During the seventeenth century, the English arrogantly assumed that they had been given the right to rule the American Indian nations of what they called New England and Virginia by their god. Like other European nations, the English believed in the Discovery Doctrine, a religious and legal doctrine under which Christian nations had the right, and perhaps the obligation, to rule over non-Christian nations. The English asserted that there was no true religion other than their version of Christianity and that there was no law, no morality, other than their version of Christian law.
Indians living in areas claimed by the English had few rights under English law and these rights were, of course, inferior to the rights of English men. There were no laws to protect the Indians and the colonists were allowed to make their own policies as long as there was no financial loss.
English colonists tended to be repulsed by Indians and by Indian cultures. In his chapter in Attitudes of Colonial Powers Toward the American Indian, Wilbur Jacobs writes:
“The first settlers’ writings often record that they were repelled by Indian religion, Indian sexual mores, Indian illiteracy, and Indian ideas of dress, personal modesty, and adornment.”
In 1632, Roger Williams wrote a small treatise which questioned the English colonists’ rights to appropriate Indian land under the authority of a royal patent. Colonial officials demanded a retraction. William’s work is described as a “large book in Quatro” and no copies of it have survived. According to archaeologist Patricia Rubertone, in her book Grave Undertakings: An Archaeology of Roger Williams and the Narragansett Indians:
“The circumstances surrounding its disappearance are a mystery, but the treatise apparently provided sufficient justification for Williams’ fellow colonists to want it destroyed.”
In 1633, the Massachusetts General Court enacted a law which ordered that--
“what lands any of the Indians have possessed and improved, by subduing the same they have a just right unto according to that in Genesis.”
While this appears to be a grant of rights to Indians by recognizing their ownership of their farming fields, it was not. The cultural concept of “lands subdued” referred to land that was fenced, plowed, and farmed in the English fashion. Since Indians did not farm in this fashion, Indian farmlands were not seen as “subdued” and could, therefore, be claimed by English colonists.
Segregation
English policies toward Indians were based on segregation. Initially, the rationale for this segregation was based on religion: the English were Christian, and the Indians were heathens. As some Indians converted to Christianity, however, the religious rationale for segregation became less valid and the idea of race began to develop. Historian Francis Jennings, in his book The Creation of America: Through Revolution to Empire, reports:
“Race, identified by skin color, became a more satisfactory means of making essential distinctions.”
Francis Jennings goes on to say:
“The English colonists created the norms of racism that have endured throughout the history of their descendant United States.”
In addition to segregation, the English generally discouraged intermarriage with Indians. In his chapter in Attitudes of Colonial Powers Toward the American Indian, Wilbur Jacobs writes:
“In the few recorded cases where children were born of unions between Indians and white settlers, the white mother was usually a prisoner who had been captured by the Indians in war.”
When offered an opportunity to return to the English colonial life, most of these women declined, preferring to live among the Indians.
Religion
In 1637, the Massachusetts Bay Colony legislature ordered all towns to restrain Indians from profaning the Sabbath. In other words, all Indians, even those who were not Christian, were required by law obey the Christian rules regarding the Sabbath, including not working on this day.
The Massachusetts General Court in 1646 outlawed all Indian religious rituals and mandated heavy fines for those who worshipped in the Indian way. In addition, the Court required that the penalty for blasphemy and for denying the Christian religion was death. In an article inthe American Indian Culture and Research Journal, Lyle Koehler reports:
“Local Indian ruling officials were expected to assess fines for idleness, lying, Sabbath profanation, eating lice, polygyny, and fornication, none of which were offenses before the Puritan intrusion.”
Livestock
One of the issues that created tensions between Indians and English colonists was livestock. English livestock was often allowed to forage freely and since Indian fields were not fenced, English livestock often destroyed Indian crops. Hogs were the worst offenders. In the viewpoint of the English, the livestock owners were not responsible for this damage. The Indians soon found that if they protected their fields by injuring the hog in any way, then the English would retaliate. This retaliation often resulted in the destruction of an Indian village with many people being killed. Hogs were more important to the English than were Indians, and the life of a hog was also more important to them than the life of an Indian. On the other hand, the Indians were seen as having responsibility for damage done to all English livestock in Indian animal traps.
Murder
In Connecticut in 1634, the Niantics killed a Boston trader who was trying to kidnap Indians to sell them as slaves. The colonists were furious about the murder, demanding the death of the murderers. The Pequot sachem Sassacus went to Massachusetts to “cover the dead” because this tribe, the Niantics, were Pequot allies. Under traditional American Indian law, not recognized by the English, it was customary to pay the injured party rather than to execute the murderers.
Sassacus offered the English a payment of furs (40 beaver and 30 otter) and 400 fathoms of wampum, but the English wanted to execute the killers. Sassacus refused. The Pequot leader explained that some of the killers had died from smallpox and that the others had been killed when the English ship carrying them had caught fire. The English, while refusing to acknowledge Indian jurisprudence, accepted payment.
Indians 101
Twice each week—on Tuesdays and Thursdays—this series presents American Indian topics. More seventeenth-century histories from this series—
Indians 101: English religion and American Indians in the 17th century
Indians 101: The English and Indian land in the 17th century
Indians 101: The English right to rule Indians in the 17th century
Indians 101: English wars against Indians in the 17th century
Indians 101: The Dutch and American Indians in the 17th century
Indians 101: The French and American Indians in the 17th century
Indians 101: The Spanish and the Indians in the Seventeenth century
Indians 101: New Sweden and the Indians