Pequot

any member of a group of Algonquian-speaking North American Indians who lived in the Thames valley in what is now Connecticut, U.S. Their subsistence was based on the cultivation of corn (maize), hunting, and fishing. In the 1600s their population was estimated to be 2,200 individuals.

The Mohegan and the Pequot were jointly ruled by the Pequot chief Sassacus until a rebellion of the subchief Uncas that resulted in Mohegan independence. For a period from 1620 onward the Pequot and British settlers lived side by side in mutual helpfulness and peaceful trade. Gradually, however, Pequot resentment swelled as increasing numbers of colonists encroached upon the tribe's customary territory. The Pequot were concerned regarding these intrusions because their territory had already been reduced to the region between Narragansett Bay and the Connecticut River. The Pequot eventually promised all tribal trade to the Dutch, a course of action much resented by the British.

Several incidents had taken place between the Pequots and the British colonizers by the summer of 1636, when matters came to a breaking point. At that time a Boston trader was murdered, presumably by a Pequot, on Block Island. A punitive expedition that was sent by Massachusetts authorities to destroy native villages and crops succeeded only in arousing the tribe to make a more determined defense of its homeland. Puritan clergymen encouraged violence against the Pequots, whom they regarded as infidels, and the British colonists agreed to take up arms.

In a short but vicious war, in which Captain John Mason led English, Mohegan, and Narragansett warriors, the main Pequot fort at Mystic, Conn., was surprised and set afire; between 500 and 600 inhabitants were burned alive or slaughtered. Defeated, some Pequot decided to separate into small bands and abandon the area. Many who fled were killed or captured by other tribes or the English, and others were sold into slavery in New England or the West Indies; the remainder were distributed among other tribes, where they received such harsh treatment that in 1655 they were placed under the direct control of the colonial government and resettled on the Mystic River. The Mohegan obtained control of Pequot lands.

Early 21st-century population estimates indicated approximately 3,000 Pequot descendants.

Copyright © 1994-2009 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. For more information visit Britannica.com.