The Wars of the Lord: The Puritan Conquest of America's First People

Description

The epic, tragic story of the Puritan conquest of New England through the eyes of those who lived it Over several decades beginning in 1620, tens of thousands of devout English colonists known as Puritans came to America. They believed that bringing Christianity to the natives would liberate them from darkness. Daniel Gookin, Massachusetts's missionary superintendent, called such efforts a "war of the Lord," a war in which Christ would deliver captive souls from Satan's bondage. When Puritan soldiers slaughtered hundreds of indigenous men, women, and children at Fort Mystic in 1637, during the Pequot War, they believed they were doing God's will. The same was true during King Philip's War, perhaps the bloodiest war in American history. The Puritan clergyman Increase Mather described this conflict, too, as a "war of the Lord," a war in which God was judging the enemies of his people. Matthew J. Tuininga argues that these two "wars" are inextricably linked. Puritan Christianity, he shows, shaped both the spiritual and military conquests of New England from beginning to end. It is not only that the people who did these things happened to be Christians; it is that Christianity was the framework they used to guide, interpret, and defend every major act of peace or war. They made sincere efforts to treat Natives according to Christian principles of love and justice as they understood them, and their sustained missionary efforts demonstrate how serious they were about saving native souls. Yet they appealed to Christianity just as confidently when they subjugated, enslaved, or killed native peoples in the name of justice. A mission they saw as spiritual, peaceful, benevolent, and just devolved into a military conquest that was virtually genocidal. This book tells the story of how this happened from the perspective of those who lived it, both colonists and Native Americans. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents Acknowledgments Dramatis Personae Indian Communities English Towns Note on Terms Abbreviations Map Introduction: The First Encounter: 1620 Part I - Settlement 1. The Pilgrims: 1620 to 1623 2. The Puritans: 1629 to 1633 3. The Lord Has Cleared Our Title: 1633 to 1636 4. War with the Pequots: 1636 to 1637 5. Massacre at Mystic: April 1637 to October 1637 6. Miantonomo: 1637 to 1644 Part II - Mission 7. The Conquests and Triumphs of Christ: 1640 to 1648 8. Reparations: 1644 to 1650 9. Natick: 1649 to 1662 10. The Pocumtuck War: 1652 to 1661 11. God, King, and Land: 1660 to 1666 12. Praying Towns: 1665 to 1675 13. The Wampanoags: 1665 to 1675 Part III - War 14. Who Are Friends and Who Are Foes? June 1675 to August 1675 15. God Does Not Go Forth with Our Armies: August 1675 to September 1675 16. No Indians Can Be Trusted: September 1675 to December 1675 17. The Narragansetts: November 1675 to February 1676 18. New England in Flames: February 1676 to March 1676 19. Negotiations: March 1676 to May 1676 20. New England’s Reckoning: May 1676 21. Turning Point: May 1676 to July 1676 22. Algonquian Defeat: June 1676 to October 1676 Epilogue Notes Index