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American Studies
Early American Indian Documents: Treaties and Laws, 1607–1789
General Editor: Alden T. Vaughan, Professor Emeritus of Early American History, Columbia University
The almost two centuries that preceded the implementation of the U.S. Constitution in 1789 were the formative
years of Indian-white contact in America. European colonists and American Indians evolved basic patterns of coexistence—sometimes harmonious, often contentious—that lasted with few fundamental changes until the twentieth
century. Those patterns continue to influence governmental policies and judicial decisions.
Knowledge of early Indian-white contacts has long been hampered by the
inaccessibility of historical sources. Charles J. Kappler’s well-known collection, Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, does not include this early material.
Some records have been published piecemeal and incompletely; others not
at all. There has been no thorough compilation of the most crucial items:
the treaties between the early governments and the Indian tribes and the
laws concerning Indians passed by colonial and early national legislatures.
Without access to that vital and immense literature—much of it in manuscript, the rest scattered through hundreds of disparate volumes—many of
today’s most important historical and legal questions must remain unanswered. Such questions concern specific matters of tribal rights, land titles,
and state boundaries, as well as less tangible but equally important issues of
ethnic discrimination and assimilation.
Early American Indian Documents brings together the laws relating to the
American Indians passed by colonial, state, and national governments
before 1789 and all significant diplomatic documents (i.e., treaties, conferences, and official correspondence) of the same period. Scholars in several
fields—especially law, anthropology, and ethno-history—will find that the
collection’s chronological scope and inclusive documentation result in an
unparalleled source for the reassessment of early America.
Volume I: Pennsylvania and Delaware Treaties, 1629–1737, edited by
Donald H. Kent, covers the first century of negotiations and treatymaking
between European newcomers and the natives of the region that became
the states of Delaware and Pennsylvania. The period covered in this volume
was generally peaceful and friendly, even though the first treaty of
Document 10 in Chapter VII: Conestoga, Albany, and
Philadelphia, of Volume I: Pennsylvania and Delaware
Treaties, 1629–1737.
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purchase in 1631 was followed in the next year by
the massacre of the Dutch settlement at what is now
Lewes, Delaware. William Penn became Proprietor
of Pennsylvania in 1681, and he pursued just and
humane policies toward the Indians. From the 1680s
until the 1720s, the Pennsylvania government tried
to keep the Indians of the colony from involvement
in the persistent warfare between the Five Nations
Indians (which became the Six Nations about 1715)
and various other southern tribes. Beginning in the
1720s, all treaties for the purchase of land were made
with the Six Nations.
Most of the documents in this volume come from
such published collections as Colonial Records,
Pennsylvania Archives, and Documents Relative to
the History of the State of New York. The volume also
includes previously unpublished documents from the
collections of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania,
the American Philosophical Society, the Delaware
Hall of Records, and the Pennsylvania State Archives.
Indian Deed of September 10, 1683, included in Volume I: Pennsylvania and Delaware Treaties,
1629–1737.
Volume II: Pennsylvania Treaties, 1737–1756, edited by Donald H.
Kent, deals with treaties and other negotiations between the Indians
and Pennsylvania in the period from 1737 to 1756, during which
peaceful relations between the natives and the newcomers finally
came to an end. No matter how fairly and openly land purchases
may have been negotiated between Pennsylvania and the Indians,
the natives soon realized that whatever they received in payment
was soon spent or used up, leaving them with nothing to show for
it. As settlers moved in, the Indians had to move northward in the
Susquehanna Valley or westward across the Allegheny Mountains,
and the sale of furs and hides to traders became their only means
of acquiring the trade goods, firearms, and ammunition that were
now necessities of life for them. Furthermore, when Pennsylvania
ceased to shelter and protect the Delawares and Shawnees from
the demands of the Six Nations, and began to use the Six Nations
to manage, police, and control the other Indians, there was an
abrupt change in attitude, which gradually becomes apparent in
the documents.
Most of the documents in this volume come from documentary
publications such as Colonial Records and Pennsylvania Archives;
however, the editors have tried to correct deviations from the original manuscripts. Other documents, hitherto unpublished, come
from the collections of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and
the Pennsylvania State Archives.
