found in most collections of familiar quotations. “War is hell” and “War is at best barbarism” are the words of William Tecumseh Sherman. “But war’s a game, which, were their subjects wise / Kings would not play at” is from William Cowper’s “The Wintry Morning Walk.” Clausewitz, of course, said, “War is … politics by other means.” “War is a contagion” are the words of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. “War is, after all, the universal perversion” is from John Rae, and “War seems to me a mean, contemptible thing” is the opinion of Albert Einstein.

  5Elaine Scarry calls this the “unmaking of the world” and the “verbal unanchoredness of war.” “War,” she writes, “is in the massive fact of itself a huge structure for the derealization of cultural constructs and, simultaneously, for their eventual reconstitution. The purpose of the war is to designate as an outcome which of the two competing cultural constructs will by both sides be allowed to become real” (The Body in Pain, 60-96). Scarry’s analysis is invaluable to this study, but I should pause here to emphasize two of our differences. First, I believe that war’s consequences for language are neither universal nor transhistorical, as Scarry’s work implies. King Philip’s War certainly transformed New England Indians’ relationship to language, but in vastly different ways than it did for their English neighbors. Any discussion of the power of language in a particular society must necessarily involve a survey of how its people communicate: how they speak, read, and write. In this study, then, I investigate such matters as rates of literacy and bilingualism as well as the timely (or untimely) delivery of letters and the output of printing presses. Second, to the extent that an unmade world is reconstituted by language, this reconstitution, I believe (following Walzer), is largely accomplished by moral language.

  6The most comprehensive account of this conflict is still to be found in Douglas Leach, Flintlock and Tomahawk: New England in King Philip’s War (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1958; reprint, East Orleans, Mass.: Parnassus Imprints, 1992). Detailed information about English participants and particular military engagements can be found in George Madison Bodge, Soldiers in King Philip’s War (Leominster, Mass.: for the author, 1896). For accounts of the war within the broader context of late seventeenth-century colonial-Indian relations, see Alden T. Vaughan, New England Frontier: Puritans and Indians, 1620-1675 (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1965; rev. ed., 1979), 309-38; Francis Jennings, The Invasion of America: Indians, Colonialism, and the Cant of Conquest (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1975), 298-326. (It is worth noting that Vaughan has been ac
cused of being a Puritan apologist, while Jennings’ work is occasionally dismissed as polemical.) Russell Bourne’s The Red King’s Rebellion: Racial Politics in New England, 1675-1678 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990) provides a lively retelling of some events of the war, though it makes no new broad analysis. James David Drake has recently examined the native perspective on the war in his “Severing the Ties That Bind Them: A Reconceptualization of King Philip’s War” (Ph.D. diss., UCLA, 1995). A fine examination of the war’s effect on a single community can be found in Richard I. Melvoin, New England Outpost: War and Society in Colonial Deerfield (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1989), 92-123. On the economic and political repercussions of King Philip’s War see Michael J. Puglisi, Puritans Besieged: The Legacies of King Philip’s War in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1991) and Stephen Saunders Webb, 1676: The End of American Independence (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984), especially 221-44, 411-12. On Algonquian-English relations see Neal Salisbury, Manitou and Providence: Indians, Europeans, and the Making of New England, 1500-1645 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982); Robert F. Trent, “Coastal Algonkian Culture, 1500-1680: Conquest and Resistance,” in Jonathan Fairbanks, ed., New England Begins: The Seventeenth Century (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1982), 1:66-71; Karen H. Dacey, In the Shadow of the Great Blue Hill (Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1995); Karen Kupperman, Settling with the Indians: The Meeting of English and Indian Cultures in America, 1580-1640 (Totowa, N.J.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1980; and Vaughan, New England Frontier. On the native peoples of seventeenth-century southeastern New England see Kathleen J. Bragdon, Native People of Southern New England, 1500-1650 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996), as well as the important essays in HNAI 15:58-197.