The First Internment Camp

1675 would be a turning point in American history.  That year saw the start of King Philip’s War.  It was the final breakdown in the alliance with the Wampanoag that had been establish by the Pilgrims at Plymouth and Philip’s father, Massasoit.  It would be the bloodiest war in colonial history and, per capita, the bloodiest war in American history.  –But that was not the only turning point that year. 

King Philip by Paul Revere

Relations with the native tribes had been deteriorating for some time.  The war with the Pequot had been fought almost forty years earlier, but something had changed in that time.
During the Pequot War, the English settlers had been allied with the Narraganset and Wampanoag, and the war was partly the product of inter-tribal conflicts.  As a result of that war, however, the New England colonies had formed a confederation, and Philip had spent a dozen or more years building alliances with the neighboring tribes.  As a result, King Philip’s war would be fought along racial lines.

At the start of the War, some men had tried to negotiate with local tribes.  Benjamin Church had convinced the Sakonnet and Pocasset to remain neutral, and John Eliot—known as “the Apostle to the Indians”—had converted many of the Nipmuc and Pennacook to Christianity.  These converts, called “praying Indians,” had adopted English clothing and culture and even founded the English-style towns of Natick and Marlborough.  They would remain loyal to the English throughout the war.  

Many of the English distrusted even their Christian allies, and laws were passed banning the Nipmuc and other converts from bearing guns or travelling outside their villages.  This prevented them from hunting or, in some cases, cultivating their fields.  Tensions only increased as Philip’s forces won a series of victories as far west as Springfield and along the coast north into southern Maine.  Then in October the Nipmuc residents of Natick were ordered to relocate to Deer Island in Boston Harbor—which became America’s first internment camp.  Some time later they were joined by the Pennacook from Marlborough.

Some of the English colonists protested this decision, such as the missionary John Eliot and the magistrates Daniel Gookin and Thomas Danforth.  These men had been born in England, where society was divided along lines of class and religion, and they still saw their world in these terms.  Philip’s allies were not Christian, and Philip had expressed distrust of the converts.  For Eliot, Gookin and Danforth that made all the difference.  By 1675, however, the majority of English colonists had been born in America, and their world was divided into English and “Indian.”  They saw no difference between Philip’s allies and the “praying” allies of the English.  As a result, both Danforth and Gookin received death threats over their open support of the Christian brethren. 

Finally, in May of 1676 the war turned against the Wampanoag, partly because Philip had failed to secure an alliance with the Mohawk who saw an opportunity to harass his western border.  With the threat diminished, the English colonists began to relax, and the survivors were released from Deer Island.  Unfortunately, during the winter without adequate food or shelter roughly half of the Nipmuc and Pennacook on the island had died.  For the rest, the world had changed.

Roughly fifty years after the first English colonists had settled in New England, as the first generation born in America were beginning to craft an identity distinct from their cousins in England, race had become a defining part of that identity