Massasoit
Massasoit | |
|---|---|
| Ousamequin | |
Massasoit and his Warriors | |
| Wampanoag leader | |
| Succeeded by | Wamsutta |
| Sachem | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Ousamequin c. 1581 present-day Bristol County, Rhode Island |
| Died | 1661 (aged 80) likely present-day Rhode Island |
| Children | Wamsutta, Metacomet |
| Mother tongue | Wampanoag |
Preview warning: Page using Template:Infobox officeholder with deprecated parameter "restingplacecoordinates". Replace with "resting_place_coordinates".
Preview warning: Page using Template:Infobox officeholder with deprecated parameter "restingplace". Replace with "resting_place".
Massasoit Sachem (/ˌmæsəˈsɔɪ(ɪ)t/ MASS-ə-SOYT, -SOY-it) or Ousamequin (c. 1581 – 1661) was the sachem or leader of the Wampanoag confederacy. Massasoit means Great Sachem. Although Massasoit was only his title, English colonists mistook it as his name and it stuck.
Massasoit's people had been seriously weakened by a series of epidemics and were vulnerable to attacks by the Narragansetts, and he formed an alliance with the colonists at Plymouth Colony for defense against them. It was through his assistance that the Plymouth Colony avoided starvation during the early years.