King Philip’s War began in 1675 as an Indian raid on several farms in Swansea, but quickly escalated into a full-scale war engulfing all of southern New England. Author Eric Schultz presented a summary of the conflict with a genealogical perspective to the Bristol Chapter of Massachusetts Society Of Genealogy on June 18, 2023. Click here for the 62-minute video of his presentation. Click here for an audio recording of the first 39 pages of that book that he and Michael Tougias published in 1999.
(Above) To an audience of Chapter members, Chapter President Debbie Pelletier and Pat Gailes introduced Schultz, who was the author with Michael Tougias, of King Philip’s War: The History and Legacy of America’s Forgotten Conflict, the most complete history of the war and its many locations in New England.
(Above) Schultz begins with some of his own family genealogy before going on to talk about the War that began near the Myles Garrison in Swansea, MA following an encounter between Philip and Plymouth Colony authorities in Taunton in 1671, as depicted in this painting in Faneuil Hall in Boston.
(Above) Schultz describes a hand print that was apparently left on a rock on Barden Hill in Middleborough by one of the Native warriors who was shot during the War. He then talks about the Great Swamp Massacre of December 1675 and the extraordinary number of casualties in the bloodiest war in North America.