Red Brethren: The Brothertown and Stockbridge Indians and the Problem of Race in Early America

(Cornell University Press) In the 18th century, New England Indians created the multitribal Brothertown and Stockbridge communities with the intent of using Christianity and civilized reforms to cope with white expansion. Silverman argues that Indians in early America were racial thinkers and that indigenous people rallied together as Indians not only in the context of violent resistance but also in campaigns to adjust peacefully to white dominion. Silverman traces the Indians’ changing notions of race, showing the dynamism of the Indians’ own racial history and the place of Indians in the racial history of early America. Silverman is an associate professor of history at George Washington University.