The Pequot War (Native Americans of the Northeast)

Rating:
Summary: No one was really innocent
Review: Alfred A. Cave presents us with a quick moving, concise, and interesting narrative of the Pequot War. This is significant in and of itself since it is the first notable narrative of the war in almost a century. Cave attempts to correct the early historiography that was very sympathetic to the Puritans, and also tries to temper the interpretations of later historians that viewed the conflict as being caused solely by Puritan greed. Cave argues that the latter interpretation wrongfully diminishes the significance of Puritan ideology as a cause of the war.

Economics did play a role, but it was not a simple case of Puritans versus Pequots. Instead, there was fierce competition between various tribes, as well as the Dutch and English for control of the trade in the Delaware Valley. Essentially, English plans to extend into Connecticut conflicted with Pequot desires to defend their interests. However, Cave sees that ideology, not Puritan greed or Pequot aggression caused the war. Puritans viewed the natives as "savages" and "children of the Devil," and, therefore, were the Devil's earthly servants deserving destruction. Cave argues that this worldview served as the catalyst for provoking a war with the Pequots.

Cave tends to take this interpretation a little too far. His efforts at correcting the excesses of past scholarship is appreciated, but leaves one wondering why a people so bent on the destruction of Native Americans, allied themselves with the Narragansetts against the Pequots. Nonetheless, this is a very good and interesting book.


Rating:
Summary: The Pequots were driven to extinction
Review: As a student of Dr. Cave, I have enjoyed this book on the Peqout Wars where the Pequots were driven to almost extinction. These Indians were attacked and nearly annihilated becasue of Puritan ideology. The indians threatened the Puritans living on Indian land, so the whites burned the village down. A sad part of American history

Rating:
Summary: The Pequots were driven to extinction
Review: As a student of Dr. Cave, I have enjoyed this book on the Peqout Wars where the Pequots were driven to almost extinction. These Indians were attacked and nearly annihilated becasue of Puritan ideology. The indians threatened the Puritans living on Indian land, so the whites burned the village down. A sad part of American history

Rating:
Summary: The Pequots weren't totally innocent
Review: I just finished this book for a history class. Let me start by saying this book wasn't all that bad. Cave provides some useful information if you want to indepthly study this period.

That having been said, Cave's theories are aren't backed up by fact. His main theory is that the Puritan's were so blinded by their faith and ideology, they were almost forced to attack the Indians in general and the Pequots specifically. If this were true, why did they ally themselves with other Indian groups? Why not just shoot any Indian coming down the road? Cave himself states that English traders, coming across an Indian village that was struck by sickness, spent months caring for them.

Not that I have any love of the Puritans, but they weren't that bad. Cave said they always refered to the Indians as Satan's followers. When relations were good with the Indians, it was only through God's providence. God stayed the hand of the Satanic savages. Didn't the Puritans think everyone on the whole Earth was by their nature evil and only good happened through God's providence? It wasn't just the Indians.

You have to remember that the Pequotes killed and tortured (although the Puritans did provoke them in some ways) dozens of Puritans in gruesome ways. Can you blame the Puritans and their Indian allies for going to war?

Cave finally glosses over a series of unfortunate incidents where both the Puritans and the Pequotes misunderstood each other's intentions and culture. It was no one group's fault for the war.

Rating:
Summary: The Pequots weren't totally innocent
Review: I just finished this book for a history class. Let me start by saying this book wasn't all that bad. Cave provides some useful information if you want to indepthly study this period.

That having been said, Cave's theories are aren't backed up by fact. His main theory is that the Puritan's were so blinded by their faith and ideology, they were almost forced to attack the Indians in general and the Pequots specifically. If this were true, why did they ally themselves with other Indian groups? Why not just shoot any Indian coming down the road? Cave himself states that English traders, coming across an Indian village that was struck by sickness, spent months caring for them.

Not that I have any love of the Puritans, but they weren't that bad. Cave said they always refered to the Indians as Satan's followers. When relations were good with the Indians, it was only through God's providence. God stayed the hand of the Satanic savages. Didn't the Puritans think everyone on the whole Earth was by their nature evil and only good happened through God's providence? It wasn't just the Indians.

You have to remember that the Pequotes killed and tortured (although the Puritans did provoke them in some ways) dozens of Puritans in gruesome ways. Can you blame the Puritans and their Indian allies for going to war?

Cave finally glosses over a series of unfortunate incidents where both the Puritans and the Pequotes misunderstood each other's intentions and culture. It was no one group's fault for the war.