The early
Plymouth Colony claimed preemptive rights to the entirety of Wampanoag country through early alliances with some Native leaders, like
Squanto (Tisquantam) and
Massasoit (Ousamequin). However, English claim to the land relied entirely on misinterpretations of Native leadership, which viewed Ousamequin as the Native "king" of the land, despite the existence of other territorial claims under local leaders like Namumpum (
Weetamoo). With the defeat of the Pequots, Narragansett leader
Miantonomoh gathered groups of Algonquians together in the 1640s in the hope that they could face the colonists together. He was captured by colonists in Connecticut and executed by Mohegan sachem
Uncas, shattering the coalition. The
Rhode Island, Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay,
Connecticut, and
New Haven colonies each developed separate relations with the
Wampanoags,
Nipmucs,
Narragansetts,
Mohegans,
Pequots, and other tribes of New England, whose territories historically had differing boundaries. Many of the neighboring tribes had been traditional competitors and enemies. As the colonial population increased, the New Englanders expanded their settlements along the region's coastal plain and up the
Connecticut River valley. By 1675, they had established a few small towns in the interior between Boston and the Connecticut River settlements. Meanwhile, with the death of Ousamequin, Native diplomacy between Native Americans and settlers fell apart, as colonists tried negotiating with
Wamsutta in the same role they did with Ousamequin, but while slighting female Native rulers (
saunkswkas) of the land. The colonist erroneously claimed Sakonnet and Pocasset land as freely given. This created further tension between colonists and Natives, as colonial Puritan beliefs did not recognize female leaders as legitimate, despite the great power they held within Native societies. On one such occasion of land dispute, saunkswkas Weetamoo and
Awashonks appeared in a colonial court to protest illegitimate deeds signed by Wamsutta that gave colonists lands that were not his to give. Another grievance held by many Wampanoags was the attempts by colonial missionaries to convert them to Christianity; among those who expressed such grievances was Metacom himself, who declared that he and other Wampanoag leaders possessed a great fear that any of their people "should be called or forced to be Christian Indians". Metacom began negotiating with the other
Algonquian tribes against the Plymouth Colony in the winter of 1674–1675, soon after the death of his father and, within a year, of his brother Wamsutta. However, conflict abounded, even amidst tribes and families. Two months before the outbreak of the war, Mammanuah, the son of
Awashonks, leader of the
Sakonnet, had signed a deed granting English colonizers the right to all the land from Pocasset Neck south to the sea, without first seeking his mother's approval. At the start of the planting season, conflict erupted when new settlers began to plant on lands tenured under the rule of Awashonks. Mammanuah was confronted by his mother and other members of his tribe. He was stripped of his title by his relatives but allowed to leave with his life. Mammanuah sought restitution at Plymouth, where his title was reinstated by colonial authorities who had noticeably ulterior motives for wanting the land deed to remain valid. They lived in 110 towns, of which 64 were in the Massachusetts Bay colony, which then included the southwestern portion of Maine and southern
New Hampshire until 1679. About half these towns participated in the war. The towns had about 13,000 men of military age. Universal training was prevalent in all
colonial New England towns for these men, barring clergy and those with disabilities. Many towns had built strong garrison houses for defense, and others had stockades enclosing most of the houses. All of these were strengthened as the war progressed. Some poorly populated towns were abandoned if they did not have enough men to defend them. Each town had local militias based on all eligible men who had to supply their own arms. Only those who were too old, too young, disabled, or clergy were excused from military service. The militias were usually only minimally trained and initially did relatively poorly against the warring Natives, until more effective training and tactics could be devised. Joint forces of militia volunteers and volunteer Indigenous allies were found to be the most effective. The Indigenous allies of the colonists numbered about 1,000 from the
Mohegans and
Praying Indians, with about 200 warriors. By 1676, the regional Indigenous population had decreased to about 10,000 (exact numbers are unavailable) largely because of epidemics. These included about 4,000 Narragansetts of western Rhode Island and eastern Connecticut, 2,400
Nipmucs of central and western Massachusetts, and 2,400 combined in the Massachusett and Pawtucket tribes living around Massachusetts Bay and extending northwest to Maine. The Wampanoags and Pokanokets of Plymouth and eastern Rhode Island are thought to have numbered fewer than 1,000. About one in five were considered to be warriors. By then, the Natives had almost universally adopted steel knives, tomahawks, and
flintlock muskets as their weapons. The various tribes had no common government. They had distinct cultures and often warred among themselves, although they all spoke related languages from the
Algonquian family.
The trial John Sassamon was a Native convert to Christianity, commonly referred to as a "
praying Indian". He played a key role as a cultural mediator, negotiating with both colonists and Natives while belonging to neither party. He was an early graduate of
Harvard College and served as a translator and adviser to Metacomet. He reported to the governor of
Plymouth Colony that Metacomet planned to gather allies for Native attacks on widely dispersed colonial settlements. Metacomet was brought before a public court, where court officials admitted that they had no proof but warned that they would confiscate Wampanoag land and guns if they had any further reports that he was conspiring to start a war. Not long after, Sassamon's body was found in the ice-covered
Assawompset Pond, and Plymouth Colony officials arrested three Wampanoags on the testimony of a Native witness, including one of Metacomet's counselors. The jury, which consisted of twelve colonists and six Indigenous elders, convicted the men of Sassamon's murder, and they were executed by hanging on June 8, 1675
(O.S.) at Plymouth. Most importantly, the pond where Sassamon’s body was found in was at the center of a heated land claim, under which Plymouth men were attempting to purchase vast swaths of land at
Nemasket. His death became the necessary pretext for Plymouth Colony’s arrest of a counselor tied to suppressing the purchasing of land around Nemasket. Under captivity, the counselor and block to the signing of a land grant for the Plymouth Colony, Tobias, and the other arrested men were forced to sign the rights away of all of their land at Nemasket. With Sassamon dead and the land deed signed, the land surrounding the pond became formally acknowledged as part of the town Middlebury and was open for English settlement. With the killing of Sassamon, the proverbial first shots of the war were fired. ==Southern theater, 1675==