Significance
To the Puritans, Sassamon had embodied the success of their conversion efforts and assimilation of Indians into English society. The Pokanoket relied on him as a crucial link between them and the Puritans. Ultimately, he came to embody the fundamental discord between the Pokanoket and the Puritans. His position outside each society represented the underlying irreconcilable differences and distrust between the two.
Read more about this topic: John Sassamon
Famous quotes containing the word significance:
“I am not afraid that I shall exaggerate the value and significance of life, but that I shall not be up to the occasion which it is.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The hysterical find too much significance in things. The depressed find too little.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“Politics is not an end, but a means. It is not a product, but a process. It is the art of government. Like other values it has its counterfeits. So much emphasis has been placed upon the false that the significance of the true has been obscured and politics has come to convey the meaning of crafty and cunning selfishness, instead of candid and sincere service.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)