King's Dominion: a Fractured North American Timeline
- Thread starter vivala
- Start date
Are we talking about sentiment or what happens on the ground?
Because that is pretty much the only worse sentiment.
But pulling on off against established Europeans would be a tough sell.
Despite the very real genocide against the natives happening at the time. The concept of genocide in the average person's mind hadn't really been fully developed to the point we familiar with
[Edit: Added the last part.]
Last edited:
He would be butterflied away basic genetics and the reality of conception makes it practically impossible that somebody with his exact genome will even come about anyways.
Chapter 5: Colonies, Combat, and College
Chapter 5: Colonies, Combat, and College
5.1: Maine
While politics in the rapidly growing colonies of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay got off to a fiery start, the lands around them were quickly claimed by other English settlers. The earliest (and least successful) of these colonies was the Province of Maine to the Northeast of what would become Massachusetts.
The initial grant for the Province of Maine was given to Fernando Georges and John Mason. Rather than pursuing colonization for religious reasons like their Puritan neighbors, Georges and Mason were out for profit. Working through the shortly lived Plymouth Council for New England (based in Westminster, England, not the Plymouth Colony), the two men sent colonists out to the northern shores of New England, though they would never set foot in the Province themselves.
The colony consisted of a string of small fishing villages, with no major population center comparable to Jamestown or Boston. By 1630, Maine had only reached a population of 400. It wasn’t a failure on the scale of Roanoke, but it was far from the economic success they dreamed of.
Worse yet, the two men butted heads over management of the Province, and ultimately sabotaged its chances of early success by opting to split it at the Piscataqua River. Mason took the smaller, but more populated portion to the southwest, naming it New Hampshire after his home county of Hampshire, England. Georges took the larger, but less populated portion to the northeast, naming it New Somersetshire, after his home county.
Though Georges was vaguely sympathetic to the Puritan cause, neither men were outspoken Puritans, nor were their provinces especially focused on religion. Consequently, the growing society of the Shining Fortress in Massachusetts and Plymouth looked at the colonies warily. They saw no reason to panic yet, but the first major wave of immigrants could make or break their relationship [1].
5.2: Connecticut
While things were slow and steady to the northeast of Massachusetts, it was much more chaotic to the southwest. In the mid-1630s, three separate colonies emerged around the Connecticut River Valley, each headquartered in a different city: Connecticut River (sometimes just called Connecticut or the River Colony), based in Hartford on the upper Connecticut River; Saybrook, based in Saybrook at the mouth of the Connecticut River; and New Haven, based in New Haven at the mouth of the Quinnipiac River.
What made these new colonies especially complicated was their mishmash of borders. Rather than set up orderly claims to the land, each colony sent out its own settlers to form towns wherever they could. The Connecticut River Colony, which was by far the most populous of the three, had the most territory, easily dominating the upper portion of the valley. Saybrook mostly centered around the mouth of the Connecticut River, but also had settlements along the Narragansett Bay [2] – yet River Colony settlements along the coast prevented Saybrook lands from being contiguous. In addition to its core around the Quinnipiac River, the New Haven Colony had settlements on Sewanhaka Island [3], which it shared with Connecticut and New Netherland.
Boston’s relationship with the three colonies was much better than New Hampshire and New Somersetshire, as all three had clear ties to the Puritans. Connecticut River was founded by settlers from Boston who, despite their desire for self-governance, were happy to stay connected to Massachusetts’s Shining Fortress. New Haven was founded by a new party of English Puritan noblemen, who even stopped by Boston to build political connections before settling the eponymous city. Saybrook was commissioned by two Puritan followers (Lords Saye and Brook) of Oliver Cromwell, a controversial rising figure in English politics. Some of the more moderate figures in Boston were wary of the Saybrook settlers, fearing they would unleash greater anti-English and anti-monarch sympathies onto the colonies [4].
5.3: Tensions with the Pequot
As the Puritans quickly expanded into the Connecticut River Valley, they ran into another expanding power: the Pequot people. Ever since Europeans arrived in the region, local tribes competed to see who could dominate the highly lucrative fur trade. Early on, the trade was split among the Narragansett, Mohegan, and Lenape (in addition to some smaller players). The Pequot, who had been on uneasy terms with their neighbors since they migrated from the upper Hudson River Valley in the 1500s, strove to claim a monopoly on the trade.
Complicating the politics of the Connecticut River Valley was the growing rivalry between the English settlements of New England and the colony of New Netherland. While the New English colonies were founded for religious purposes, they were far from opposed to profiting off the natural bounty of the land, much to the chagrin of the more trade-oriented New Netherland. While trade with New Netherland was increasingly dominated by the Pequot, the English allied with the rival Wampanoag tribe and, thanks to the efforts of Roger Williams, were growing closer with the Narragansett. Once the Mohegans began trading with the English as well, the Pequot’s stake in the fur and wampum markets looked to be in a death spiral, despite their dominance over trade with the Dutch.
The Sachem of the Pequot, Sassacus, was especially worried about the standing of his tribe at the time. In 1634, only two years after Sassacus ascended as leader of the Pequot, Sachem Uncas of the Mohegan led a successful revolt, freeing them from Pequot rule. Sassacus feared that the Mohegan and other rival tribes would seize upon this moment of weakness and use the Europeans to force the Pequot out of the valley. Tragically, his attempts to protect his people’s standing would cause the very downfall he feared.
