"Avenge these wrongs!" the warriors shouted. "Avenge these wrongs before it is too late."

Pometacom wanted to cry for vengeance, too. And then he felt ashamed. What would his father think if he knew that his own son felt hatred toward the White Man? He thought of their good friend Roger Williams, who often visited their lodge. He thought of the Coles and the Browns who lived in nearby Wanamoiset. These white friends were true brothers. And there were many others.

The Indian brave Pometacom was proud to be a member of the Wampanoag tribe. He was proud, too, to be the son of Massasoit, who was the chief of this tribe. But Pometacom soon discovered that to be loyal to his tribe and to be respectful of his father's desire to live in peace with the White Man were for him totally impossible. Pometacom was first and Indian and as he grew older and succeeded his father as chief of the Wampanoags he saw that his people and in fact, all the New Englan d Indian tribes would be destroyed unless he drew them together and led them in a struggle against the White Man's cruel injustices. 

Shortly before his death Massasoit sent his sons Wamsutta and Pometacom to Plymouth, where they were given English names by the General Court. This was an act of friendship and proof to the white men that the Wampanoags would continue to live in peace with them. Wamsutta was called Alexander and Pometacom was given the name Philip, for, as the white men told the two young Indian boys, "Alexander and Philip were great kings in the history of the old world." Little did these settlers in the new world know how strong a king the young Philip would be. And little did they know that for the rest of his life he would use this strength to fight the people who invaded and stole from the Indians.

To make the reader understand first and criticize second are Cecile Pepin Edwards's primary concerns in this vividly written biography. King Philip was not a brutal, savage Indian who hated any and all white men; he was a man who had all the strengths and weaknesses of any human who commits himself to an ideal.

From the dust jacket