An Almost Inconceivable Foe: Anglo-American Women and Violence against Colonial Authority in Seventeenth-Century New England

This article explores how the hardships of the Indian Wars of the late seventeenth century led some women to disobey deeply rooted cultural conventions concerning respect for authority and against publicly aggressive behavior. It was during these conflicts that women began defying and even attacking constables, tax collectors, and tithingmen. Women's willingness to flout these societal strictures illustrates the impact of the Indian Wars on this population; there were moments in which immediate need outweighed the risk of official censure. Women could not bring back those who had been killed or reverse the economic strains of the wars, but they could take steps to preserve their households. Some women were willing to resort to violence in their attempts to do this, in the midst of colonial authorities' failures to shield them from the sacrifices of war.