In late 1634, Sassacus launched an attempt to kneecap the early Mohegan attempts to establish trade in the region by attacking a group of Mohegan traders near Hartford. Sassacus expected this to anger the English but was caught off guard when the Dutch were furious as well. Despite their rivalry with the colonies of New England, New Netherland valued a stable economy above all else and harshly condemned the Pequot for disrupting trade.
Things escalated further when a tributary tribe of the Pequot murdered John Stone, a trader from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Pequot would claim that they believed Stone was Dutch and attacked him in retaliation for the Dutch assassination of Sachem Tatobem (Sassacus’s father) in 1632. Sassacus’s exact motivation remains unknown. Historians debate whether he was telling the truth and attempting to get revenge for his father’s murder, thought Stone was Dutch and was retaliating against New Netherland for their earlier rebuke, knew Stone was English and was attempting to further disrupt England’s trade with its native allies, or if it was a messy mistake.
The murder of John Stone wasn’t quite enough to drive the New English colonies to full-on war against the Pequot. Stone was a drunkard, pirate, and all-around sinner – behavior which recently saw him exiled from Boston. So, while Boston’s political elite felt the need to publicly denounce and respond to the killing of an Englishman, many privately celebrated Stone’s death.
The spark that ignited the Pequot War was a bold raid on a diplomatic meeting occurring just north of the settlement of Saybrook in August of 1636. In the wake of increased Pequot hostilities, Saybrook sought to build relations between the colony and the Mohegan tribe, which lived between the settlement and the Pequot. Sassacus caught wind that Saybrook was looking to form a formal alliance with the Mohegan and sent his men to show what chaos would befall them if the deal went through.
What the Pequot didn’t know was that the Englishmen present weren’t random diplomats. Among them was John Winthrop the Younger, governor of the young Saybrook Colony and son of the former governor of Massachusetts Bay. Winthrop the Younger narrowly escaped the attack with his life, and lost an eye in the process, an event that would scar him (both physically and mentally) for life [5].
5.4: Building a Coalition
The near murder of Saybrook’s governor immediately brought Saybrook to war with the Pequot. The Connecticut River Colony would quickly join the war out of solidarity and out of fear of similar raids [6]. Once news reached Boston, Massachusetts Bay declared war within a day. Though Governor Henry Vane had many strong disagreements with John Winthrop, the two men respected each other greatly and Vane needed no encouragement to seek revenge for the assault on Winthrop’s son.
While Winthrop the Younger was amassing troops to prepare for an attack on Pequot territory, he received a shocking letter. Wouter van Twiller, Director of New Netherland, offered to send in troops to fight the Pequot [7]. Winthrop the Younger gladly accepted, seeing the offer as an opportunity to reduce European casualties, improve relations between the English and Dutch colonists, and create a victory so crushing that it would discourage any native raids for generations to come.
As troops from across New England and New Netherland gathered at Saybrook to prepare for the assault, Roger Williams embarked on a mission of his own. In his early days in Massachusetts, he had extensive contact with the Narragansett, which led him to see the Narragansett (and all native peoples, for that matter) as a people and polity equal in dignity to Europeans. Such a view was not popular outside of his liberal circles, so Williams sought to raise the Narragansett’s standing in the eyes of his contemporaries. He traveled to the home of Sachem Miantonomoh of the Narragansett and urged him to join the war against the Pequot. Williams knew he could not stop the violence against the Pequot, but with luck, this would help the Narragansett [8].
The other native tribe to join the coalition against the Pequot was the first party to enter the conflict: the Mohegan. Their war with the Pequot hadn’t truly stopped since they first sought independence, but the murder of their diplomats at Saybrook intensified their attacks. They would loosely coordinate their efforts with the New Anglo-Dutch coalition but would not wait for them to assemble.
5.5: The Pequot War
Once all the troops arrived in Saybrook, their assault was swift and brutal. The various New English factions worked in remarkable harmony and had a strong camaraderie with the Dutch, despite the language barrier [9]. The army was frankly far too large for the mission and the lack of significant internal tensions meant they were fighting at full effectiveness.
Over the course of the Spring of 1637, the army marched through Pequot territory, massacring and burning any villages they came upon. The Pequot attempted to mount a major defensive force, but disruptive raids from Mohegan and Narragansett forces kept it from materializing.
The offensive was truly brutal. Villages were surrounded and any fighting age men were killed, while the remaining people were captured and either executed or sold into slavery. Fleeing armies were gunned down without a second thought. Fortresses were burned down, often times with anywhere from a handful to hundreds of Pequot inside [10]. When Roger Williams later heard tales of the war, he was silently horrified, but Boston was filled was such a righteous fury that he chose not to speak out at the time.
His people thoroughly brutalized and broken, Sachem Sassacus fled the Connecticut River Valley, hoping to find refuge in Mohawk territory. Instead, as the Mohawk learned what happened, they killed him and delivered his head and hands to Hartford in an attempt to gain favor with the English colonists [11].
5.6: The Treaty of Saybrook
To conclude the war, representatives from Saybrook, Connecticut River, Massachusetts Bay, New Netherland, the Mohegan, and the Narragansett met to work out what would become known as the Treaty of Saybrook.
The Pequot tribe was declared extinct and its lands unoccupied. The remaining Pequot prisoners were primarily divided between the Mohegan and Narragansett, who would absorb them into their tribes, though a few prisoners remained in Saybrook and Massachussite possession, and would later be sold to the British West Indies as slaves.
