In contrast to most accounts of Puritan-Indian relations,
New England Frontier
argues that the first two generations of
Puritan settlers were neither generally hostile toward their
Indian neighbors nor indifferent to their territorial rights.
Rather, American Puritans-especially their political and
religious leaders-sought peaceful and equitable relations
as the first step in molding the Indians into neo-Englishmen.
When accumulated Indian resentments culminated in the
war of 1675, however, the relatively benign intercultural
contact of the preceding fifty-five-year period rapidly declined.
With a new introduction updating developments in
Puritan-Indian studies in the last fifteen years, this third
edition affords the reader a clear, balanced overview of a
complex and sensitive area of American history.