Volume III: Pennsylvania Treaties, 1756–1775, edited by Alison
Duncan Hirsch, chronicles the final twenty years of diplomacy
between the Pennsylvania government and the descendants of the
region’s original inhabitants. These twenty years saw the end to
William Penn’s original vision of Europeans and Indians living in
peaceful coexistence. In October 1755, Pennsylvania’s long peace
with the Indians ended with what seemed to Euro-Americans like
a sudden crash. In reality, the peace, always tenuous, had been
dependent on the willingness of Delawares, Shawnees, Conestogas,
Iroquois and others to keep their distance. During Penn’s lifetime,
Pennsylvania had been a haven for refugee natives from other
colonies, but by 1775 virtually all of Pennsylvania’s Indians had
become refugees themselves. These documents are almost unremittingly tragic in their tale of death by disease, accident, murder,
and warfare. Still, they do contain occasional glimpses of humanity,
on both the Indian and white sides, as well as examples of Indian
humor that went unnoticed by overly serious English military men
and religious leaders.
As much as possible, the documents in this volume are from the
original manuscript versions rather than later transcriptions. Most
of the documents included here have been published in nineteenth-century editions such as Colonial Records and Pennsylvania
Archives; some have been printed more recently in journals like the
Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography and Transactions
of the American Philosophical Society. Other documents are
printed here for the first time. These include manuscripts from the
American Philosophical Society, Swarthmore College’s Friends
Library, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Quaker Library
at Haverford College, and the State Archives of Pennsylvania. A
few documents are from the Public Record Office and the British
Library in England.
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Volume IV: Virginia Treaties, 1607–1722,
edited by W. Stitt Robinson, contains
Indian treaties and related documents for
Colonial Virginia from the settlement of
Jamestown in 1607 to the conclusion of
the term of office of Lieutenant Governor
Alexander Spotswood in 1722. It devotes
greatest attention to the English acquisition
of land, colonial trade regulations, legal
status of Indians, and the role of religious
motives for conversion to Christianity and
education as part of Indian policy. The
English did not recognize the sovereign
right of the natives to the land, the usufruct
title. These treaties illustrate the transition
in status for the Indians from independent
and equal groups to the distinct category
of tributary Indians that provided for the
jurisdiction by the English over many facets
of Indian relations. The treaties and related
correspondence also exemplify the many
efforts at intercolonial cooperation by
Virginia in Indian negotiations, especially
with New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland,
and North Carolina. Many of the documents are reproduced from previously
published sources, but others such as the
treaties of Governor Spotswood come from
the valuable unpublished transcripts and
microfilm of the Colonial Office Papers of
the British Public Record Office in London
Volume V: Virginia Treaties, 1723–1775,
edited by W. Stitt Robinson, reveals the
changing emphases in Indian relations
for Colonial Virginia from 1722 to the
beginning of the American Revolution.
The decline in population of the tributary
Indians resulted in efforts of the colony
to protect them as friends while more
extensive negotiations were conducted
with larger tribes who were more critical
in the contest with the French over western
territories. One bold stroke of diplomacy
with the Cherokees was the escorting of
seven of them to London by Sir Alexander
Cuming in 1730. The Board of Trade
concluded the treaty of Westminster to
“brighten the chain of friendship” and
to promote trade. Other efforts involved
intercolonial cooperation in negotiations
to maintain peace among the larger tribes
of Indian allies. The lieutenant governor of
New York arranged the treaty of Albany in
1740 with the Iroquois in behalf of both
Virginia and Maryland, and the lieutenant
governor of Pennsylvania accomplished
the same goal in the treaty of Lancaster
in 1744. The treaty of Logstown in
Pennsylvania followed in 1752 with
western allies of the Iroquois to clarify
the territorial agreements of the Lancaster
compact. The British appointed superintendents of Indian affairs in the 1750s
with the responsibility of political relations with the Indians and of maintaining
appropriate Indian boundaries. This led
John Stuart as southern superintendent to
conduct the Augusta Conference in 1763
to explain the Treaty of Paris to southern
tribes. He later negotiated boundary lines
for the Cherokees in the Treaty of Hard
Labor in 1768 and the Treaty of Lochaber
in 1770. Several documents in this volume
come from the unpublished records of the
transcripts and microfilm of the Colonial
Office Papers of the British Public Record
Office in London.
