The near annihilation of a powerful and prosperous Native American tribe on 26 May 1637.
It’s the early 1630’s and we’re smack bang in the middle of the great Puritan migration to the United States. The Puritans are English Protestants who are hell-bent (or heaven-bent?) on purifying the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices. It’s simply not pure enough for them. So they leave the motherland and sail west across the Atlantic seeking religious freedom.
Between 1620–1640 some 20,000 Puritans make the voyage to New England. The Massachusetts Bay Colony, located on the east coast of the United States, is where many of these migrants settle, where they call home.
But this is already someone else’s home (only for the last thousands of years).
Meet the Pequot.
This powerful Native American people controls much of the region surrounding the Puritan colony. They number about 16,000 and hold a position of political, military, and economic dominance in central and eastern Connecticut. The Pequot aren’t the only tribe on the east coast, but they’re the strongest.
