Native American Laws in Plymouth

The inhabitants of Plymouth Colony sought to coexist with Native Americans in the earliest years of settlement, but the colony’s vision of coexistence grew to presuppose that the English had the right to exercise exclusive sovereignty over the territory they shared, employing coercive tactics to impose the colony’s religion and laws on all its inhabitants. In these laws, enacted by the Plymouth General Council, and appearing in this 1685 compilation of the laws of New Plymouth Colony, colonial authorities outlaw native religious observances, impose corporal punishment for the laws’ infringement, and seek to establish Christian oversight over all Native American public life.