Brothers Among Nations

Abstract

This book examines the extraordinary array of alliances and interactions among Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans during the first eighty years of permanent European colonization on the eastern seaboard. It argues that uneasy interdependence was a defining feature of life in 17th-century North America. Webs of alliances entangled all peoples in one form or another from Iroquoia to the Outer Banks. Despite fear, hatred, and widespread intercultural misunderstanding, communities throughout the eastern seaboard became entangled in relations with other cultures. Even when they wished to remain apart, they were invariably connected to intercultural alliance networks. In this period of early colonization, Native American interests and alliances fundamentally shaped the parameters of power in North America. Native alliances and Native American expectations of the meanings of alliance directed the outcome of events for many Europeans, and at times for entire European colonies. Europeans were sometimes clients and tributaries of more powerful Native American nations. Even when Europeans were stronger, they nonetheless had to take native networks into account. Moreover, Africans in North America also formed intercultural alliances and were able to negotiate significant aspects of life, despite the bonds of slavery.