Roger Williams, who insisted on attending as a delegate for Massachusetts Bay, fought hard for clauses that would reward the Mohegan and Narragansett and help protect them in the future. Ultimately, he was able to secure first rights to Pequot land for the tribes and a requirement that white settlers receive consent and provide compensation for any Mohegan and Narragansett lands they settled. However, given the stunning display of power the colonists had just made, future settlers would frequently subvert these rules through intimidation.
The Mohegan and Narragansett also received priority in the fur and wampum trade. However, the New Dutch and Massachussite delegates were unwilling to give them exclusive trading rights. Nevertheless, the Mohegan and Narragansett delegates seemed pleased.
The colonists also used the peace process to clarify their increasingly messy borders. New Netherland was given a firm eastern border (though the delegates noted that they would need the Dutch West India Company to approve of the change first) and Massachusetts Bay was given a firm southern border. Notably, the borders of Connecticut River and Saybrook were left ambiguous, as Winthrop the Younger and Thomas Hooker, the representative from Connecticut River, floated future discussions of unifying the two colonies [12].
5.7: Pequot War in Retrospect
For the longest time, historians framed the Pequot War as a short, glorious battle demonstrating New English dominion over the land. In time, as the brutality of the coalition came under more scrutiny, historians pointed to the involvement of the Mohegan and Narragansett and the vengeful tactics of Sassacus as evidence that it was a just war, and not simply brutal colonial conquest. Eventually, however, historians recognized the Pequot War (or Pequot Massacre/Genocide as some called it) as an act of needless, cynical violence and a great stain on the early history of New England.
Changing opinions towards the war would also tarnish the image of popular figures like John Winthrop the Younger and Roger Williams, the latter criticized for his hypocrisy as a man who claimed to stand up for the rights of native peoples [13].
5.8: Meeting of the Minds at Harvard
While things spiraled towards war in the Connecticut River Valley, Massachusetts Bay celebrated a major achievement in 1636: the founding of a university. Harvard College, as it would be named in 1639, was primarily dedicated to the training of the Puritan clergy, though in time it would grow to become one of the preeminent all-purpose institutions of higher learning on the continent. It would quickly solidify its place as a cutting edge center of Puritan education when it acquired British North America’s first printing press in 1638.
As an invaluable tool for building the Shining Fortress, political figures from all across Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth descended upon Cambridge to celebrate its opening. Notably absent from this event was Roger Williams, who had already set out to court the Narragansett for the Pequot War. However, other major liberal figures were present, including the increasingly prominent (albeit still controversial) Anne Hutchinson.
It was here that Hutchinson happened upon the wife and daughter of two of the College’s founders, a poet named Anne Bradstreet. The two Annes instantly hit it off, with Hutchinson’s natural oratory skills and Bradstreet’s poetic wit quickly charming one another. Though they soon discovered that they didn’t quite see eye-to-eye on religion, Bradstreet was inspired by Hutchinson’s political rise as a woman in politics. Bradstreet’s writing had long had a feminist bent to it, using Queen Elizabeth as evidence of women’s fitness to rule; however, she had never stepped into politics herself.
Hutchinson encouraged Bradstreet to attend her sermons and offered her the opportunity to speak. Though Hutchinson turned down this initial offer, the two women would stay in touch through letters, and, in due time, Bradstreet would take her up on her offer [14].
[1] Save for the details about the Shining Fortress, this almost all according to OTL. The only notable change is that, like Roger Williams, John Wheelwright is not exiled from Massachusetts, so Exeter, New Hampshire is not founded. More butterflies will definitely affect New Hampshire and New Somersetshire, but for now this is just setting up the players.
[2] With no Rhode Island, the land around the bay is up for grabs. While @NedStark’s prediction that Massachusetts would claim the land was probable, Connecticut attempted to claim the land in OTL, so I opted to give it to one of its predecessors.
[3] This is the original native name for Long Island. It would be a while before the settlers settled on a new name for the island.
[4] Like the section on New Hampshire and New Somersetshire, this section is largely according to OTL, with a few minor changes based on the Shining Fortress and absence of Rhode Island. This hopefully helps establish the geopolitical landscape in New England as the region comes into its own.
[5] IOTL, the war started because a group of Narragansett warriors attacked and killed another sinful Massachussite sailor, John Oldham. The Pequot then sheltered Oldham’s killers. The Pequot’s refusal to surrender the killers of Stone or Oldham ultimately pushed the colonists to war with the Pequot. Oldham’s death was a “wrong place, wrong time” event, so random butterflies easily prevent this. With Saybrook now holding part of the Narragansett Bay to the east of the Pequot, they would be the most likely to draw Sassacus’s ire. Winthrop the Younger, being a critical figure in the unification of Connecticut, seemed like the most interesting figure to plausibly rope in. I considered killing him here, but I think giving him a near-death experience will be more interesting in the long run.
[6] The New Haven Colony isn’t founded until 1638, hence why it doesn’t join the war. Sorry for any confusion with the chapter jumping around in time, but it made sense to mention New Haven at the same time as the other Connecticut colonies, and those had to be brought up before the Pequot War.
[7] New Netherland did not join OTL’s Pequot War. However, the attempted assassination of a colonial governor (which no European believed was mistaken) would be enough to push tensions from OTL over the edge.
[8] Williams did this in OTL as well. Ironically, this put the Narragansett against the Pequot, despite the fact that OTL’s war started over the Pequot protecting Narragansett warriors.
