Book Reviewed: Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick

The King Philip’s War in the early American history This book examines the history of Plymouth Colony. In the early 17th century, a group of Pilgrims fled Europe making the infamous ten-week voyage to the New World. Rather than arriving in the summer months as planned, they landed in November. The Chief Massasoit and his Wampanoag indigenous population at Cape Cod were understanding and helped them survive the harsh winter. Author Nathaniel Philbrick recounts the desperate circumstances of the settlers and the native people, and how the Wampanoags saved the colony from certain destruction. They hosted the first Thanksgiving to celebrate the success. For over fifty years they lived in peace, becoming increasingly interdependent. But in 1675, fifty-six years after the colonists landed in Cape Cod, a war broke out between the European settlers for over fourteen horrifying months, and claimed 5,000 lives, a significant population of the English settlers. The Native tribes, Wampanoag, Narragansett, and Nipmuc fought on one side, and the English colonists with Native allies, the Mohegan and Pequot communities on the other. This war was named after Metacom, a Wampanoag chief known to the English as King Philip. The second half of the book describes the conflict that shattered peace and redefined relationships between Native peoples and colonists. This is not a happy Thanksgiving story other books narrate but adds to the challenges of the new colony. At the end of the war, the resistance of indigenous population ended in New England but furthered the mistrust between colonists and Native peoples and set the stage for future colonial expansion without tribal consent. The English colonists captured thousands of Native Americans during this campaign, many were executed, and women and children were shipped to the Caribbean and sold into slavery. Metacom's (King Philip's) wife and 9-year-old son were captured after his death. His son was sold into slavery. Plymouth Colony ceased to exist as an independent colony in 1691, and merged with the Province of Massachusetts Bay under a new royal charter. This book is written in a well narrated prose, but the author could have focused on the personal reflections of tribal leaders during the war. I recommend this book to readers exploring early American history.