"For the Good of the Country": Captive Trade Networks in the Colonial Northeast, 1630-1763

Between 1630 and 1763, multiple, intersecting captive trades developed in the colonial northeast as Native Americans, the English, and the French competed for geo-political power in the northeastern borderlands. The captive trades that emerged and evolved did so in the broader context of settler colonialism, where captive bodies became fungible commodities circulated by individuals and corporate bodies for economic, social, or political gain. The development of these captive trades depended upon the commodification of captive peoples who were trafficked in the colonies, across imperial borders, and into the Atlantic world.