The war
started typically with a small incident that quickly pulled
in a large group of people into conflict. In this instance,
the English had placed a line of farm houses across the
peninsula on which the Native Americans had their permanent
camp. The pigs of the English foraged in the corn fields of
the Native Americans. The Native Americans remonstrated
with the English to no effect.
There was the cultural difference as regards land
ownership. The English used a system of individual
ownership and of property rights. The Native Americans, on
the other hand, held tribal land in common. Chiefs assigned
use of land to families. The families had use of the land
as long as they actively farming it. Certain areas were
open to several tribes for hunting and for fishing during
spawning season. Therefore, the English bought land under
the impression that they would have exclusive access; the
Native Americans sold land assuming they were allowing the
English access to land that would be used by other tribes.
The English finally cut the Gordian knot by asserting that
English Law would prevail and the Native Americans would
have to accept the decisions of English judges.
The native Americans had taught the first European settlers
essential skills needed for survival: raising corn, squash,
pumpkins and beans, fishing, clothing from deer skins and
trapping animals. They also traded furs and food (mainly
corn) for European guns, cloth and liquor. The Native
Americans also supplied the currency needed to grease the
wheels of commerce. The currency was wampum, beads
fashioned from the purple part of the Quahog and strung on
string to from long chains and necklaces. However, by the
1670s, the English had established farms, manufactories and
trade with England, the Southern States and the Caribbean
Islands so that they no longer needed the Native Americans
for the necessities of life. The Spanish pieces of eight
had become the usual currency.
The English had shifted from newcomers in an alien land
recognizing that, if they were to survive, the Native
Americans were vital to native born who established a
replica of England that did not need any assistance form
Native Americans to survive. By the 1670s, the majority of
the English with a burgeoning population viewed the Native
Americans as occupying land that could be made more
productive under English tillage. The Native Americans were
now being denied access to traditional hunting grounds and
fishing spots that they had used for centuries. Their
numbers were declining from disease brought by Europeans
and changes in their way of life.
The tinder for a conflagration had been laid; all it needed
was a match. The match was the foraging of English pigs in
Native American corn fields.