In 1662 Metacom, son of Massasoit, given the name Philip by the English, became Great Sachem of the Wampanoag Confederation after the death of his brother Wamsutta-Alexander. A spirit of animosity and sullen cooperation filled the Native Peoples of Southern New England from the Wampanoag and Massachusetts off the coast, through the Naragansett, Nipmuck, River Tribes, and even the Mahicans of the Berkshires. Click here for a 23-minute video posted on June 29, 2025 by Fishing Historic Places.

While it is typically thought that Philip (above, left) actively worked to create a larger Confederation of the First Nations of New England, this video looks at the actual events that occur on the ground, with leaders of the previous generation of Native People like Uncas (Mohegan, above, center) and Ninigret (Niantic-Naragansett, above, right) attempting to weaken Philip’s position as Wampanoag Grand Sachem to gain land or power themselves,

Philip may have used the various incidents between tribes between 1662 and 1671 as “cover”, but what would ultimately happen at Swansea in June of 1675, 350 years ago, seems to have been less of a plan and more of a spontaneous uprising. Philip will be forced to thread the needle of competing Tribal plots to survive as Sachem and at the same time try to bring these often warring peoples together into a unit that might have a chance against what were now effectively six English Colonies, not counting New York.

Join historian Stan Svec (above) as he travels from Great Barrington in the Berkshire Hills, through Royalston in the Worcester Highlands, and finally ends up at Swansea’s Myles Garrison where the first shots of the war were fired.