HVAO History Did you Know?

Did you know the death of a Harvard student sparked King Philip’s War (1675-1678)?

The student’s name was Wassausmon and he was a member of the Massachusetts Tribe. Wassausmon, known as John Sassamon by the English, studied at the Harvard Indian School in the early 1670s. He was the first Native American to study at Harvard.

As with many Native Americans who attended Harvard, Wassausmon did not graduate. He did, however, put the skills he learned at Harvard to good use as scribe and interpreted for Philip, the powerful and increasingly warlike leader of the Wampanoag people and of an alliance of other native peoples.

In 1675, upon learning of Philip’s plan to destroy all the colonial settlements in southern New England, Wassausmon warned Plymouth Governor Josiah Winslow. When Winslow did not immediately heed John Sassamon’s warning, Philip’s men allegedly took revenge and murdered Sassamon on his way home from delivering the intelligence.

Engraving: Pictorial History of King Philip’s War (Public Domain).

Three of Philip’s men stood trial before a colonial court that convicted them and sentenced them to death by hanging. An infuriated Philip activated his alliances and declared war.

King Philip’s War remains the highest loss of life per capita of any war in colonial or U.S. history. Philip’s warriors killed at least 5% of the colonists and burned around 1,200 homes. His forces attacked over half of southern New England’s 90 settlements, destroying 12 of them. Historians estimate the loss to the Native American population at over 5,000 with at least 1,000 being sold into slavery.