Monoco
Encyclopedia
Monoco was a 17th century Nashaway
sachem
(chief), known among the New England
Puritan
s as “One-eyed John”.
After decades of peaceful coexistence, tensions arose between settlers and natives. The Nashaway attacked the neighboring English
settlement of Lancaster, Massachusetts
, in August 1675 and again in February 1676 as part of the more general native-settler conflict known as King Philip’s War. During the latter action, Monoco kidnapped a villager, Mary Rowlandson
, and took her and her children with him and his party for many weeks.
Rowlandson later wrote and published what became a best-selling narrative about her captivity with the Indians and release.
Nashaway
The Nashaway were a tribe of Algonquian Indians inhabiting the upstream portions of the Nashua River valley in what is now the northern half of Worcester County, Massachusetts, mainly in the vicinity of Sterling, Lancaster and other towns near Mount Wachusett...
sachem
Sachem
A sachem[p] or sagamore is a paramount chief among the Algonquians or other northeast American tribes. The two words are anglicizations of cognate terms from different Eastern Algonquian languages...
(chief), known among the New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
s as “One-eyed John”.
After decades of peaceful coexistence, tensions arose between settlers and natives. The Nashaway attacked the neighboring English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
settlement of Lancaster, Massachusetts
Lancaster, Massachusetts
Lancaster is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, in the United States. Incorporated in 1653, Lancaster is the oldest town in Worcester County...
, in August 1675 and again in February 1676 as part of the more general native-settler conflict known as King Philip’s War. During the latter action, Monoco kidnapped a villager, Mary Rowlandson
Mary Rowlandson
Mary Rowlandson was a colonial American woman who was captured by Native Americans during King Philip's War and held for 11 weeks before being ransomed. After her release, she wrote a book about her experience, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God: Being a Narrative of the Captivity and...
, and took her and her children with him and his party for many weeks.
Rowlandson later wrote and published what became a best-selling narrative about her captivity with the Indians and release.
Additional reading
- Lepore, Jill, The Name of War: King Phillip's War and the Origins of American Identity, New York: Alfred A. Knopf & Co., 1998