Brethren by Nature: New England Indians, Colonists, and the Origins of American Slavery Paperback

Brethren by Nature: New England Indians, Colonists, and the Origins of American Slavery Paperback

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1501705733
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Newell has done an excellent job of combing through court records correspondence and other materials to reconstruct details large and small and to uncover the stories of enslaved people and their enslavers... [A] testament to her careful scholarship and indeed a central part of the story of Indian slavery in New England.― Daniel K. Richter â• New England Quarterly

In Brethren by Nature, Margaret Ellen Newell reveals a little-known aspect of American history: English colonists in New England enslaved thousands of Indians.

Massachusetts became the first English colony to legalize slavery in 1641, and the colonists’ desire for slaves shaped the major New England Indian wars, including the Pequot War of 1637, King Philip’s War of 1675–76, and the northeastern Wabanaki conflicts of 1676–1749. When the wartime conquest of Indians ceased, New Englanders turned to the courts to get control of their labor, or imported Indians from Florida and the Carolinas, or simply claimed free Indians as slaves.