Volume VI: Maryland Treaties, 1632–
1775, edited by W. Stitt Robinson, includes
documents for Colonial Maryland from the
proprietary charter to the Calverts in 1632
to the end of the colonial period. The proprietors claimed absolute power over the
colony with the only extended interruption
of this authority by the appointment of a
royal governor from 1691 to 1715. Indians
could claim title to lands only with grants
by the proprietors. While Indian affairs
were briefly influenced by the conflict
with the Dutch and Swedes over the
proprietor’s claim to Delaware Bay, the
major concerns of the colony were with
the status of tribes within its bounds and
their relationship to other natives such as
the Iroquois in New York. The decline of
population among Maryland Indians led
to their treaties as tributary Indians by
which they had to render annually only a
symbolic tribute of from two to six arrows.
In response to requests by several small
tribes, about sixty manors were created
with the belief that this would contribute to
the civilizing and Christianizing of natives
as articulated in the proprietor’s original
charter. Maryland officials supervised and
approved the selection of Indian leaders.
They dealt with the complaints of tribal
groups against white encroachment upon
Indian lands and the destruction of their
property and crops. Attention was also
directed to the legal status and jurisdiction for both offending whites and Indians.
In intercolonial relations, Maryland most
often was involved in negotiations with
the New York governor in behalf of the
Iroquois. More limited contacts were made
with the Shawnees and the Cherokees,
especially in efforts to counter the French
threat in the Ohio Valley. The documents
in this volume come primarily from the
comprehensive source of the Maryland
Archives. Other intriguing records come
from the Dorchester County Land Records
in the Hall of Records in Annapolis and the
Calvert Papers in the Maryland Historical
Society in Baltimore.
Volume VII: New York and New Jersey
Treaties, 1609–1682, edited by Barbara
Graymont, covers the first seventyfour years of contact between the early
European immigrants and the Algonkian
and Iroquois inhabitants of the areas that
became New York and New Jersey. The
documents reveal the rocky relationships
of the Dutch with the Indians of the lower
Hudson River region and also the difficulty
the Indians frequently had in comprehending the European real-estate concept of
permanent alienation of land through deed
of purchase with accompanying payments. To the native people, this was often
conceived as a rental or joint occupation
agreement. More accurate translations of
certain Dutch documents are included
in this volume. The documents demonstrate how the sagacious Indian policy
of Governor Edmund Andros after 1674
enhanced not only the power of the New
York colony but also the supremacy of the
Iroquois Confederacy over rival Indian
nations.
Volume VIII: New York and New Jersey
Treaties, 1683–1713, edited by Barbara
Graymont, chronicles the era of increasing
European settlement in New York and New
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Jersey and of the resulting steady decline
in population and power of the neighboring Algonkian Indians of Long Island,
New Jersey, and the Hudson River region.
The Iroquois, on the other hand, not only
retained their power but also enhanced it
as a result of the decline of their Algonkian
rivals. The Iroquois alliance with the English
was for many years beneficial to both sides
but eventually resulted in a steady loss of
thousands of acres of Iroquois land to the
English. By 1701, exhausted by their long
western warfare with the French and their
Indian allies, the Iroquois on June 19, 1701,
granted their western hunting grounds to
the English king; and on August 4, 1701,
they made peace with the French and their
Indian allies in the west. Both documents
are printed in this volume. Also included
are several documents from the William
Penn Papers covering Governor Penn’s
purchase of the Susquehanna lands from
the Iroquois.
