In 1675, a Native American leader named Metacom, known to the English as King Philip, led one of the deadliest conflicts in American history — a war that nearly wiped out New England and cost more lives per capita than any other war in North America’s history. This is the true, untold story of King Philip’s War — the betrayals, the brutality, the genocide… and the voices that history tried to silence. Click here for a 9-minute AI generated video by Unearthing Forgotten Voices posted on August 9, 2025.

(Above) The story begins with the arrival of thousands of Puritan settlers in the Great Migration from England who tried to convert Indigenous people to Christianity through the efforts of ministers such as Rev. John Eliot. Metacom resisted efforts to convert him, one of the factors that led to King Philip’s War.

In June of 1675, three Pokanoket warriors were tried and convicted of the death of John Sassamon, who was converted by Eliot. Two weeks later, other warriors attacked a farm in Swansea, killing several cows who had been eating their corn crops on their land over the town border. One of the warriors was shot and died soon after, thus igniting the War.

Within days, Pokanoket warriors attacked more farms in Swansea, and soon English settlements across Rhode Island and Massachusetts Bay Colony were attacked, including a Narragansett fortress in which hundreds of Native people were burned alive. The conflict came to a close on August 12, 1676 when Metacomet (King Philip) was shot and killed at Mt. Hope in today’s Bristol, RI.