DANIEL GOOKIN, THE PRAYING INDIANS, AND KING PHILIP’S WAR This volume presents a valuable collection of annotated primary documents published during King Philip’s War (1675–76), a conflict that pitted English colonists against many native peoples of southern New England, to reveal the real-life experiences of early Americans. Louise Breen’s detailed introduction to Daniel Gookin and the War, com- bined with interpretations of the accompanying ancillary documents, offers a set of inaccessible or unpublished archival documents that illustrate the dis- trust and mistreatment heaped upon praying (Christian) Indians. The book begins with an informative annotation of Historical Account of the Doings and Sufferings of the Christian Indians in New England, in the Years 1675, 1675, and 1677, written by Gookin, a magistrate and military leader who defended Mas- sachusetts’ praying Indians, to expose atrocities committed against natives and the experiences of specific individuals and towns during the war. Develop- ments in societal, and particularly religious, inclusivity in Puritan New England during this period of colonial conflict are thoroughly explored through Breen’s analysis. The book offers students primary sources that are pertinent to survey his- tory courses on Early Americans and Colonial History, as well as providing instructors with documents that serve as concrete examples to illustrate broad societal changes that occurred during the seventeenth century. Louise A. Breen is Associate Professor of History at Kansas State University, where she researches and teaches in the fields of colonial, Atlantic, and revolu- tionary history. She is the author of Transgressing the Bounds: Subversive Enter- prises among the Puritan Elite in Massachusetts, 1630–1692. DANIEL GOOKIN, THE PRAYING INDIANS, AND KING PHILIP’S WAR A Short History in Documents Louise A. Breen First published 2020 by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2020 Taylor & Francis The right of Louise A. Breen to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Breen, Louise A., author. | Gookin, Daniel, 1612-1687. Historical account of the doings and sufferings of the Christian Indians in New England, in the years 1675, 1676, 1677. Title: Daniel Gookin, the praying Indians, and King Philip's War : a short history in documents / Louise A Breen. Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2019029740 (print) | LCCN 2019029741 (ebook) | ISBN 9781138745315 (hardback) | ISBN 9781138745322 (paperback) | ISBN 9781315159690 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Gookin, Daniel, 1612-1687. | King Philip's War, 1675-1676–Sources. | Indians of North America–New England– History–17th century. | Indians of North America–New England– Religion. Classification: LCC E83.67 .B793 2020 (print) | LCC E83.67 (ebook) | DDC 973.2/4–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019029740 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019029741 ISBN: 978-1-138-74531-5 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-138-74532-2 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-15969-0 (ebk) Typeset in Bembo by Swales & Willis, Exeter, Devon, UK CONTENTS PART I General Introduction 1 Daniel Gookin and His Advocacy of Praying Indians During King Philip’s War 3 PART II Central Primary Source Document 37 Daniel Gookin, An Historical Account of the Doings and Sufferings of the Christian Indians in New England in the Years 1675, 1676, 1677 39 PART III Ancillary Primary Source Documents 123 A. Superintendent of the Praying Indians 125 The Irish Connection: Vincent Gookin Condemns Plan to “Transplant” Irish to Connaught, 1655 125 Daniel Gookin Questions Praying Indian Sarah Ahaton on Her Adultery 132 vi Contents Gookin Expresses Outrage over a Rumor That He Was Inciting Indians to Violence: Correspondence between Daniel Gookin and Thomas Prence/Prince, 1671 136 B. War and Internal Conflict 140 The Reverend John Eliot Petitions against the Selling of Indian Captives as Slaves 140 The View from Providence: Excerpts from the Letter of Mary Pray to Captain James Oliver, October 20, 1675 142 Job Kattenanit Humbly Petitions for Permission to Rescue His Children 145 The Spy Mission: James Quannapohit’s “Relation” 147 Death Threat against Daniel Gookin and Thomas Danforth 156 Richard Scott Assails Gookin’s Character at the Blue Anchor Tavern 156 William Harris, Refugee in Newport, Writes to English Secretary of State Sir Joseph Williamson 158 C. Scant Mercy 172 William Wannuckhow and Sons Petition for Their Lives 172 John Lake Requests a Stay of Sagamore Sam’s Execution in Exchange for Help Finding His