Volume IX: New York and New Jersey
Treaties, 1714–1753, edited by Barbara
Graymont, includes documents relating
to the adoption of the Tuscaroras as the
sixth nation of the Iroquois Confederacy,
the rivalry between French Catholic and
British Anglican missionaries for the loyalty
of the Indians to the respective European
governments, and the ongoing complaints
of the Indians over the steady loss of their
land to the white settlers. As distinct from
the Catholic and Anglican missionaries,
whose presence had not only a religious
but also a political purpose, documents
in this volume show that the Moravian
clergy were completely evangelical in their
mission efforts and sought to protect their
converts from exploitation by neighboring whites and to promote an Indianized
Christianity. Accordingly, the Moravians
were severely persecuted by their white
neighbors and local government officials,
who concocted tales of supposed nefarious
intrigues and Papist plots on the part of the
Moravians. The volume includes the 1749
Parliamentary law, approved by the king,
recognizing the Moravians as a legitimate
Protestant denomination and allowing its
members to settle in the king’s American
colonies. Other documents in this volume
cover the religious missions of David and
John Brainerd, a reproduction of Benjamin
Franklin’s printing of the 1744 Treaty of
Lancaster, and documents presenting the
views and work of Cadwallader Colden
and Sir William Johnson.
Volume X: New York and New Jersey
Treaties, 1754–1775, edited by Barbara
Graymont, covers a time of dramatic
change for Indians in the Northeast. The
English finally achieved victory over the
French in America and occupied Canada
and the former French area of influence
south of the Great Lakes. William Johnson,
the British Indian agent, managed through
skillful diplomacy to control the affairs of
the Six Nations. He was able to break the
1701 Iroquois neutrality with the French
and to persuade the Mohawks and some
other Iroquois also to fight against the
French. Although the Six Nations trusted
Johnson, who had learned their customs
and ceremonies, he was actually one
of their greatest exploiters. These years
were also a time of rapid decline of the
Indian population of New Jersey. Some
of the noteworthy documents here are
the Albany Congress of 1754, including
Benjamin Franklin’s Albany Plan of Union,
the Treaty of Easton of 1758, the establishment of the Indian town of Brotherton in
New Jersey, and the treaty with Pontiac
and other Indians in 1766. A contemporary
eighteenth-century map of the Brotherton
Indian Reservation in New Jersey is also
included.
Volume XI: Georgia Treaties, 1733–1763,
edited by John T. Juricek, reveals that if
Georgia had a government during its first
decade, it was almost entirely in the hands
of the colony’s founder, James Edward
Oglethorpe. He immediately recognized
that the survival of the colony depended
mainly on establishing amicable relations with the Indians who claimed the
area (though nearly all lived in what is
now Alabama). These were the Creeks,
then the most powerful assemblage of
native peoples east of the Mississippi
River. Oglethorpe’s Indian diplomacy was
effective for five years, but later he made
major blunders. His biggest mistake led
directly to the “Bosomworth controversy,”
a bitter land dispute that in fact threatened
the colony’s survival until defused by
Governor Henry Ellis. Negotiated agreements between the English and the Creeks
(including written treaties in 1733, 1739,
1757, and 1763) usually involved the same
trade-off: the Creeks sought and received
concessions on trade, while the English
sought and received concessions on land.
The special strength of this volume is that it
illuminates how the English acquired—and
the Indians lost—rights over land, a much
more intricate subject than generally
supposed. There were two major wars
between the British, French, and Spanish
empires during this period, but none of the
combatants was able to lure the Creeks
into taking sides. Of the 186 documents in
this volume, about forty are printed for the
first time. Some of them, including several
of the most important, have never been
noticed by previous historians.
Volume XII: Georgia and Florida Treaties,
1763–1776, edited by John T. Juricek,
extends the Georgia story from 1763 to
the outbreak of the American Revolution.
The story revealed by the documents from
this brief period is more complex than
the previous volume. At the conclusion of
the French and Indian War, the defeated
French and Spanish ceded vast territories
in the Southeast to the British. The British
reorganized these territories into two new
colonies adjacent to Georgia: West Florida
and East Florida. The volume includes sections on Georgia as well as West Florida
and East Florida. The altered political
geography of the region reconfigured the
channels of diplomacy. Georgia no longer
controlled relations with all Creeks, but
only the Lower Creeks. Contact with the
Upper Creeks would henceforth center on
Pensacola in West Florida, while Lower
Creek migrants into East Florida (soon
known as Seminoles) would be dealt
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Over 75 of the 204 documents in this volume have been published for the first time.
