Igniting King Philip's War: The John Sassamon Murder Trial (review)

For seventeenth-century New England, only the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692 have drawn more attention from contemporary historians than King Philip's War (1675-76). And while the former episode is familiar to most Americans, the latter struggle, virtually unknown except in New England proper, was a far more significant event in shaping the region. Although there is now a debate among historians as to what type of conflict King Philip's War was, the percentage of deaths of residents, both colonists and Indians, in this region far exceeded any percentage of population loss in subsequent national wars. Relations between colonists and Native Americans were forever transformed in New England, and this struggle helped establish new ways in which colonial (and later, American) governments would deal with Indian tribes as white settlement moved westward.

This volume examines the spark that led to King Philip's War: the death of the "praying Indian" John Sassamon, and the trial of his accused murderers. Yasuhide Kawashima details the life of Sassamon, who was raised by whites, became literate, served the Wampanoag Indian chiefs as translator and counselor, and then became a Christian and a minister to an Indian community near the newly established town of Middleborough. In December 1674, just prior to his death, Sassamon warned the governor of Plymouth Colony that the Wampanoag chief, Metacom (known by the colonists as Philip), was meeting with leaders of other Indian tribes and planning a concerted war. Sassamon's body was found the following January under the ice in a pond miles away from his home. When Plymouth Colony authorities learned of his death an inquest was conducted, which leads to the medical relevance of Kawashima's study.

Kawashima seeks to determine whether Sassamon's death at age fifty-five was an accident, the result of a stroke or other medical condition, a suicide, or, as Plymouth authorities alleged, a murder. Three Indians who were followers of Philip were later tried and executed. Kawashima believes that the entire case, including the inquest, was mishandled, and that the inquest jury came to a determination that it was murder without adequately considering other possibilities. Although the details of the inquest itself are sketchy, he does show that Sassamon's death may not have been murder, but he does so by relying on modern forensic understandings rather than on seventeenth-century knowledge. When he suggests, for example, that Sassamon may have died from a heart attack, he does not appear cognizant that there was no such recognized ailment at that time. He bemoans the fact that it appears that no physician or surgeon viewed the body. However, as we do not know the names of the inquest jury, we cannot be sure whether Dr. Samuel Fuller Jr. (1629-95) of Plymouth, who served the medical needs of the people of Middleborough, was on the jury.

Of the doctors who did postmortem examinations, Kawashima writes: "Nor were there many doctors specializing in the field" (p. 91)—however, there were no New England doctors "specializing in this field," nor would there be in the next century. Postmortems were certainly done in New England, but the information derived was often neither detailed nor accurate. Kawashima cites with approval the activities of Dr. Bryan Rosseter of Connecticut, who did two autopsies in 1662; what he fails to note is that Rosseter concluded, after his postmortem on the young girl Elizabeth Kellin, that she had died of witchcraft—thus setting in motion a protracted hunt for suspects. Furthermore, Kawashima does not know the names and qualifications of the medical personnel in Plymouth Colony or elsewhere. He comments: "The Guilford, Connecticut, doctor, Bryan Rosseter, who had already performed two autopsies a dozen years...