1st Edition

Daniel Gookin, the Praying Indians, and King Philip's War A Short History in Documents

By Louise Breen Copyright 2020
    200 Pages 4 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    200 Pages 4 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    This volume presents a valuable collection of annotated primary documents published during King Philip’s War (1675–76), a conflict that pitted English colonists against many native peoples of southern New England, to reveal the real-life experiences of early Americans.

    Louise Breen’s detailed introduction to Daniel Gookin and the War, combined with interpretations of the accompanying ancillary documents, offers a set of inaccessible or unpublished archival documents that illustrate the distrust and mistreatment heaped upon praying (Christian) Indians. The book begins with an informative annotation of Historical Account of the Doings and Sufferings of the Christian Indians in New England, in the Years 1675, 1675, and 1677, written by Gookin, a magistrate and military leader who defended Massachusetts’ praying Indians, to expose atrocities committed against natives and the experiences of specific individuals and towns during the war. Developments in societal, and particularly religious, inclusivity in Puritan New England during this period of colonial conflict are thoroughly explored through Breen’s analysis.

    The book offers students primary sources that are pertinent to survey history courses on Early Americans and Colonial History, as well as providing instructors with documents that serve as concrete examples to illustrate broad societal changes that occurred during the seventeenth century.

    * Unpublished primary sources gathered together for the first time

    * Analytic framing helps to orient and guide students through unfamiliar language and historical content

    * Concise volume offers instructors a ready-made resource for seminars and broader Colonial History courses

    Biography

    Louise A. Breen is Associate Professor of History at Kansas State University, where she researches and teaches in the fields of colonial, Atlantic, and revolutionary history. She is the author of Transgressing the Bounds: Subversive Enterprises among the Puritan Elite in Massachusetts, 1630–1692.