When the Pilgrims arrived, Southeast Massachusetts natives were ruled by Massasoit “commander of 30 villages” Passaconaway, the “Child of the Bear” ruled the Penacook Federation’s 17 tribes in New Hampshire and Northern Massachusetts. When the first Pilgrims arrived the two chiefs temporized with their new neighbors, accepting growing numbers and domination in exchange for trade and protection from other sometimes hostile tribes. Massasoit’s son King Philip began to push back and planning for an uprising began. At the end of January in 1675, the body of suspected informer John Sassoman was found under the ice at Assawompsett Pond and on June 20th, shots rang out in Swansea beginning King Philip’s War. King Philip was killed on 8/12/1676 and a last raid led by John Talcott ended the fighting in Massachusetts, but Sachems such as Mugg Hegone and Simon the Yankee Killer fought on up North until the Treaty of Casco ended the bloodiest per Capita war in American History in April of 1678. Harvard College graduate, Jay Gaffney retired from the Army as a Captain with decorations and a damaged knee after two tours in Vietnam. He went on to Boston University Law School and started a general Law practice, mostly in the Lowell area but with overseas travel to Ireland and Italy. He was active in community life, teaching as an adjunct Professor at UMass Lowell. He was, elected to the Massachusetts legislature and served on a number of town and City Boards and commissions. Despite his injury he managed to do some amateur boxing having the good fortune of working out in gyms owned by legendary figures Boston’s Al Clemente and Lowell’s Art Ramalho. He fought in several exhibitions for the Mass State Police Team. Now fully retired he still serves on a City Commission and lives in Lowell with his wife Mary who has held important supervisory Nursing positions. The two keep frequent contact with much loved children and grandchildren.

Jay Gaffney has written a detailed and compelling account of the complex and often fraught relations between the early English settlers and the Indian tribes inhabiting New England at the time. It is a history of accommodation and conflict and the roles played by regional sachems (chiefs) and their sons starting with the arrival of the Mayflower in 1620. Gaffney’s densely textured tapestry recounts not just the decimation of the tribes by disease and warfare, but the crucial roles played by the leaders of both the native inhabitants and the questing English. I expect Fathers and Sons in Native American New England will end up on many reading lists and as a selection by book clubs interested in history. – Alfred J. Alcorn is the Author of fifteen books Including Sugar Mountain and Murder In The Museum of Man. In this riveting and deeply researched study, Jay Gaffney illuminates the pivotal first fifty years of interaction between English colonists and Indigenous peoples in New England. His even-handed analysis explores the complex interplay of land, commerce, diplomacy, and religion, offering readers a clearer, more nuanced understanding of this critically important, yet often overlooked, period that fundamentally shaped the future United States. – Richard P. Howe Jr., author of Legendary Locals of Lowell and former Register of Deeds for the Middlesex North District of Massachusetts.