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Summary / Synopsis
King Philip's War

Key Passages
Reading historical fiction narratives is a way to captivate the reader on a time period in history to both try and shed some light on historical events; or they can be used to create stories with realistic intentions of what could have been possible. David Chivers writes a novel Metacomet’s War, pertaining to the conflicts Native Americans and New England colonists had after their long-standing cordial relationship. It would only take one event to change that relationship and spark a long 14-month war between the two cultures. Metacomment’s War focuses primarily on the Native Americans perspectives and has dialogue between the Natives and the different tribes that participated in the efforts against the English. It is a narrative to bring the Natives perspective to life. The Natives had no documentation of the War and after the end of the war not many of the Natives were left to recollect what they had experienced. Metacomet was chieftain of the Wampanoag tribe taking on the name of King Philip to better his relationship with the English, having a name they would be able to easily know him by. The English were able to associate a friendlier relationship with Metacomet with his English name. Trying to preserve his fathers ideals, Metacomet tried to maintain the relationship with the English, unfortunately the relations between English settlers and Native Americans began to deteriorate. In 1675 war between the Natives and the English broke out mainly over land and Natives being forced to live under Colonial law.

Reviews
Many reviews on the book establish the credibility of the novel for a majority of its historical accuracy. Floyd Largent remarks how Metacomet’s War, “… is superbly researched, well annotated, and written in a lively, entertaining style. It makes a fine addition to the canon of colonial American history.” Along with Largent Patrick Malone, Booklist and others comment on the historical accuracy David Chivers puts into the novel, truly resembling the events for how they would have happened.

A Quick Summary
Metacomet (c. 1638-1676) was the second son of Wampanoag chief Massasoit. His father coexisted peacefully with the Pilgrims and gave them crucial knowledge to survive their first harsh winters. He also maintained peaceful relations with the Rhode Island settlers. When Metacomet took over in 1662, he reacted against the treatment of his people by settlers encroaching further onto Wampanoag lands. At Taunton in 1671, he was humiliated when whites forced him to sign a new peace agreement that included the surrender of Indian guns. Convinced that the whites were bent on total domination, he established a military alliance with other southern New England tribes.

When officials in Plymouth Colony hung three Wampanoags in 1675 on flimsy evidence for the murder of a converted or "praying" Indian, Metacomet's alliance launched a united assault on colonial towns throughout the region. The resulting war, named for Metacomet (or King Philip, as he was known to the colonists), was one of the bloodiest in American history, proportionate to the size of the population at the time. Metacomet's forces enjoyed initial victories in the first year, but then the alliance began to unravel. By the end of the conflict, the Wampanoags and their Narragansett allies were almost completely destroyed. Metacomet foresaw the defeat and returned to his ancestral home at Mt. Hope, but was then killed in battle, quartered and beheaded. The Puritans displayed his decapitated head on a pole at Plymouth for another 25 years.

Fact From Fiction
The Novel of Metacomet’s War being a historical fiction novel has areas in which are un able to be addressed as fact. Many of the issues, battles, and effects, which are brought up in Metacomet’s War can be confirmed by colonist testimonies on King Philips war. It is very difficult to understand what Metacomet was thinking and how he was able to gather all the local native forces together and unite them under one banner. The entire structure of David Chivers’s novel is on how he portrays Metacomet’s leadership. The conversations between his wife and child of the concerns he has on the coming task with the English is a great representation of how Chivers’s develops a story not from fact of what individuals saw from Metacomet, but from how all the events must have made Metacomet feel. One part in the novel, which depicts this situation, is when Metacomet goes to the Narragansets pleading for their assistance in the coming war against the English. The ruling of the Chieftains was to have Canonchet as the leader of the entire Native forces. It is shown in A Brief History of King Philip’s War 1675-1677, by George M. Bodge, through his conclusion, “for he was the real leader of all active operations…”  Chivers’s has a dialogue between his wife and the mindset he was in when the Chieftains of the Narragansets ruled out Metacomet for leadership, even though Metacomet had been the one to plan all the Battles and raids being the main leader up to this point of the Natives war with the English. It needs to be understood that scholars are unable to have the direct dialogue between individuals during this time, especially personal conversations. These dialogues are created to develop the story around the facts of the war.

Another areas Chivers’s does not include is the captives Metacomet and his men obtain during their raid on Lancaster February 10th 1675. The captives were taken with the Natives to there various locations around New England. One key captive was Mary Rowlandson who later would be released and write a narrative on her experience with Metacoment and his warriors. These captives were never mentioned in Metacomet’s War, which inaccurately portrays the events that took place on February 10th 1675. With the addition of Mary Rowlandson’s accounts in the novel it would help establish credibility to the author in portraying a realistic image of the lives and thoughts of the Natives. At one point Mary Rowlandson and the captives were taken to Metacomet, with this it can be used to give the reader the first hand experiences of Metacomet.

Metacomet’s death in Metacomet’s War, is portrayed as his last magnificent feat, “…I [Metacomet], felt a surge of old fury and, pulling my knife from my belt I charge at the two men who stood so still in front of me, my knife raised high in the air.” However, it has been recorded that, “ Metacomet sprung up and attempted to escape the swamp near by…Alderman…shot the great chieftain through the breast, so that he feel forward into the water of the swamp…”   The difference between the two does not seem drastically different, however the image the reader would get from how Chivers portrays it, is completely different to the actual event.