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In the seventeenth century, as New England colonists spread inland and further encroached on Indian lands, skirmishes broke out regularly between the Indians and settlers. These conflicts, known as The Indian Wars, ranged from sporadic fighting to full-scale wars, the most devastating of which were the Pequot War in 1636 and King Philip's War in 1675.

No book about the Indian wars in New England has been as popular and widely used as William Hubbard's The History of the Indian Wars in New England, written in 1677, just after the end of King Philip's War. Hubbard, a prominent Puritan minister and historian, gathered material from letters and eye witnesses to produce this monumental work, which has been reprinted many times. Marked by a lively narrative, Hubbard's work understandably displays a distinct Puritan bias, whereby the Indians are "savages" and the language of God is present throughout.

Genealogical researchers will be pleased to note that Clearfield's edition of Hubbard's History is a reprint of the 1864 version, which included extensive, informative notes by Samuel G. Drake identifying people and places, as well as a new historical preface and a biography and pedigree of the author.