Review of “The Trials of Thomas Morton” (New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 2019) by Peter C. Mancall

References to the mores, the religion, and the material culture of the Algonquians are part of the latest work by Peter C. Mancall, professor of history and anthropology at the University of Southern California and author of the acclaimed book “Hakluyt’s Promise: An Elizabethan’s Obsession for an English America”. The ethnographic information of the author, who cites seventeenth-century publications and recent anthropology works, enriches this interesting and meticulous research, dedicated to the figure of Thomas Morton and his controversial colonial philosophy. Across six chapters, the volume considers how Morton attempted to create a promised land, quite different from the one envisioned by the Puritans, fostering positive relationships between newcomers and natives, and promoting indigenous values in early New England society. Through the story of his picaresque life, the study highlights the crucial features of the first overseas colonies’ experience: the Puritans’ ideology on the one hand, and the importance of the legal framework provided by charters on the other. A fine lawyer, trained at the Inner Temple in London, Morton challenged the Puritans from a legal point of view and resorted to the power of the written word to achieve his political ends.