Many of these come from the manuscripts
of the South Carolina Council. Others are
from the Sainsbury Transcripts of Records
in the British Public Record Office Relating
to South Carolina. Both of these sources
are in the South Carolina Department of
Archives and History in Columbia.
Engraving of Benjamin West’s famous painting of “The Death of General Wolfe.” General James
Wolfe was killed in 1759 during the Battle of Quebec, an important battle of the French and Indian
War. Several of the volumes feature documents pertaining to the French and Indian War. Prints and
Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
with from St. Augustine. The war not only
brought the British new lands, but also new
peoples with which to deal. Above all, the
English in West Florida had to establish
regular relations with the Choctaws. More
numerous than the Creeks, the Choctaws
had been the principal support of French
Louisiana. In general, English relations with
Indians of the region steadily degenerated from 1763 to 1776. As the Revolution
approached, loyalists sought aid from
the Creeks while the patriots—who had
much less to offer Indians—merely sought
their neutrality. George Galphin and other
rebel diplomats succeeded well enough to
make a major contribution to the ultimate
patriot victory. Nearly three-quarters of the
documents in this volume are published
for the first time, including two formal treaties between the Georgia colony and the
Creeks.
Volume XIII: South Carolina and North
Carolina Treaties, 1607–1755, edited by
W. Stitt Robinson, contains Indian treaties
and related documents for the Carolinas
from the last half of the seventeenth century to the middle of the eighteenth. Under
the royal charters of 1663 and 1665, the
Carolinas were under proprietary control
as one political unit until the recognition
by 1712 of both North and South Carolina
and until the proprietors were superseded
by the appointment of royal governors for
South Carolina in 1719 and North Carolina
in 1729. The proprietors attempted by
1677 to institute their monopoly of Indian
trade with more distant, large tribes and
to permit the colonists to trade only with
smaller tribes who became known as
settlement Indians and eventually agreed
to the status of tributary Indians. This
monopoly attempt was abandoned in the
aftermath of the Westo War in the early
1680s. The outbreak of other Indian Wars
resulted in a variety of intercolonial efforts
for assistance. North Carolina’s request in
the Tuscarora War of 1711–1713 to both
Virginia and South Carolina achieved significant results only from South Carolina.
North Carolina, in turn, sent an expedition
to assist South Carolina in its serious threat
in the Yamasee War that began in 1715.
Virginia also sent troops accompanied by
Virginia tributary Indians. South Carolina in
the eighteenth century was very aggressive
in negotiations with the large southeastern
tribes of Creeks, Cherokees, Choctaws,
and Chickasaws in competition with both
the French and Spanish. Separate treaties
were concluded with the Cherokees and
both the Upper and Lower Creeks, but
even greater efforts resulted in attempts
to promote a Creek-Cherokee peace.
Governor James Glen of South Carolina
continued this policy and also obtained the
assistance of New York to promote peace
between the Catawbas and the Six Nations
of Iroquois.
Volume XIV: South Carolina and North
Carolina Treaties, 1756–1775, edited
by W. Stitt Robinson, includes Indian
treaties and related documents for the
Carolinas from 1756 to the beginning of
the American Revolution. The French and
Indian War (1754–1763) involved conflict
over the Ohio Valley. Even more critical
Map of Cherokee Overhill Country included in
Volume XIV: North and South Carolina Treaties,
1756–1775.
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for Indian affairs was the Cherokee War of 1760–1761. The attacks
on Cherokee forts of Prince George and Loudoun, built by the
colonies, led to two campaigns by imperial forces and eventually
the Cherokee Treaty of 1761, negotiated by the Cherokee leader,
Attakullakulla, the Little Carpenter. Administration of Indian affairs
beginning in 1756 was also influenced by the imperial appointment of superintendents of Indian affairs, both north and south.
