At 11:27 PM 1/13/2005, Elizabeth W. Knowlton wrote: >I was rereading today Clyde's post of last November. >The description of the English settlers burning alive the >Indian children, women, and disabled: "They were in >much doubt," it says of the settlers. I hope so. > >There is an almost identical account of the burning of >an Indian village in Westchester co., NY, where Ephraim >Knowlton (1676) immigrated. The account there >was that after brush was piled up and the fire set, >there was not a single sound as the entire village >perished inside their wigwams. > >How sure we always are that what we choose to >do to other people is the right way. > >Elizabeth Hi, Elizabeth: I think it is to the credit of the soldiers involved that there WAS "much doubt", and your last paragraph is actually contradicted by the story. Keep in mind that these were not professional soldiers, they were militia; mostly farmers. They had watched a distressingly large percentage of their comrades in arms freeze to death on what was later celebrated in New England lore as "The Hungry March". Essentially, those involved considered themselves on a near-suicide mission. They were engaged in a war that was widely seen, with a great deal of reason, as a battle to the death between evenly matched opponents that gave no quarter. There was hardly a family that lived further than twenty miles from Boston that not had lost at least one member to an Indian raid. Even so, and for exactly the right reasons, they had doubts -- as well they should have. They did not excuse themselves, nor should we excuse them. They did not question whether their actions were likely to prolong the war, or defend their actions because they thought them likely to shorten the war. Instead, the records says, "... they afterwards seriously inquired whether burning their enemies alive could be consistent with humanity and the benevolent principle of the gospel ..." I am descended from one of the "Hungry Marchers", as well as many others who were affected by King Philip's War. I am also descended from Native Americans. It is not a matter of "taking sides", but rather of letting the record speak, and be understood, for what it actually says. Darrell Darrell A. Martin darrellm@sprynet.com a native Vermonter currently in exile in Illinois http://www.darrell-martin.net/genealogy/