ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the complexities of English-Indian relations in New England, running from early peaceful encounters to accounts of a bloody war, known as King Philip's War that wreaked havoc throughout the region on natives and newcomers alike. Edward Winslow and William Bradford both men played important roles in negotiating early relations with their Indian hosts, including the establishment of an alliance between the English and their closest Indian neighbors. As English-Indian relations deteriorated in the 1660s and 1670s, those Indians who had embraced certain aspects of European culture found themselves in a difficult position, not fully trusted by either Indians or English. Mary Rowlandson, an English resident of Lancaster, Massachusetts, spent nearly three months as a captive of the Wampanoag Indians in the winter and spring of 1676. Lancaster lay near the western edge of English settlement and, until the outbreak of war the previous summer, had enjoyed an amicable relationship with its Indian neighbors.
