John Sassamon

John Sassamon (1600-1675) also known as Wussausmon (in Massachusett), was born c.1620. He became a Christian convert, a praying Indian who helped served as an interpreter to the colonists, .

In January 1675, Sassamon was assassinated. A mixed jury of colonists and Indian elders convicted and executed three Wampanoag men for his murder. These events helped spark the conflict known as King Philip's War, in which the English defeated the Wampanoag and ended armed resistance by the Native Americans of southeastern New England.

John Sassamon was a Massachusett, born at the Massachuset, Punkapoag Plantation to Punkapoag parents. Historians believe that he was then raised in the home of Richard Callicot, where he may have been indentured. By his early teen years, he had been introduced to Christianity and learned to speak English. He is believed to have met and been mentored by the Christian missionary John Eliot during this period, and may have known and worked with him for as long as 40 years. Eliot mentioned the death of Sassamon in his diary.

By the Pequot War in 1637, a joint effort by colonists and Native American allies to suppress the Pequot in present-day Connecticut, Sassamon was skilled enough to serve as an interpreter for the colonists. He fought with them alongside Richard Callicot in the service of Captain John Underhill. Following this war, Sassamon began to teach Eliot the Indian language in exchange for learning English and the Christian way of life. In 1651, John Eliot established Natick as the first praying town. Praying towns were reserved for Native Americans who had converted to Christianity and were willing to live according to English custom in permanent agricultural settlements. Eliot recruited Sassamon as one of two schoolmasters to teach both English and Christianity to the residents.

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