King Philips War Essay

1053 WordsOct 7, 20135 Pages
Mary Walsh 8/27/13 APUSH The Name Of War What makes a war memorable? Perhaps the tactics used to win, the weapons used to fight, or the words spoken to ignite it. King Philip’s War was memorable for many reasons; one being its gruesomeness and on the other hand the motives both sides had behind their combat. In The Name Of War by Jill Lepore it is clear that there are three major themes present in her writing: Puritan identity, language and literacy, and lastly memory. These themes all took a large role in why the war started and how it was finished. It was said that King Philip’s war broke out after one death in particular, John Sassamon, who was loved by the New Englanders and hated by the Native Americans because in a way he cheated King Philip and betrayed the Native Americans by being on the English side. There are many more people noted in this book and in history that could either be set as heroes or villains. One hero to the Native Americans was King Philip himself, but to the Englishmen he was marked as a villain from the beginning due to the murders. Many more Native Americans and English are discussed throughout the book and through the themes. Many people often describe themselves as the type of person they are through their religion. Puritans came over to, what is now, America in the early 1600s. They were very religious people, so religious in fact, that when the epidemic of smallpox started they believed it was evidence of their Puritan God. Still, many of them died from this illness and on their death bed converted to Christianity. This was so their children would be cared for by the English and other Christians. One also questions their religiousness when found that they sold many of the Indians into the slave trade in the early part of the war. These types of actions made them have to justify their reasons for fighting so that when the

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