A Reflection on the 1637 Mystic Fort Massacre in Connecticut

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.