local history
Dec. 20th, 2004 11:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sanpaku_backupYesterday I drop off the Mrs. and Mini-me at the ferry (they are down on the Island for Christmas inanity), and I have some time to kill because the stupid library at URI doesn't open until 1 pm on Sundays (even for finals weekend).
So I've been reading The Red King's Rebellion, by Russell Bourne, about King Philip's War. It's very well written and balanced, and it hit my curiosity about an aspect of living here. I knew that Rhode Island was where the war took place, more or less, and there's the weird profusion of local Native names -- Pocasset this and Cononichet that. Often this is expressed in things like "Metacomet Auto Body," making King Philip the local merchants' equivalent, I guess, of Chief Wahoo.
Anyway, I decided to kill the time by driving around South County and making a concerted effort to find some of the local landmarks connected with the war. The swamp land is thick and not easy to get around, and many of the roads dead end, but you can find a thing or two with the help of a good map. I went to this strange "Fort Ninigret" on the coast, which was apparently some sort of Niantic redoubt, although it was hard to tell because there was nothing there except grassy cobblestones and an old perimeter fence marking slightly raised ground (the foundations of the fort, apparently). Not so much as a sign to tell you any of it.
I headed north, toward URI, because what I really wanted to find was the Great Swamp Fight monument. This is apparently a granite obelisk put in the middle of the swamps near Worton Pond by those wacky DAR types to mark the site of the battle. I say "apparently," because the road marked "Great Swamp Fight Monument Road" stops about 100 ft. from the highway, with big signs telling you -- no kidding -- that if you want to go further you have to go on foot and be covered in bright orange. Hunters, y'know.
And I say "battle" in the loosest possible sense, because what happened in the Great Swamp Massacre was basically this: the Narragansett had war declared on them by Plymouth as sort of a pre-emptive action, and the Narragansett built a huge fort on an island in the swamp to hide their women and children. But a traitor showed the colonial armies where the fort was, and the colonists, after winning a hard battle, torched the place and killed anyone who came out. About 600 Narragansett, mostly women and children, were slaughtered. Afterward even the Pilgrims had to seriously debate the righteousness of killing on such a scale.
So the swamps are suitably creepy and unearthly. I never got to see the monument, although the monument's site is speculative; to this day no one knows where the fort was. But there was a roadside historical marker talking about the "battle," to the effect that it took place south of this spot, on December 19, 1675.
And yesterday just happened to be... Sunday, December 19. Didn't plan it that way. But... hm.
So I've been reading The Red King's Rebellion, by Russell Bourne, about King Philip's War. It's very well written and balanced, and it hit my curiosity about an aspect of living here. I knew that Rhode Island was where the war took place, more or less, and there's the weird profusion of local Native names -- Pocasset this and Cononichet that. Often this is expressed in things like "Metacomet Auto Body," making King Philip the local merchants' equivalent, I guess, of Chief Wahoo.
Anyway, I decided to kill the time by driving around South County and making a concerted effort to find some of the local landmarks connected with the war. The swamp land is thick and not easy to get around, and many of the roads dead end, but you can find a thing or two with the help of a good map. I went to this strange "Fort Ninigret" on the coast, which was apparently some sort of Niantic redoubt, although it was hard to tell because there was nothing there except grassy cobblestones and an old perimeter fence marking slightly raised ground (the foundations of the fort, apparently). Not so much as a sign to tell you any of it.
I headed north, toward URI, because what I really wanted to find was the Great Swamp Fight monument. This is apparently a granite obelisk put in the middle of the swamps near Worton Pond by those wacky DAR types to mark the site of the battle. I say "apparently," because the road marked "Great Swamp Fight Monument Road" stops about 100 ft. from the highway, with big signs telling you -- no kidding -- that if you want to go further you have to go on foot and be covered in bright orange. Hunters, y'know.
And I say "battle" in the loosest possible sense, because what happened in the Great Swamp Massacre was basically this: the Narragansett had war declared on them by Plymouth as sort of a pre-emptive action, and the Narragansett built a huge fort on an island in the swamp to hide their women and children. But a traitor showed the colonial armies where the fort was, and the colonists, after winning a hard battle, torched the place and killed anyone who came out. About 600 Narragansett, mostly women and children, were slaughtered. Afterward even the Pilgrims had to seriously debate the righteousness of killing on such a scale.
So the swamps are suitably creepy and unearthly. I never got to see the monument, although the monument's site is speculative; to this day no one knows where the fort was. But there was a roadside historical marker talking about the "battle," to the effect that it took place south of this spot, on December 19, 1675.
And yesterday just happened to be... Sunday, December 19. Didn't plan it that way. But... hm.
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