In British colonies on the North-American mainland, a political and economic elite employed violence and intimidation to control white subordinates, neighboring Indians, and enslaved blacks. Contemporary laws, customs, and symbols sanctioned much of its brutality. Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, colonial authorities altered their methods and strategies to accommodate changing priorities, concerns, and demographics. Lawmakers and officials were very deliberate-one might even say discriminating-in their use of violence and intimidation, carefully considering the race and economic value of the targeted individual, or group, as well as possible repercussions. By contrast, men of lesser means (especially those living in the interior) tended to be more spontaneous in their interactions with servants, slaves, and Native Americans, employing random violence, intimidating through action rather than laws or threats, and sometimes discovering that unchecked power was not in anyone's best interest.

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