[9] Before travelling to North America, many English pilgrims first fled to the Netherlands. The main reason they then left was not due to differences of religion, politics, or Dutch oppression, but because the relatively urbanized lands of the Netherlands were too unfamiliar compared to life in the English countryside. If anything, the Puritans of New England were probably more amicable to the Dutch than most Englishmen.
[10] This war is significantly more one-sided than in OTL and consequently the atrocities are much more severe and numerous. The treatment of villages and retreating armies reflects the general way colonists assaulted native tribes. The enslavement was true in OTL’s war as well. The fort burnings are based on OTL’s Mystic Massacre, but now more widespread. The war in OTL was essentially a genocide already, and TTL’s version is purposeful overkill on the part of the colonists. Hopefully it’s clear that this TL isn’t trying to portray these actions as glorious, but such behavior is an unavoidable part of colonial history.
[11] The same thing happened in OTL, though it happens about a year earlier ITTL since the war is much shorter.
[12] Very similar to OTL’s Treaty of Hartford. Moved to Saybrook since it’s much more relevant in TTL’s Pequot War. OTL’s Treaty was less generous to the Mohegan and Narragansett, just giving them Pequot prisoners. Williams’s meddling and the Narragansett’s less ambiguous role in TTL’s war nets them more from the Treaty. Unlike OTL, Massachusetts and New Netherland are involved in TTL’s treaty, so the border disputes between these two and Connecticut are resolved decades earlier and the colonies remain on better terms.
[13] The time period is left intentionally vague here, but these changes happen at a moment analogous to America’s recent reckoning with its racial history.
[14] OTL’s Hutchinson and Bradstreet both used history and Puritan theology to advocate for an increased role for women in New English society, but Bradstreet didn’t share Hutchinson’s antinomian beliefs. ITTL, the combination of Hutchinson remaining in Massachusetts, moderately improved attitudes towards women, and the Shining Fortress promoting Puritan solidarity, it’s much more likely that these two would meet and be able to put aside their differences.
Whew, that was definitely a long one! I tried to make it more readable with sub-headers, but let me know if you had any problems with the length. That being said, that’s all we needed to cover in New England before we can finally wade fully into the 1640s! The decade will be quite eventful both due to the English Civil War and some of the early developments in the colonies starting to bear fruit.
5.1: Maine
While politics in the rapidly growing colonies of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay got off to a fiery start, the lands around them were quickly claimed by other English settlers. The earliest (and least successful) of these colonies was the Province of Maine to the Northeast of what would become Massachusetts.
The initial grant for the Province of Maine was given to Fernando Georges and John Mason. Rather than pursuing colonization for religious reasons like their Puritan neighbors, Georges and Mason were out for profit. Working through the shortly lived Plymouth Council for New England (based in Westminster, England, not the Plymouth Colony), the two men sent colonists out to the northern shores of New England, though they would never set foot in the Province themselves.
The colony consisted of a string of small fishing villages, with no major population center comparable to Jamestown or Boston. By 1630, Maine had only reached a population of 400. It wasn’t a failure on the scale of Roanoke, but it was far from the economic success they dreamed of.
Worse yet, the two men butted heads over management of the Province, and ultimately sabotaged its chances of early success by opting to split it at the Piscataqua River. Mason took the smaller, but more populated portion to the southwest, naming it New Hampshire after his home county of Hampshire, England. Georges took the larger, but less populated portion to the northeast, naming it New Somersetshire, after his home county.
Though Georges was vaguely sympathetic to the Puritan cause, neither men were outspoken Puritans, nor were their provinces especially focused on religion. Consequently, the growing society of the Shining Fortress in Massachusetts and Plymouth looked at the colonies warily. They saw no reason to panic yet, but the first major wave of immigrants could make or break their relationship [1].
5.2: Connecticut
While things were slow and steady to the northeast of Massachusetts, it was much more chaotic to the southwest. In the mid-1630s, three separate colonies emerged around the Connecticut River Valley, each headquartered in a different city: Connecticut River (sometimes just called Connecticut or the River Colony), based in Hartford on the upper Connecticut River; Saybrook, based in Saybrook at the mouth of the Connecticut River; and New Haven, based in New Haven at the mouth of the Quinnipiac River.
What made these new colonies especially complicated was their mishmash of borders. Rather than set up orderly claims to the land, each colony sent out its own settlers to form towns wherever they could. The Connecticut River Colony, which was by far the most populous of the three, had the most territory, easily dominating the upper portion of the valley. Saybrook mostly centered around the mouth of the Connecticut River, but also had settlements along the Narragansett Bay [2] – yet River Colony settlements along the coast prevented Saybrook lands from being contiguous. In addition to its core around the Quinnipiac River, the New Haven Colony had settlements on Sewanhaka Island [3], which it shared with Connecticut and New Netherland.
Boston’s relationship with the three colonies was much better than New Hampshire and New Somersetshire, as all three had clear ties to the Puritans. Connecticut River was founded by settlers from Boston who, despite their desire for self-governance, were happy to stay connected to Massachusetts’s Shining Fortress. New Haven was founded by a new party of English Puritan noblemen, who even stopped by Boston to build political connections before settling the eponymous city. Saybrook was commissioned by two Puritan followers (Lords Saye and Brook) of Oliver Cromwell, a controversial rising figure in English politics. Some of the more moderate figures in Boston were wary of the Saybrook settlers, fearing they would unleash greater anti-English and anti-monarch sympathies onto the colonies [4].
