Onslaught:

The Wessagusset Incident

 (60 Minutes)

    In 1623, Myles Standish and a group of eight men including Wampanoag pniese-warrior Hobbamock entered the Wessagusset Colony and by guile lured two of the Massachuset tribal leaders and a young native boy into a blockhouse and brutally murdered them. Later that day, the same nine men engaged in several skirmishes with the Massachuset tribe.

    What were the factors that led up to this action by the Pilgrims? What effect would this have on Native/English relations for years to come?

    This presentation chronicles the arrival of the pilgrims at Plymouth and the beginnings of their colony as well as the little-known arrival of “Weston’s Men” a group that began a colony in what is now the town of Weymouth, then known as Wessagusset.  The talk will examine the interaction with the natives by the two English groups and look at the factors that led to the bloodletting of 1623 and then a blow-by-blow description of the attack at Wessagusset, followed by a discussion on the far-reaching after effects.