Metacom's Rebellion Summary

In her book, Jill Lepore set about to tell the history of King Philip’s War and the importance of its effect on American identity. In comparison with two scholarly articles, this article examines the complexity of identity and by what means people search to define their place in society.
King Philip’s War is a pivotal point in America’s past. It falls between that first thanksgiving and the time of Cowboys versus Indians. The name, King Philip’s War, most likely evokes an image of a stuffy European king who waged a battle long forgotten. The name is derived from King Philip, chief of the Wampanoag tribe, his Algonquian name was Metacom. The battle that ensued between the Algonquians and the English was the “most fatal war in all of American history but also one of the most merciless” (xiii, Lepore). Perhaps the name “Metacom’s Rebellion” might have been more suited to eliciting the correct image, however, that would have legitimized the Indian independence exuded in the conflict. The name itself is
When the English first arrived, they measured differences between themselves and Indians through the clothes they wore; livestock they kept; houses they built; and churches in which they worshipped. Indians did not own land because they did not have fences or permanent houses, so the English made legal claims to the land with their homes and fences. During the war Indians burned down their homes and tore out their fences leaving the English stripped of their rights to the land by their own standards. In the article, “Stripped: Clothing and Identity in Colonial Captivity Narratives,” there is reference to the English captives being physically stripped of their clothing and therefore left spiritually naked as well. Not having their clothing, or in some cases any clothing at all, left them without an identity. They were neither English nor Indian and no longer had a place in society.