5.3: Tensions with the Pequot
As the Puritans quickly expanded into the Connecticut River Valley, they ran into another expanding power: the Pequot people. Ever since Europeans arrived in the region, local tribes competed to see who could dominate the highly lucrative fur trade. Early on, the trade was split among the Narragansett, Mohegan, and Lenape (in addition to some smaller players). The Pequot, who had been on uneasy terms with their neighbors since they migrated from the upper Hudson River Valley in the 1500s, strove to claim a monopoly on the trade.
Complicating the politics of the Connecticut River Valley was the growing rivalry between the English settlements of New England and the colony of New Netherland. While the New English colonies were founded for religious purposes, they were far from opposed to profiting off the natural bounty of the land, much to the chagrin of the more trade-oriented New Netherland. While trade with New Netherland was increasingly dominated by the Pequot, the English allied with the rival Wampanoag tribe and, thanks to the efforts of Roger Williams, were growing closer with the Narragansett. Once the Mohegans began trading with the English as well, the Pequot’s stake in the fur and wampum markets looked to be in a death spiral, despite their dominance over trade with the Dutch.
The Sachem of the Pequot, Sassacus, was especially worried about the standing of his tribe at the time. In 1634, only two years after Sassacus ascended as leader of the Pequot, Sachem Uncas of the Mohegan led a successful revolt, freeing them from Pequot rule. Sassacus feared that the Mohegan and other rival tribes would seize upon this moment of weakness and use the Europeans to force the Pequot out of the valley. Tragically, his attempts to protect his people’s standing would cause the very downfall he feared.
In late 1634, Sassacus launched an attempt to kneecap the early Mohegan attempts to establish trade in the region by attacking a group of Mohegan traders near Hartford. Sassacus expected this to anger the English but was caught off guard when the Dutch were furious as well. Despite their rivalry with the colonies of New England, New Netherland valued a stable economy above all else and harshly condemned the Pequot for disrupting trade.
Things escalated further when a tributary tribe of the Pequot murdered John Stone, a trader from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Pequot would claim that they believed Stone was Dutch and attacked him in retaliation for the Dutch assassination of Sachem Tatobem (Sassacus’s father) in 1632. Sassacus’s exact motivation remains unknown. Historians debate whether he was telling the truth and attempting to get revenge for his father’s murder, thought Stone was Dutch and was retaliating against New Netherland for their earlier rebuke, knew Stone was English and was attempting to further disrupt England’s trade with its native allies, or if it was a messy mistake.
The murder of John Stone wasn’t quite enough to drive the New English colonies to full-on war against the Pequot. Stone was a drunkard, pirate, and all-around sinner – behavior which recently saw him exiled from Boston. So, while Boston’s political elite felt the need to publicly denounce and respond to the killing of an Englishman, many privately celebrated Stone’s death.
The spark that ignited the Pequot War was a bold raid on a diplomatic meeting occurring just north of the settlement of Saybrook in August of 1636. In the wake of increased Pequot hostilities, Saybrook sought to build relations between the colony and the Mohegan tribe, which lived between the settlement and the Pequot. Sassacus caught wind that Saybrook was looking to form a formal alliance with the Mohegan and sent his men to show what chaos would befall them if the deal went through.
What the Pequot didn’t know was that the Englishmen present weren’t random diplomats. Among them was John Winthrop the Younger, governor of the young Saybrook Colony and son of the former governor of Massachusetts Bay. Winthrop the Younger narrowly escaped the attack with his life, and lost an eye in the process, an event that would scar him (both physically and mentally) for life [5].
5.4: Building a Coalition
The near murder of Saybrook’s governor immediately brought Saybrook to war with the Pequot. The Connecticut River Colony would quickly join the war out of solidarity and out of fear of similar raids [6]. Once news reached Boston, Massachusetts Bay declared war within a day. Though Governor Henry Vane had many strong disagreements with John Winthrop, the two men respected each other greatly and Vane needed no encouragement to seek revenge for the assault on Winthrop’s son.
While Winthrop the Younger was amassing troops to prepare for an attack on Pequot territory, he received a shocking letter. Wouter van Twiller, Director of New Netherland, offered to send in troops to fight the Pequot [7]. Winthrop the Younger gladly accepted, seeing the offer as an opportunity to reduce European casualties, improve relations between the English and Dutch colonists, and create a victory so crushing that it would discourage any native raids for generations to come.
As troops from across New England and New Netherland gathered at Saybrook to prepare for the assault, Roger Williams embarked on a mission of his own. In his early days in Massachusetts, he had extensive contact with the Narragansett, which led him to see the Narragansett (and all native peoples, for that matter) as a people and polity equal in dignity to Europeans. Such a view was not popular outside of his liberal circles, so Williams sought to raise the Narragansett’s standing in the eyes of his contemporaries. He traveled to the home of Sachem Miantonomoh of the Narragansett and urged him to join the war against the Pequot. Williams knew he could not stop the violence against the Pequot, but with luck, this would help the Narragansett [8].
The other native tribe to join the coalition against the Pequot was the first party to enter the conflict: the Mohegan. Their war with the Pequot hadn’t truly stopped since they first sought independence, but the murder of their diplomats at Saybrook intensified their attacks. They would loosely coordinate their efforts with the New Anglo-Dutch coalition but would not wait for them to assemble.
5.5: The Pequot War
Once all the troops arrived in Saybrook, their assault was swift and brutal. The various New English factions worked in remarkable harmony and had a strong camaraderie with the Dutch, despite the language barrier [9]. The army was frankly far too large for the mission and the lack of significant internal tensions meant they were fighting at full effectiveness.
