ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with the Northeast in 1700, with the British and French empires clashing on the Massachusetts frontier, which forced native peoples into difficult positions. It moves from New England into Pennsylvania and then into the South, showing how in each region native peoples dealt with the imperial ambitions of European powers. Integration of Pennsylvania into the British imperial system of land ownership resulted from a complex set of intercultural relations. Oral tradition speaks of the Delawares as a migratory people, coming from "beyond the Father of the Waters." In the post–Walking Purchase climate, the Delawares sought new ways to achieve community stability in a multicultural world. Western-moving Delawares worked to establish economic, social, and cultural relations with German and Scots-Irish settlers. The chapter concludes by examining the Seven Years' War, a moment of severe crisis in Native American history when the British replaced the French as the strongest imperial power in the Eastern Woodlands.
