New England Frontier: Puritans and Indians 1620-1675, by Alden T. Vaughan

Book Review by Erika Beltran 

New England Frontier: Puritans and Indians 1620-1675, by historian Alden T. Vaughan is an informative book based on some puritans Ideals. Back in 1965, when the book was published many people still had different views upon what occurred in the Puritan and Indian period. Because of this, the purpose of Vaughan, when writing this book was to gather as much information as possible and explain the both sides of the story. His main topic was to give the Puritan image on the relations of the encounters they had with the Native Americans.


In his point of view, he wrote the book for different purposes. One was to kind of reconstruct a portion of the history of New England in the 17th Century. Second he wanted to give a small portion of a narrative, with the contacts they had. Some people that made this information possible for Vaughan to reach were; John Mason, William Hubbard, and Increase Mather. They were few of the many men that told of wars that involved with Native Tribes. While on the other hand, William Bradford, John Winthrop, Edward Johnson and Cotton Mather were the other few that held information about the Puritan neighbors, and they specifically focused on telling stories on their own people’s encounters with the venture of the New World. He also wanted to have an examination of Puritan Ideals. He gave information on the institutions, and how each adjusted to certain practical exigencies of the Indian Frontier. Lastly, he wanted to bring in, and make notice the impact of the colonization of the Puritans and how each affected on Native Society.

Throughout the whole book, Historian Vaughan gave detailed information on both, the Indian and Puritan encounters. Although this is true, he had a majority of the Puritan side because of all the amount of written documents, such as journals and diaries. Due to their lack of education and their writing skills, this was not so for the Indians. There was not much information that could be used to explain their point of the story. Even though this is true, the book can be broken down to explain the six main reasons of why Vaughan wrote the book and his thought about their situations.

The first was that the Puritans did not push off the Indians from their land. This is so, since the Indians didn’t rightfully own the entire land. Another reason is because, it is said the Red Man only knew of enough land he had for him and his tribe. Just because there was much land, did not mean the Puritans had the right to take over land. They had specific ways to purchase land, and they never tricked the Indians, to steal land.
Secondly, they did not “deplete the food source of the Natives.” Stating that since the English population was increasing the demand of food was doing so as well. Due to this, the meat source was diminishing and their demand on vegetables and grain crops increased as well. Although this is brought up by Vaughan, he states there is no specific evidence or support to explain the deplete of food.


Thirdly, they did not upset the economic pattern. Meaning, the Puritans did not underpay the Red Man for goods or services. Their two major trades of fur and land were what brought some wealth to the Indian. The Red Man believed it was a great way to obtain imported items. Overall they liked being able to obtain some white man goods.

One major fact that always needs to be cleared is that the Puritan did not kill off Indians on “protracted military actions” Even though there were a lot of miniature wars, many Indians fought on the English side. What really caused the Indian to diminish were the inter tribal wars. Another was the diseases going around, that caused about one third of the population to become eliminated. Another was the migration, but some big wars that did cause a large amount of the Red Man to diminish were the Pequot War in 1637 and the King Phillip war of 1675.


The fifth reason was, “The Puritan did not drive the Indian to despair through repeated injustices or cruelties.” This was to be partly true because of the laws that were made. Even though the laws were written by the Puritans, they were determined by “self-interest.” “They had colonial and inter colonial regulations against war. ”Another self interest example was, “prohibition of sale of firearms, other weapons, liquor, and certain restrictions put to Indians.” This had the benefits for “both” but overall more benefit of the safety of the Puritan.

Last but not least, the sixth reason of Vaughan was that the Puritan “was not indifferent to the physical, moral, and spiritual well-being of the Natives. All they were trying to do was convince the Red Man toward the benefit of living in a civilized society and having a civilized religion. They tried spreading Christianity, and wanted them to receive an education. Therefore, an establishment of Indian collegian at Harvard was a testimony of the sincerity they had upon them.

Overall what Vaughan was describing how the two societies from the beginning were going to have some occasional friction. Meaning that since the Indians tribes could not live peacefully within one another, and then this could not have been possible with the Puritans either. Therefore tranquility could have never been possible either.In further, when the Puritans came to New England and saw the Indians, they thought they had a job to be done. They had to convert, civilize, and educate them. This was so because they believed the were less sophisticated, less powerful, less civilized, and less Godly. So because of this Vaughan said that the war didn’t begin because of the skin color and race, but of the moral beliefs and ideals the puritans had and they wanted to convert the Indians into Christians.

So all in all I think Vaughan has a good way of explaining his point of the Puritan and Indian time. He gives some good narratives from the gathered documents. As well as resuming everything into six main reasons with back up evidence and examples. The way he explained the most important with the most detail to the least important with less. His vivid narrative of the Puritan-Indian is a good interpretation of the New England colonization from 1620-1675.