A Reflection on the 1637 Mystic Fort Massacre in Connecticut

Year 2020, Issue: 54, 27 - 40, 01.11.2020

Lawrence B. Goodheart

Abstract

The bloody surprise attack by Puritans on Mystic Fort in 1637
resulted in the wanton slaughter of hundreds of Pequot. The Puritans
hailed the decimation as an act of God that saved the English colony
from the depredations of savage heathens. In 1889 a heroic statue to
John Mason, the Puritan commander, was erected in the Connecticut
town of Mystic. A century later, Indian activists and their allies succeeded in removing the offensive monument. This essay makes two
points. First, the Puritan slaughter in the brutal tradition of European
religious wars was an archetype of racial hegemony and ethnic cleansing that began in the colony of Connecticut and unfolded across the
continent. Second, the removal of the Mason statue in 1995 marked a
remarkable shift in historical commemoration, one that had celebrated
extensive killing, particularly of Pequot women and children.

Keywords

Pequot, Mystic Fort, Sassacus, Puritan, John Mason, Connecticut

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