Over the course of the Spring of 1637, the army marched through Pequot territory, massacring and burning any villages they came upon. The Pequot attempted to mount a major defensive force, but disruptive raids from Mohegan and Narragansett forces kept it from materializing.
The offensive was truly brutal. Villages were surrounded and any fighting age men were killed, while the remaining people were captured and either executed or sold into slavery. Fleeing armies were gunned down without a second thought. Fortresses were burned down, often times with anywhere from a handful to hundreds of Pequot inside [10]. When Roger Williams later heard tales of the war, he was silently horrified, but Boston was filled was such a righteous fury that he chose not to speak out at the time.
His people thoroughly brutalized and broken, Sachem Sassacus fled the Connecticut River Valley, hoping to find refuge in Mohawk territory. Instead, as the Mohawk learned what happened, they killed him and delivered his head and hands to Hartford in an attempt to gain favor with the English colonists [11].
5.6: The Treaty of Saybrook
To conclude the war, representatives from Saybrook, Connecticut River, Massachusetts Bay, New Netherland, the Mohegan, and the Narragansett met to work out what would become known as the Treaty of Saybrook.
The Pequot tribe was declared extinct and its lands unoccupied. The remaining Pequot prisoners were primarily divided between the Mohegan and Narragansett, who would absorb them into their tribes, though a few prisoners remained in Saybrook and Massachussite possession, and would later be sold to the British West Indies as slaves.
Roger Williams, who insisted on attending as a delegate for Massachusetts Bay, fought hard for clauses that would reward the Mohegan and Narragansett and help protect them in the future. Ultimately, he was able to secure first rights to Pequot land for the tribes and a requirement that white settlers receive consent and provide compensation for any Mohegan and Narragansett lands they settled. However, given the stunning display of power the colonists had just made, future settlers would frequently subvert these rules through intimidation.
The Mohegan and Narragansett also received priority in the fur and wampum trade. However, the New Dutch and Massachussite delegates were unwilling to give them exclusive trading rights. Nevertheless, the Mohegan and Narragansett delegates seemed pleased.
The colonists also used the peace process to clarify their increasingly messy borders. New Netherland was given a firm eastern border (though the delegates noted that they would need the Dutch West India Company to approve of the change first) and Massachusetts Bay was given a firm southern border. Notably, the borders of Connecticut River and Saybrook were left ambiguous, as Winthrop the Younger and Thomas Hooker, the representative from Connecticut River, floated future discussions of unifying the two colonies [12].
5.7: Pequot War in Retrospect
For the longest time, historians framed the Pequot War as a short, glorious battle demonstrating New English dominion over the land. In time, as the brutality of the coalition came under more scrutiny, historians pointed to the involvement of the Mohegan and Narragansett and the vengeful tactics of Sassacus as evidence that it was a just war, and not simply brutal colonial conquest. Eventually, however, historians recognized the Pequot War (or Pequot Massacre/Genocide as some called it) as an act of needless, cynical violence and a great stain on the early history of New England.
Changing opinions towards the war would also tarnish the image of popular figures like John Winthrop the Younger and Roger Williams, the latter criticized for his hypocrisy as a man who claimed to stand up for the rights of native peoples [13].
5.8: Meeting of the Minds at Harvard
While things spiraled towards war in the Connecticut River Valley, Massachusetts Bay celebrated a major achievement in 1636: the founding of a university. Harvard College, as it would be named in 1639, was primarily dedicated to the training of the Puritan clergy, though in time it would grow to become one of the preeminent all-purpose institutions of higher learning on the continent. It would quickly solidify its place as a cutting edge center of Puritan education when it acquired British North America’s first printing press in 1638.
As an invaluable tool for building the Shining Fortress, political figures from all across Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth descended upon Cambridge to celebrate its opening. Notably absent from this event was Roger Williams, who had already set out to court the Narragansett for the Pequot War. However, other major liberal figures were present, including the increasingly prominent (albeit still controversial) Anne Hutchinson.
It was here that Hutchinson happened upon the wife and daughter of two of the College’s founders, a poet named Anne Bradstreet. The two Annes instantly hit it off, with Hutchinson’s natural oratory skills and Bradstreet’s poetic wit quickly charming one another. Though they soon discovered that they didn’t quite see eye-to-eye on religion, Bradstreet was inspired by Hutchinson’s political rise as a woman in politics. Bradstreet’s writing had long had a feminist bent to it, using Queen Elizabeth as evidence of women’s fitness to rule; however, she had never stepped into politics herself.
Hutchinson encouraged Bradstreet to attend her sermons and offered her the opportunity to speak. Though Hutchinson turned down this initial offer, the two women would stay in touch through letters, and, in due time, Bradstreet would take her up on her offer [14].
[1] Save for the details about the Shining Fortress, this almost all according to OTL. The only notable change is that, like Roger Williams, John Wheelwright is not exiled from Massachusetts, so Exeter, New Hampshire is not founded. More butterflies will definitely affect New Hampshire and New Somersetshire, but for now this is just setting up the players.
[2] With no Rhode Island, the land around the bay is up for grabs. While @NedStark’s prediction that Massachusetts would claim the land was probable, Connecticut attempted to claim the land in OTL, so I opted to give it to one of its predecessors.
[3] This is the original native name for Long Island. It would be a while before the settlers settled on a new name for the island.
