August–September 1636
English raids on Manisses and Pequot communities
Block Island and coastal present-day Connecticut
Massachusetts sent John Endicott’s expedition against Block Island after John Oldham’s death, then against Pequot communities on the mainland over separate demands concerning John Stone and other Englishmen. John Underhill describes English troops burning houses and corn in both places. These raids preceded the 1637 Mystic massacre.
Dates preserve the source’s precision. This entry is part of a selected historical record; its qualifications and sources are retained below.
Context / qualification
The island community was Manisses; Pequot and Narragansett identities must not be collapsed into one group. Winthrop records orders to kill island men, remove women and children, seize the island, and demand mainland compensation and hostages. Those orders do not establish that every intended killing, capture or seizure occurred.
Sources
- Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States, chapter 1, p. 14; supplied print pages, edition/year unidentified
- John Winthrop, Journal, ed. James Kendall Hosmer (1908), vol. 1, pp. 186–189: August 25 commission and September return report ↗
- John Underhill, Newes from America (1638), pp. 2–13: Oldham, Block Island destruction, mainland demands and burning ↗
- Mashantucket Pequot Museum, Battlefields of the Pequot War: 1636 expedition and 26 May 1637 Mistick attack ↗