The
Mystic massacre took place on
May 26, 1637, during the
Pequot War, when English settlers under Captain
John Mason, and
Narragansett and
Mohegan allies set fire to a
fortified Pequot village near the
Mystic River. They shot any people who tried to escape the wooden palisade fortress and killed the entire village, consisting mostly of women and children, in retaliation for previous Pequot attacks. The only Pequot survivors were warriors who had been with their
sachem Sassacus in a raiding party outside the village.