P
followers by his tyrannical prohibition against all
things Spanish, including new crops that the Pueblo
have come to rely upon. The Pueblo soon divide
into pro-Popé and anti-Popé factions.
1682Mary Rowlandson’s captivity narrative is
published.
Four years after her death, Mary Rowlandson’s account
of her 12 weeks as a captive of the Wampanoag and
Narragansett during King Philip’s War (see entry for
FEBRUARY 10, 1676) is published by a firm in Cam-
bridge, England. Titled The Sovereignty & Goodness
of God, Together with the Faithfulness of His Promises
Displayed; Being a Narrative of the Captivity and Resto-
ration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, it will become, after
the Bible, the most popular book in colonial America
and will establish the conventions of a new publish-
ing genre, the captivity narrative. Such narratives deal
with the travails of whites (usually women) taken
as captives during Indian wars. (See also entries for
1824, 1830, and 1851.)
April 9
France claims Indian lands in the
Mississippi Valley.
French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, sieur de La
Salle, descends the Mississippi River to the Gulf of
Mexico and claims the entire river valley for France.
He names the region Louisiana after the French
king Louis XIV. At the beginning of the 18th cen-
tury, France will begin exploiting La Salle’s claim by
sending colonists and traders into the region.
July 15
William Penn concludes a treaty with the
Lenni Lenape (Delaware).
William Penn, the wealthy Quaker founder of the
colony of Pennsylvania, negotiates a treaty with the
Lenni Lenape (Delaware) Indians in which they
cede lands along the Delaware River in exchange
for a wide array of trade goods, including wampum,
blankets, clothing, knives, and guns. The event will
become a popular metaphor for peace in Ameri-
can art, most notably in famous representations by
painters Benjamin West and Edward Hicks.
Penn’s treaty reflects the Quaker belief that In-
dians are owners of their land and that therefore it
cannot be taken from them without their consent and
proper compensation. This idea runs counter to the
prevailing European view that Christians have a natu-
ral right to lands occupied by non-Christians. Penn
also advocates non-violence in whites’ relations with
Indians and respect for Indian culture among non-In-
dians. (See also entry for SEPTEMBER 19, 1737.)“They do speak but little, but
fervently, and with elegance.
I have never seen more natu-
ral sagacity, considering them
with the help (I was going
to say spoil) of tradition; and
he will deserve the name
wise who outwits them in
any treaty about a thing they
understand.... Do not abuse
them but let them have justice
and you will win them.”
—Pennsylvania governor William
Penn on negotiating a 1682 treaty
with the Lenni Lenape (Delaware)1689King William’s War breaks out.
Emerging out of the War of the League of Augsburg
between England and France, King William’s War
is the first European conflict to spread to North
America. This development will have an enormous
impact on Indians, whose European allies will call