Two Views of Morton

I found the two opposing views of Thomas Morton, that of William Bradford and that of Morton himself to be the most interesting part of the reading. In reading Bradford's writing on Morton, he is portrayed as a wicked man. He worships false idols and consorts with barbarian women. He is a threat to civilization because he provides the barbarians with guns. Bradford would have the reader believe that Morton is evil and deserving of punishment. Morton's own account of his time in New England portray a much lighter, and probably nearer to the truth in knowing Puritan bias, character. Morton comes across as a common man that even we today could relate to. He likes to have a good time. He is also extremely tolerant. Although he refers to Native Americans as savages he shows that he thinks that there is some merit to the Native American way of life, and unlike the Puritans, he sees the Native Americans more as equals. He does not sell them weapons in order to disrupt society, he simply believes that the Native Americans are a good group of people to trade with and can see that trade with them would be prosperous for England. Puritan bias make Morton out to be a despicable being but in knowing that bias and seeing his accounts of himself we can see that Morton was just a regular guy that we can sympathize with. It is a reminder that while the Puritans were a major part of the population there were still other settlers making up the new world and this is an interesting look at how the Puritans view those others.