God, War, and Providence: The Epic Struggle of Roger Williams and the Narragansett Indians Against the Puritans of New England

In this straightforward account of colonial New England, Warren (American Spartans) brings new attention to the alliance between the Narragansett Indians and the Baptist minister Roger Williams’s Rhode Island settlement. Each community faced antagonism from Puritan leaders, who viewed Native Americans as culturally inferior and rejected Williams’s efforts to increase religious liberty and to separate church and state. As Warren shows, Williams was intensely interested in Native traditions and beliefs, which he found to be more moral than those of most English settlers. In his writings and political work, Williams sought to inculcate respect for cultural difference, often acting as a mediator between Puritan and Narragansett communities. Although Warren claims that Williams and the Narragansett engaged in joint struggle against the Puritans, it’s Williams who receives the most attention and is most fully developed here. Readers wanting to learn more about Native resistance and its culmination in the mid-17th-century King Philip’s War may wish to look elsewhere, but Warren’s book provides a good introduction to key players in Native-settler conflicts, and his clear prose will certainly draw in readers. Agent: John F. Thornton, the Spieler Agency. (June)