[4] Like the section on New Hampshire and New Somersetshire, this section is largely according to OTL, with a few minor changes based on the Shining Fortress and absence of Rhode Island. This hopefully helps establish the geopolitical landscape in New England as the region comes into its own.
[5] IOTL, the war started because a group of Narragansett warriors attacked and killed another sinful Massachussite sailor, John Oldham. The Pequot then sheltered Oldham’s killers. The Pequot’s refusal to surrender the killers of Stone or Oldham ultimately pushed the colonists to war with the Pequot. Oldham’s death was a “wrong place, wrong time” event, so random butterflies easily prevent this. With Saybrook now holding part of the Narragansett Bay to the east of the Pequot, they would be the most likely to draw Sassacus’s ire. Winthrop the Younger, being a critical figure in the unification of Connecticut, seemed like the most interesting figure to plausibly rope in. I considered killing him here, but I think giving him a near-death experience will be more interesting in the long run.
[6] The New Haven Colony isn’t founded until 1638, hence why it doesn’t join the war. Sorry for any confusion with the chapter jumping around in time, but it made sense to mention New Haven at the same time as the other Connecticut colonies, and those had to be brought up before the Pequot War.
[7] New Netherland did not join OTL’s Pequot War. However, the attempted assassination of a colonial governor (which no European believed was mistaken) would be enough to push tensions from OTL over the edge.
[8] Williams did this in OTL as well. Ironically, this put the Narragansett against the Pequot, despite the fact that OTL’s war started over the Pequot protecting Narragansett warriors.
[9] Before travelling to North America, many English pilgrims first fled to the Netherlands. The main reason they then left was not due to differences of religion, politics, or Dutch oppression, but because the relatively urbanized lands of the Netherlands were too unfamiliar compared to life in the English countryside. If anything, the Puritans of New England were probably more amicable to the Dutch than most Englishmen.
[10] This war is significantly more one-sided than in OTL and consequently the atrocities are much more severe and numerous. The treatment of villages and retreating armies reflects the general way colonists assaulted native tribes. The enslavement was true in OTL’s war as well. The fort burnings are based on OTL’s Mystic Massacre, but now more widespread. The war in OTL was essentially a genocide already, and TTL’s version is purposeful overkill on the part of the colonists. Hopefully it’s clear that this TL isn’t trying to portray these actions as glorious, but such behavior is an unavoidable part of colonial history.
[11] The same thing happened in OTL, though it happens about a year earlier ITTL since the war is much shorter.
[12] Very similar to OTL’s Treaty of Hartford. Moved to Saybrook since it’s much more relevant in TTL’s Pequot War. OTL’s Treaty was less generous to the Mohegan and Narragansett, just giving them Pequot prisoners. Williams’s meddling and the Narragansett’s less ambiguous role in TTL’s war nets them more from the Treaty. Unlike OTL, Massachusetts and New Netherland are involved in TTL’s treaty, so the border disputes between these two and Connecticut are resolved decades earlier and the colonies remain on better terms.
[13] The time period is left intentionally vague here, but these changes happen at a moment analogous to America’s recent reckoning with its racial history.
[14] OTL’s Hutchinson and Bradstreet both used history and Puritan theology to advocate for an increased role for women in New English society, but Bradstreet didn’t share Hutchinson’s antinomian beliefs. ITTL, the combination of Hutchinson remaining in Massachusetts, moderately improved attitudes towards women, and the Shining Fortress promoting Puritan solidarity, it’s much more likely that these two would meet and be able to put aside their differences.
Whew, that was definitely a long one! I tried to make it more readable with sub-headers, but let me know if you had any problems with the length. That being said, that’s all we needed to cover in New England before we can finally wade fully into the 1640s! The decade will be quite eventful both due to the English Civil War and some of the early developments in the colonies starting to bear fruit.
Great work! Not too long at all.
I wonder what you have planned for Maine. That was pretty much OTL, but it seems somewhat ominous the way you ended it.
I'm interested to see how relations between New England and the various native peoples plays out. I figure something like Metacom's War is bound to happen, though I wonder if the Wampanoag will be able to unite the tribes and if Williams's more established relations with the Long Island Sound peoples makes an impact.
Did the Saybrook Treaty settle the boundary between New Netherland and New Haven on Long Island too? Or just on the mainland?
I wonder what you have planned for Maine. That was pretty much OTL, but it seems somewhat ominous the way you ended it.
I'm interested to see how relations between New England and the various native peoples plays out. I figure something like Metacom's War is bound to happen, though I wonder if the Wampanoag will be able to unite the tribes and if Williams's more established relations with the Long Island Sound peoples makes an impact.
Did the Saybrook Treaty settle the boundary between New Netherland and New Haven on Long Island too? Or just on the mainland?
Map: Atlantic Coast Colonies in May 1642
As promised, here is a rough map of the colonies as of May 1642 - right before the start of the English Civil War:
I overestimated how large I could make images on this site, so I had to shrink it down, which makes the text a little tiny. So here's a couple imgur links to the full-size map, both with and without city labels.
As noted, this map is rough (and I don't just mean my artistic skills). Nailing down the borders at this point in colonization is incredibly tricky, since a lot of "territorial claims" are just like a plantation, church, or tiny village. Plus, the borders are in constant flux and records are scarce. This map is meant to give the gist of what's going on, not be a 100% accurate representation of territory. So if you see something that looks wrong and I haven't addressed it in a previous chapter, just assume it's a mistake on my part - though feel free to ask about it if you're curious.
