Pequot War

The Pequot War was a massacre that took place in 1636 and ended in 1638 in New England, between the Pequot nation and a joint effort of the English colonists from the Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Saybrook Thirteen colonies and their allies from the Narragansett and Mohegan nations. The war concluded with the decisive defeat of the Pequot. In an event called the Mystic massacre, English colonists of the Connecticut Colony and their allies set the village of Pequot Fort ablaze, blocked the exits, and shot anyone trying to escape. By the end of the war, about 700 Pequots had been killed or taken into captivity. Hundreds of Pequot prisoners were enslaved. While some of the enslaved persons were kept in the colonies of the region, they were generally deemed unfit as slaves and less desirable than enslaved people of African origin. Because of this, most of the enslaved Pequots were eventually sold to colonists in Bermuda or the West Indies, while a minority of the original numbers remained in the region. Other survivors were dispersed as captives to the Narragansett and Mohegan nations. The Treaty of Hartford of 1638 sought to eradicate the Pequot cultural identity by prohibiting the Pequots from returning to their lands, speaking their tribal language, or referring to themselves as Pequots. The result was the elimination of the Pequot nation as a viable polity in southern New England, and the English colonial authorities classified them as extinct. Survivors who remained in the area were absorbed into other local nations; however, a western band retained sovereignty in Connecticut and are today a Federally recognized tribal nation.