In the spring of 1742, a Shawnee war party journeyed hundreds of miles to the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay to recruit allies for a war against the English colonists. The once-mighty but diminished Nanticokes, whose great-grandparents had showered Captain John Smith with arrows, invited several other tribes-the Choptanks, Assateagues, Pocomokes, and Indian River Indians-to meet at a place called Wimbesocom. A daring plan was proposed: With the help of northern warriors, the Eastern Shore tribes would carry out a surprise raid against their English neighbors and slaughter men, women, and children. French forces would land on the coast and help them drive the white man off the peninsula, splitting the English colonies. If they succeeded, they would remake the destiny of North America. If they failed, they would have to abandon their lands forever. In 1742, Christopher Slavens traces the history of the Nanticoke Indians and other Eastern Shore tribes from their first contact with the English through decades of bloody conflict and bitter concessions, revealing a simmering resistance which boiled over during what historian C. A.

Weslager called "the most important single event in Indian history on the Delmarva Peninsula.".