Abraham in Arms: War and Gender in Colonial New England (Early American Studies) [Paperback]

Ann M. Little (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0812219619 | ISBN-13: 978-0812219616 | Publication Date: June 19, 2007

In 1678, the Puritan minister Samuel Nowell preached a sermon he called "Abraham in Arms," in which he urged his listeners to remember that "Hence it is no wayes unbecoming a Christian to learn to be a Souldier." The title of Nowell's sermon was well chosen. Abraham of the Old Testament resonated deeply with New England men, as he embodied the ideal of the householder-patriarch, at once obedient to God and the unquestioned leader of his family and his people in war and peace. Yet enemies challenged Abraham's authority in New England: Indians threatened the safety of his household, subordinates in his own family threatened his status, and wives and daughters taken into captivity became baptized Catholics, married French or Indian men, and refused to return to New England.

In a bold reinterpretation of the years between 1620 and 1763, Ann M. Little reveals how ideas about gender and family life were central to the ways people in colonial New England, and their neighbors in New France and Indian Country, described their experiences in cross-cultural warfare. Little argues that English, French, and Indian people had broadly similar ideas about gender and authority. Because they understood both warfare and political power to be intertwined expressions of manhood, colonial warfare may be understood as a contest of different styles of masculinity. For New England men, what had once been a masculinity based on household headship, Christian piety, and the duty to protect family and faith became one built around the more abstract notions of British nationalism, anti-Catholicism, and soldiering for the Empire.

Based on archival research in both French and English sources, court records, captivity narratives, and the private correspondence of ministers and war officials, Abraham in Arms reconstructs colonial New England as a frontier borderland in which religious, cultural, linguistic, and geographic boundaries were permeable, fragile, and contested by Europeans and Indians alike.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This innovative and thought-provoking analysis of why New Englanders and Indians went to war, and how they interpreted their experiences in war, effectively reshapes our perspectives of culture and society on the early New England frontier."—Journal of American History

"A clearly written, cogently argued book on early American cultural encounters. Highly recommended."—Choice

"A creative and fascinating tour-de-force. Sweeping across two centuries of conflict in the colonial Northeast, from the Pequot War of 1636-37 to the Seven Years' War of the mid-eighteenth century, Little shows how northeastern Native peoples, English colonists, and French settlers interpreted each other's actions through the lens of their own gendered sense of proper social order. The book makes a very persuasive case for gender being central to any study of war that historians might undertake, and the writing flows elegantly from insight to insight."—Nancy Shoemaker, University of Connecticut

About the Author

Ann M. Little is Associate Professor of History at Colorado State University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press (June 19, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812219619
• ISBN-13: 978-0812219616
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #747,294 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great research, great argument, September 8, 2010

By 

History Professor "nsyrett" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Abraham in Arms: War and Gender in Colonial New England (Early American Studies) (Paperback)

Ann Little has written a fascinating account of the ways in which Native Americans and English and French settlers of the 17th and 18th centuries understood the wars they entered with and against each other (particularly the Pequot and Seven Years Wars, but also more generally the ongoing disputes between Europeans and Indians throughout the colonial period in New England). Drawing on English and French sources, Little also incorporates the experience of Indians as well, though of course that remains difficult when they did not leave written records from these periods.

Her argument writ large is that Indians and Europeans actually shared a number of the same understandings about warfare and masculinity, even as they also differed vastly in a number of their cultural practices. And in documenting those practices Little does a great job of showing why and how confusion arose between cultures, but also how Europeans exploited those differences whenever possible in their quest for the land then occupied by Indians. She also includes a really interesting chapter on the experiences of English children taken captive by Indians and sold to the French, many of whom (girls especially) opted not to return home, noting all the reasons that these girls may well have achieved a much more elevated status in French Canadian society than in their native New England.

I've taught the book in a number of classes and it is well argued, accessible, and chock full of evidence. It has worked successfully in those classes and I recommend it both to students of history and to lay readers interested in a more nuanced history of warfare in colonial New England that takes Indian AND European men's AND women's perspectives into account.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Original and Brilliant Scholarship, February 13, 2011

By 

shaz - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Abraham in Arms: War and Gender in Colonial New England (Early American Studies) (Paperback)

Abraham in Arms takes a totally original approach to early New England history. By bringing a gendered analysis to fields of war, cultural contact, and New England community formation, Little shows how concepts of masculinity were inseparable from early Americans attempts to colonize a New World. Whether talking about war, about cultural cross-dressing, or the many gendered facets of captivity, Little smartly shows how combining extensive archival research with a feminist analysis encourages us to rethink how we understand early America.

My graduate students regularly rate this book as one of their favorite pieces of new scholarship in the field. Undergrads find it accessible and engaging, and take away a whole new picture of the silver-buckle wearing Puritans they grew up with.

2 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A waste of paper, July 3, 2010

By 

Big Daddy Z. Top (N.H.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Abraham in Arms: War and Gender in Colonial New England (Early American Studies) (Paperback)

While this may follow feminist theory, it has little history in it or Native voices. You would be better off looking for something by Colin Calloway, Daniel Mandell, Jean O'Brien or Marge Bruchac.