Early America Offers A Unique Picture Into The Early Part of U.S. History. The Book Explores The

Our Savage Neighbors Review
Written by Peter Silver in 2008, Our Savage Neighbors: How Indian War Transformed
Early America offers a unique picture into the early part of U.S. history. The book explores the
question of how conflict between early European colonials and the Native American tribes
influenced the development of a new American state and national identity. Silver starts his work
by giving a portrait of the diverse yet chaotic world on the eastern North American coast, shared
by newly settled colonials of various nationalities and religious denominations and Native
Americans. Early colonial America was a period marked by distrust and fear between the
colonials and Native Americans and also among the colonists themselves. Silver particularly
points out the religious diversity among the various European colonists and the fears that it
engendered, with various denominations calling for a tightening of orthodoxy among its
followers and separation from non-believers. This same dynamic played out in the relationship
between Native Americans and colonists, with the former advocating restoration movements
and advocating complete separation from the foreigners on their shores.
This tense situation was exacerbated by Indian attacks of the Seven Years War in the mid
18th century that struck various American settlements. According to Silver, the countless Indian
raids, combined with significant loss of colonial life and inability to counter them, created a
sense of collective helplessness and fear among the colonists. The result was the creation of a
shared experience among American colonists, who saw themselves as victims of an unrelenting
assault by savages. These feelings were utilized by various colonial agitators, writers,
pamphleteers, politicians, and religious leaders to whip up fear and hatred against the Native
Americans.
This rhetoric led to the creation of a new sense of pan-European unity among the diverse
yet beleaguered colonists and gave birth to a new identity of a white people to distinguish
themselves from the marauding Indians. Such a development was vital to rallying public support
during the American Revolutionary War and in the subsequent creation of the United States as
an independent political entity. Silver asserts that these shared feelings of unity against a
common enemy also stimulated the growth of democracy within colonial society, as local
governments were forced to tend to the needs and fears of a scared yet enraged population crying
for vengeance and action against native attacks.
In the process, a grassroots campaign of demonization and violence was enacted against
the Native American tribes along the eastern American seaboard, as colonial settlements sought
to avenge for the attacks on their peoples. Furthermore, Silver adds nuance to this argument by
noting that the propaganda effort against Native Americans created persecution and suspicion
against those colonial groups deemed too friendly to the native Indians, such as the Quaker
religious denominations. He also argues that the Indian attacks and the rhetorical responses
against them exacerbated existing ethnic tensions within colonial society, as different groups
such as German colonists accused one another of failing to appreciate the threat of the natives or
worse, being in league with them.
In order to make his argument in a convincing manner, Silver relies heavily on primary
sources for his supporting evidence. In fact, the book is noteworthy for using a wide variety of
period sources of the 18th century, from articles and editorials written in colonial era newspapers
to pamphlets calling the public to action on facing the Indian threat. Silver integrates these
primary sources within the greater narrative, using them as windows to show a glimpse of
colonial era and revolutionary society in the American colonies. At the same time, they
demonstrate potent evidence of the use of Indian attacks by various colonial actors in order to
drum up a sense of unity among the various disparate colonial peoples.

This use of primary sources is further strengthened by Silvers exploration of the
historical sources and mechanisms behind some of the anti-Indian rhetoric, such as their use of
dead bodies and its origins in royal funeral customs of France. The result is a convincing case
that is both well-supported and easily understood not as an abstract theory, but as a historical
process with grave consequences. At the same time, Silver does not neglect the subtle nuances
that exist within the overall historical process that he is describing. For instance, he noted how
the same process of demonizing Indians was transferred towards a similar propaganda effort
against the British to drum up colonial public support during the American Revolutionary War.
In placing as the background the Seven Years Wars and the Indian attacks on colonial
settlements, Silver treads on familiar ground. Historians such as Armstrong Starkey and his 1998
work, European and Native American Warfare: 1675 1815 have written on the subject of
conflicts between Indians and colonials, later extending to Americans. A few of these works,
such as Alfred A. Caves 1996 book The Pequot War, do touch on how colonial narratives
shaped perception of both the Indians and their attacks upon settlements. On a similar note,
Silvers book does its part to explore the cultural roots of anti-Indian rhetoric that emerged
during the late 18th century in the American colonies. At the same time, Our Savage Neighbors
distinguishes itself by arguing that this rhetoric and the cultural narratives that it incorporated
were a central part of creating a unified American identity.
While well argued, Silvers unique look into colonial America and its tumultuous
relations with Native Americans is not without its flaws. For one, the book focuses solely on the
colonial populations on the Middle American states. While Silvers research in that area is
comprehensive and well-supportive of his thesis, more studies in other parts of the American
colonies such as the southern states and in the Northeast could better help flesh out and
strengthen his thesis. In addition, the author fails to put much discussion, if any, on the mindset
or emotions of the Indians that were attacking the colonists. While such discussion may not
affect the overall argument of his work, its inclusion would help to give a more nuanced and
comprehensive picture of the atmosphere of fear reigning in colonial America between colonist
and Indian. Overall, though, Silver presents a unique and well-supported argument that can
potentially open new ways of looking at American history and that of its development of national
culture.

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Our Savage Neighbors Review

and advocating complete separation from the foreigners on their shores.

for vengeance and action against native attacks.

worse, being in league with them.

drum up a sense of unity among the various disparate colonial peoples.

were a central part of creating a unified American identity.

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