Connors, Donald F. “The Children of the Forest.” In Thomas Morton, pp. 36-57. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1969.

In the following excerpt from his full-length study of Morton, Connors evaluates Morton's depiction of Native Americans in New English Canaan.

Morton's subject—the Indians of the New England region—in the first of the three books that comprise the New English Canaan was a favorite one with reporters of his time. Nineteen of the twenty short chapters in Book I are filled with speculations about their language and their ancestors, tales of their powwows and chieftains, and observations on their beliefs, their way of life, and their tractable nature. It is a warm, interested, and compassionate report of them. A distinguishing note in this division of Morton's work is his insistence on the simple, contented life of the natives and on their basic goodness and humanity.

Morton tells us that...