Edmund Atkin, author of a plan for management of Indian affairs,
received the first appointment for the Southern District. He was
most active in conferences with the Cherokees and in treaties with
the Choctaws and Alabamas in 1759. John Stuart succeeded Atkin
in 1762 and was significantly engaged in arranging conferences and
boundary treaties: the Congress of Augusta in 1763, Hard Labor in
1768, Lochaber in 1770, and the Congarees also in 1770. The original imperial plan to regulate Indian trade was rescinded in 1768
after vigorous complaints from colonial governors who claimed this
prerogative. The governors of North and South Carolina, primarily on their own initiatives, negotiated their boundary line dispute
that left the Catawba Indians in South Carolina as they preferred.
The opening military conflicts of the American Revolution left
Superintendent Stuart in a questionable status of loyalty, so he left
South Carolina, going first to Georgia and then on to St. Augustine.
Over 95 of the 169 documents in this volume are being published
for the first time. They include journals from the General Thomas
Gage Papers and the Sir William Lyttelton Papers of the Clements
Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Still other documents come from
the manuscripts in the South Carolina Department of Archives and
History in Columbia.
pertaining to the native population enacted by the two
Chesapeake colonies, plus a few key English documents, between
1606 and 1789. Many of the early laws address matters of war and
peace, but others, especially, in the late seventeenth century and
beyond, regulated trade with the Indians, allowed or restricted
the acquisition of Indian territory, or stipulated which Indians,
and under what circumstances, were subjected to servitude for a
term of years or slavery for life. Of less significance from today’s
perspective, but integral to the daily lives of many colonists and
Indians, were statutory inducements to preserve hogs and deer and
to kill wolves and other “injurious creatures.”
The 300-plus documents in this volume are drawn from more than
a dozen published sources, especially, for Virginia, from W.W.
Hening’s Statutes at Large and the many supplements of later years,
and, for Maryland, from the Archives and ancillary compilations.
Volume XVI: Carolina and Georgia Laws, 1663–1788, edited by
Alden T. Vaughan and Deborah A. Rosen, reprints the statutes
concerning Indians in Britain’s three southern-most colonies from
their relatively late establishment until 1789. (Carolina, founded in
1663, became North and South Carolina in 1715; Georgia was not
chartered until 1732.) Especially in South Carolina, the colonists’
reliance on forced labor is reflected in numerous laws to control
“the people commonly called negroes, Indians, mulattoes and
mustizoes” who “have been deemed absolute slaves.” Still, as in all
Volume XV: Virginia and Maryland Laws, 1606–1786, edited by
Alden T. Vaughan and Deborah A. Rosen, reprints the statutes
Document 77
in Chapter II:
Massachusetts in
Volume XVII: New
England and Middle
Atlantic Laws.
Documents 78 and
79 in Chapter II:
Massachusetts in
Volume XVII: New
England and Middle
Atlantic Laws.
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of the British colonies, a great many laws try to regulate commerce
between colonist and Indians in goods, land, or liquor.
The nearly 200 transcriptions in this volume come principally from
the Colonial and State Records of North Carolina, the Statutes at
Large of South Carolina, and the Colonial Records of the State of
Georgia, with several selections from additional sources. A notable
document, here printed the first time, is the Carolina Slave Code of
1696.
Vol. XVII: New England and Middle Atlantic Laws, edited by
Alden T. Vaughan and Deborah A. Rosen, compiles the statutes pertaining to Indians in ten colonial jurisdictions from New
Hampshire to Delaware, plus an appendix of the federal govern-
The documents in this volume are taken from the principal collections for each colony/state in the region, such as the Records of the
Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay, supplemented
by many individual statutes from the Evans microfiche series, and
the Statutes at Large of Pennsylvania. The laws pertaining to Indians
enacted by the national government before 1789 are drawn from
the Journals of the Continental Congress.
Volume XVIII: Revolution and Confederation, 1776–1789,
edited by Colin G. Calloway, brings together the key documents
of the British-Indian and American-Indian diplomatic encounters
during the contests of the Revolutionary era, the treaties and other
foundational documents in the formative years of U.S. Indian
policy. The volume also includes the speeches and statements of
Indian leaders as they responded to and in some cases shaped
these dramatic events.
