"When Connecticut settlers decided to wage war on the Pequot Indians in 1637, they were ruthless in their quest for revenge.

The Pequots had already been blamed for the deaths of two English traders, John Stone and John Oldham, and in the spring of 1637 the tribe had killed nine people in Wethersfield and took two girls as captives.

The English responded harshly, said State Historian Walter Woodward. The General Court at Hartford voted to attack the Pequots, and Woodward said the settlers' way was to show no weakness and be as violent as possible.

The Mystic Massacre was not the Pequot War's only battle, but it is the most notable.

Capt. John Mason led a group of men in May 1637 to attack Pequot forts in Mystic. The Mohegan and Narragansett tribes aligned with Mason's group. The tribes wanted to challenge the Pequots because they controlled European trade.

The allies attacked the forts with fire and swords, killing between 300 and 500 Pequots in an unprecedented massacre. In the years that followed, tribal members who fought against the attack were found and killed. Those who didn't fight were enslaved by the Mohegan and Narragansett tribes and the English."

Get the Story:
Pequot War Still A Hot Topic (The Hartford Courant 8/16)

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