Join New York Times bestselling-author Michael Tougias for this talk about the war between the Colonists and Native Americans in 1675-76, one of the bloodiest conflicts in American history. This program was funded by the Duxbury Cultural Council. Click here for a 78-minute video of his talk. Click here for an audio recording of the first 39 pages of that book that he and Eric Schultz published in 1999.

Michael discusses the Native Americans’ way of life, Colonial settlements, events leading up to the war, battles, the strategy and the sites which can still be visited today.

Michael begins with description of Pokanoket culture, including a depiction of a wetu and a stone ax.

Tougias describes the course of the King Philip War that began when Job Winslow’s house was attacked on June 19, 1675. Metacomet escaped from Mount Hope in today’s Bristol and led a successful rebellion until the English attack at the Great Swamp that resulted in the Narragansetts joining the fight.

Following the massacre at the Great Swamp, the Native warriors began to run out of food and ammunition. In the end of the War in August, 1676, King Philip was killed at Mount Hope and his severed hand was passed around as a war trophy for years while his head was displayed in Plymouth as a warning to Native people to never attack again.