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What is Bradford's view on the Pequot Massacre and its relation to the colony's purpose?
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Bradford viewed the Pequot Massacre as a justified and divinely ordained victory for the Plymouth colony. He dehumanized the indigenous people, referring to them as "savage barbarians," and celebrated their deaths as part of the Puritans' holy mission. Bradford believed the colony's purpose was to fulfill a divine destiny, and he saw the indigenous tribes as obstacles to be removed. His writings reflect a broader acceptance of violence against Native Americans as necessary for colonial expansion.
Bradford, the settler who governed the Plymouth colony for over thirty years, celebrated the massacre of the Pequot people as a victory for his settlement. He was part of the first wave of colonization of indigenous peoples of the northeast area of the so-called United States. Bradford dehumanized the indigenous people of the region and celebrated their deaths as a victory for the white settlers and Puritans and for settler expansion.
For Bradford, and other Puritans, the Plymouth colony existed as part of a divine and holy purpose in which the Puritans were destined to prevail. Bradford seemed to view the indigenous tribes as obstacles to his Puritan settlement and, therefore, as obstacles to be obliterated. In History of Plymouth Plantation , Bradford describes the indigenous people as "savage barbarians". He does not speak of the puritan settlement as an invasion onto the homelands of the local tribes, and he...
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writes similarly to Columbus in his dehumanization and racism towards the local indigenous peoples. Bradford's celebration of the Pequot Massacre certainly fits in with his broader view of the Plymouth Plantation, as he clearly felt justified in participating in one of the first waves of genocide against the indigenous peoples of this land by white colonization.
In his famous chronicle Of Plymouth Plantation, William Bradford wrote this of the Pequot Massacre in 1637:
Those that scraped the fire were slaine with the sword; some hewed to peeces, others rune throw with their rapiers, so as they were quickly dispatchte, and very few escapted. It was conceived they thus destroyed about 400 at this time. It was a fearful sight to see them...but the victory seemed a sweete sacrifice, and they gave the prayers thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them, thus to inclose their enemise in their hands, and give them so speedy a victory over so proud and insulting an enimie.
Clearly, Bradford celebrates the elimination of the Pequots and thanks God for this victory. Perhaps, he felt somewhat justified in this action because an Englishman had been killed by the Pequots. Or, perhaps it was that Bradford felt that his people could go no farther and must take a stand. Nevertheless, the massacre of old men, women and children was a terrible act.
After the hardships of England and further ones in Holland, in which many were imprisoned and bound over to the "assizes," a second attempt was made to leave Holland, but troops came just as the Puritans were about to board, so women and children were left behind while some of the men were on board the ship. This ship then encountered a terrible storms at sea and they were driven to the coast of Norway. So, when the pilgrims finally were able to set sail for American in order to "dislodge betimes to some place of advantage and less danger, of any such could be found," Bradford may have felt that they must survive by whatever means were necessary. His depiction of the Native Americans earlier was a disparaging one, calling them savages and saying that they would just as easily shoot the Englishmen with their arrows. Therefore, it is evident that he celebrated the elimination of anyone that could be a threat to his people.
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