The final battle of the Pequot War, known as the Swamp Fight, took place in Fairfield in July 1637, when English forces caught up with Pequot forces led by the sachem Sassacus, who had taken refuge near the village of their Sasqua allies. The Sasqua, along with the Unquowa and Pequonnock, were part of the Paugussett tribe that occupied much of western Connecticut. Like a number of Native groups along the coast, they owed allegiance to the Pequot.
The English and their Native allies, the Narragansett and Mohegans, surrounded the swamp, fighting hand to hand throughout the day and night as Pequot and their Sasqua allies, held them back. The next morning, under cover of fog, approximately 60 to 80 Pequot broke through a section of the English lines and escaped. About 180 Pequot were eventually captured, and a dozen or more were killed.
Sassacus and his warriors fled north from the swamp, hoping to find refuge with allies in eastern New York. But the Mohawks captured them in late July and quickly killed them, sending Sassacus’s head to the English as a gesture of friendship. Eventually the surviving Pequot sachems surrendered.
The Treaty of Hartford in 1638 intended to wipe out the once powerful Pequot nation, outlawing the Pequot name and language. Some of the captured Pequot were sent to live among Native allies of the English, while others were enslaved in the West Indies or in New England households. The largest group was placed under the control of the Mohegan, who treated them so harshly that by 1655 the English moved them to their own area, eventually creating the first reservations in Connecticut: Mashantucket in 1666 and Lantern Hill in 1683. It would take another 300 years for the Pequot to regain political and economic power in their traditional homeland. Continue reading from CT Explored