Due to the large number of American Indian treaties from the
Confederation period, this volume gives priority to the treaties
themselves, the proceedings that led up to them, and materials
that best illustrate the nature of the negotiations. The documents
in this volume are drawn from more than 25 sources, including
American Archives, American State Papers Class II: Indian Affairs,
Colonial Office Records from the Public Record Office, Journals of
the Continental Congress, the George Morgan Letterbook from the
Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, and the Public
Papers of George Clinton.
“George Rogers Clark, addressing the Indians at Cahokia” included
in Volume XVIII: Revolution and Confederation. National Park
Service.
ment’s laws and resolutions under the Articles of Confederation
from 1775 to 1789. This immense body of legislation (835 documents, with citations to many re-enactments) addresses a wide
range of Anglo-Indian encounters—including military, missionary,
commercial, and judicial—in colonies founded by diverse English,
Dutch, and Swedish religious and commercial companies, whose
enactments affected dozens of native nations, from the Micmacs in
the far north to the Lenapes and Nanticokes in the south.
Volume XIX: Southern New England, 1634–1775, edited by
Daniel R. Mandell, deals with European and Native interactions south of the Merrimac River, east of the Connecticut River,
and north of Long Island Sound and Buzzard’s Bay. This region
includes the modern states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and
Rhode Island. Since this series focuses on diplomatic relations, this
volume begins with active European exploration and settlement
and concludes with the end of Indian sovereignty. The purpose of
this volume is to include all extant treaties, conferences, and other
diplomatic matters between natives and newcomers taking place
in or directly involving this particular region. The editor of this
volume interprets this notion liberally, since diplomacy between
Indians and colonists also took place through trade, informal
meetings, chance encounters, and letters. In addition to providing
extensive documentation of the Pequot War of 1636, John Eliot’s
Indian converts, and King Philip’s War, this volume reveals the
details of a long “cold war” that developed between Narragansetts,
English colonies, and Mohegans, and the complex intertribal and
colonial politics that emerged in large part because of that conflict. This volume pulls together documents published in various
collections, checked against the original manuscripts for accuracy,
as well as some unpublished materials from the Massachusetts and
Connecticut Archives.
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Volume XX: Northern New England, 1607–1775, edited by
Daniel R. Mandell, contains a wide range of documents relating
to diplomatic relations between natives and colonists within two
connected regions: primarily Wabanaki territory (today the states
of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont), but also the Housatonic
Valley between the Connecticut and Hudson Rivers, which served
as a crossroads between the far northeast, Iroquoia, and the areas
as far west as the Ohio Valley. It emphasizes English and Wabanaki
relations between 1670 and 1770, as the colonists maneuvered
to solidify and expand settlements along the Maine coast and the
Natives fought or negotiated to stop or mitigate that growth. After
1690, Wabanaki resistance became part of the larger imperial
competition between England (whose administrative center in the
region was Boston) and France (whose colonial capital of Quebec
lay only a week from the mushrooming English coastal settlements).
In the Housatonic River Valley, mixed communities of Mahicans
and refugees (including Wabanakis) sought new accommodations
with the expanding Massachusetts colony; some settled in the
new mission town of Stockbridge but maintained connections with
relatives far to the north and west of the area. New York and the
Iroquois were also deeply involved in the diplomacy in both areas.
Most of the documents in this volume were published in the
Documentary History of the State of Maine, now no longer available, and some previously unpublished documents are from the
Massachusetts Archives and the British Public Records Office. These
documents range from extremely detailed conference minutes to
a bill for the expenses of a Mohawk delegation to Boston, showing how diplomacy took place through trade, informal meetings,
chance encounters, letters, and at least one party in a Boston
tavern.
Carefully edited and annotated by acknowledged authorities on
early European-Indian relations, Early American Indian Documents
is a source of immense value for legal scholars, social historians,
ethnohistorians, and anyone interested in America’s formative
years.
Early American Indian Documents: Treaties and Laws,
1607–1789
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