Brother 176 Daniel Gookin Certifies the Courage of Two Praying Indian Men Wishing to Free Their Captured Niece from Prison, August 1676 180 William Ahaton Pleads for the Freedom of a Five-Year Old Relative, July, 1676 182 Daniel Gookin Certifies That Mary Nemasit, Wife of a Praying Indian Soldier, Was Sold by Mistake 183 Gookin Helps a Natick Woman Get Compensation for a Confiscated Gun 185 Wait Winthrop and Wamesit Land, 1679–80 186 Index 189 PART I General Introduction DANIEL GOOKIN AND HIS ADVOCACY OF PRAYING INDIANS DURING KING PHILIP’SWAR Introduction to “Doings and Sufferings” In the winter of 1675–76, a frantic father, Job Kattenanit, became separated from his three children during the wrenching conflict known as King Philip’sWar, which pitted most of southern New England’s native peoples against English col- onists. There was evidence to suggest that the children had been taken under duress to an enemy camp. Yet Kattenanit was an Indian, and his struggle to rescue his family elicited little sympathy. Even though he was a devout Puritan who had served valiantly with English militias, his co-religionists believed that his desire to retrieve his children was just a ploy to carry information to the enemy.1 Modern historians would know very little about Job Kattenanit, other than archival gleanings, if it were not for a singularly distinct account of King Phi- lip’s War written in 1677 by Daniel Gookin, a high-ranking Puritan magistrate and militia officer in Massachusetts who served as Superintendent of the pray- ing Indians – the term used for Indians who had converted to Puritan Christianity.2 In the face of increasingly hostile public opinion during the war, Gookin insisted that praying Indians were overwhelmingly loyal, and recom- mended integrating them into the war effort. He became such a hated figure that a group of irate colonists threatened his life in February 1676, and by May he lost his seat as a magistrate.3 While most accounts of King Philip’s War from this period placed English colonists in a central role, Gookin’s Historical Account of the Doings and Sufferings of the Christian Indians in New England made praying Indians the main protag- onists and argued that the colonists would not have been able to win the war without the help of praying Indians.4 The words “doings” and “sufferings” in the title carried great meaning, for Gookin intended to show that the military 4 General Introduction accomplishments of praying Indian scouts – the “doings”–were worthy of notice and thanks, while their “sufferings” had earned them a place in provi- dential history. This latter point was perhaps the more controversial. Puritan providentialism held that when God punished his people with hor- rible afflictions, such as war, it was because he wished to push them back onto the right path – not eradicate them. King Philip’s War had a clear religious meaning for the English: God had allowed the “savage” Indians (who were just pawns in this line of thinking) to assail the godly and test their faith so that they would have a chance to reform themselves and be confirmed as a special people of God. Suffering under the “rod” of the enemy conferred an elevated status upon the sufferers; and Gookin attempted to claim this status for praying Indians.5 They too suffered and emerged – as Gookin showed by demonstrating the unwavering faith of Indian Puritans like Job Kattenanit – stronger Christians. His narrative was both a rebuke to the many colonists in Massachusetts who had heaped cruelties upon praying Indians during and after the war, and a plea to the charitable organization in England that funded the missions to disregard such claims and pay attention to their “particular and real” accomplishments. Gookin realized that telling the story of the praying Indians was important because their chance for acceptance and continued sup- port in the postwar world depended on how people perceived their behavior during the hostilities; thus, the praying Indians had “no small share in the effects and consequences of this war.” Gookin wrote against the grain by arguing that in relation to the praying Indians it was the English – not just the “savage” enemy – who acted as a providential rod of affliction. In the dominant storyline, the English were tested when enemy Indians made them suffer by burning their towns, killing and maim- ing their family members, taking their children captive, destroying their livestock, and taunting them.6 In Gookin’s telling of the providential history of the war, however, Christian Indians, too, had their faith tested – but it was English Puritans who made them suffer.