Also important to note: the labeled cities are just points of interest. Number of marked cities does not correlate with population. For example, I've marked three settlements in northern Virginia, since they're notable departures from OTL, but northern Virginia is far less populated than the area around the James River at this point.
I overestimated how large I could make images on this site, so I had to shrink it down, which makes the text a little tiny. So here's a couple imgur links to the full-size map, both with and without city labels.
As noted, this map is rough (and I don't just mean my artistic skills). Nailing down the borders at this point in colonization is incredibly tricky, since a lot of "territorial claims" are just like a plantation, church, or tiny village. Plus, the borders are in constant flux and records are scarce. This map is meant to give the gist of what's going on, not be a 100% accurate representation of territory. So if you see something that looks wrong and I haven't addressed it in a previous chapter, just assume it's a mistake on my part - though feel free to ask about it if you're curious.
Also important to note: the labeled cities are just points of interest. Number of marked cities does not correlate with population. For example, I've marked three settlements in northern Virginia, since they're notable departures from OTL, but northern Virginia is far less populated than the area around the James River at this point.
Is Mass Bay bigger contra Plymouth ITTL or is it a mistake? OTL by 1639 the border between them was established on a line from Scituate southwest towards the Blackstone River (north of 'Gansett Bay). TTL map looks like everything north of the Taunton River and Plymouth proper is in Mass Bay, incl Mt. Hope. That leaves Wampanoag territory under the claim of both English colonies rather than primarily Plymouth. Potentially some minor but interesting butterflies if that's the case.
Thanks! The Maine part maybe came off more ominous than intended, but there are definitely some changes inbound. The treaty of Saybrook indeed settles New Netherland's borders on Long Island since Englishmen were already settling on the island, even if New Haven wasn't established yet.
The Mass Bay/Plymouth border is indeed a mistake on my part, thanks for the catch! I should also point out that native lands, particularly in New England, are a bit iffy on this map. For example, southeast Connecticut/Saybrook is mostly occupied by the Narragansett and Mohegan, but between the numerous tiny settlements and English ability to project power over the region, I just labeled it as colonial.
I wonder if Sweden or the Netherlands will somehow have better luck ITTL. On one hand, the New England colonies might be thinking, "The more Protestants the better." On the other hand, they'd probably be disgusted by the New Netherlands allowing a greater deal of religious tolerance.
Being pro catholic would not be unpopular in quebec and in fact l don't think that the reaction elsewhere would be that different The toleration of catholics otl was a big contributor to anti iondon sentiment people tend to 'overiook just how liilberal the socalled rev'olutiona was
Could be a convenient buffer state between the French, English and (if they survive) Dutch.
Oh for sure I'd be very surprised if the Haudenosaunee don't last much longer ITTL. Their destruction was tied to their alliance with Britain against American independence. Of course all this is subject to what goes down with the Dutch and how fractured the colonies end up being by the late-18th Century. Americans were more interested in the Iroquois-claimed lands in Ohio that were actually inhabited by Algonquian-speaking peoples who were traditional French allies or refugees from the east. Without some sort of war-time excuse, the Haudenosaunee likely last for a while.
I understand that TTL New England seems to close rank more than IOTL. If either TTL Massachusetts joined the Commonwealth of England and the rest of New England to invade New Netherlands in the First Anglo-Dutch War, or that war lasted a few months longer, then New Netherlands is a goner (yes that was a plan IOTL, but Massachusetts ended up not joining).
IOTL, Robert Sedgewick eventually managed to raised a few hundred volunteers in New England, but by then the war ended, so that force was used to invade French Acadia.
Quebec was not part of England's colonies at this point of time, so it is irrelevant.
IOTL, Charles' *perceived* pro-Catholicism was a major cause of the English Civil War. ITTL, he was openly pro-Catholic.
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Sorry no the Quebec toleration extended OTL was very unpopular with the Protestant dominated Colonies and was a factor in the anti London feeling OTL, so no it was not irrelevant in the move to independence. The discussion was on the mid to long term consequences of a pro Catholic Stance. There is no likelihood of immediate secession of any colonies whether London is Catholic Protestant or Puritan whilst the French and Dutch and Spanish occupy territory on the American mainland that can threaten them. As otl the only way secession can happen is once that threat is removed..
Agreed. As long as the French loom over the horizon there won't be any mainstream independence movement in the English/British colonies. Presumably the desire for westward expansion will still be there, but OTL it's driven more by Virginia and Pennsylvania than it is by New England, which has designs on Acadia. While New England OTL does end up with various claims in the Ohio Country, their focus is primarily maritime expansion.
Assuming that French colonization of America tracks similarly to OTL, British population will theoretically be able to seize the trans-Appalachian if not the heart of Quebec itself by the mid-18th Century. The question is if the TTL British are able to do as well in the forthcoming series of French and Indian Wars culminating in an analog to the Seven Years War or if the French find more successes that allows them to hold on to their claims.
Correction
It does not make it impossible, just highly unlikely
Like a 1 in a million chance, but if the author decides to go with the timeline where that chance happens with the same fertilizer meeting the same gamete they can and it wont be ASB
It seems like we were talking about different timeframes. The English Civil War is imminent while Quebec is far in the future.
I mean, there would be no Quebec Toleration Act, if say, New Englanders invade Quebec in the late-1600s and proceed to expel Quebecois ITTL. Given the population disparity, this is certainly possible. And even then, independence would have happened in the North due to: 1) umpopular British tax & regulation policies; 2) the deep root anti-monarchism dating back from Cromwell.
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