How did the Puritans treat the Native Americans?
Okay. Generally speaking, not bad and not great. They were not racist toward them but they did view them as Heathens lead astray by the Devil. Therefore they believed when smallpox epidemics hit Puritans saw disease as God’s way of giving the lands of the heathen to them. They more than likely used this same logic to -rob- Native graves. The Natives were not allowed in Puritan towns and were not allowed to have fire arms. Most Puritan towns justified their claims to Indian lands in one of three ways: by “right” of discovery; by the ancient right of Christians to strip non-Christians of their lands; and by the theory of vacuum domicilium.9 This final doctrine rested on the European notion that land that was unsettled, untitled, or unimproved could be considered “unoccupied.” In Puritan New England it meant that Indian lands that were roamed rather than settled could be “legally” taken by the Europeans. Puritans were able to enforce their legal notions because of their strength relative
