1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus

Chapter 11 discusses the social, cultural, and political attributes of the indigenous societies of New England. Mann argues that the ideals of liberty and equality were at times better achieved by Native societies than they were by their European counterparts. Mann begins the chapter with the story of Deganawidah, "The Peacemaker", who sought to end the perpetual conflict between the Seneca, Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, and Onondoga tribes. These tribes become the Five Nations, who adopt a consensus-driven body that sought to bring the region together in a loose confederation. Mann discusses the relative political privileges and status enjoyed by women in the Five Nations, compared to contemporary European nations. While not the gender equality desired in modern formulations of feminism, women were the holders of land and heads of clans—an important distinction from traditional conceptions of historical gender roles. However, qualifications existed to this rule: while men cannot be the heads of clans, women cannot be war chiefs, or sit on the main deciding bodies. Mann argues that the philosophical conception of liberty critical to 17th- and 18th-century political philosophy was influenced by European experience of these new societies, to the extent that Europeans were both inspired and aghast at the relative "disorder" in these societies.