women and children as well as direct the colonial militia to spare them during the fighting. In another letter to Winthrop written on July 31, 1637, Williams stated that he approved of the capture and indenture of remaining Pequot women and children in order to "lawfully" ensure that remaining enemy combatants were "weakned and despoild", but pleaded that their indenture not be permanent. Despite his reservations, Williams formed part of the colonial delegation sent to conduct negotiations at the end of the Pequot War, where the fates of the captured Pequot were decided upon between the colonists of New England and their indigenous allies: the Narragansett, Mohegan, and Niantic. Williams reported to Winthrop that he and the Narragansett sachem Miantonomoh discussed what to do with a group of captured Pequot; initially they discussed the possibility of distributing them as slaves amongst the four victorious parties, which Miantonomoh "liked well", though at Williams' suggestion, the non-combatants were relocated to an island in Niantic territory "because most of them were families". Miantonomoh later requested an enslaved female Pequot from Winthrop, to which Williams objected, stating that "he had his share sent to him". Instead, Williams suggested he "buy one or two of some English man". While some indigenous allies of the colonists aided in the export of enslaved Pequot to the West Indies, others disagreed with the practice, instead believing that they should have been given land and provisions to contribute to the wellbeing of colonial settlements, as was their customary tradition concerning slavery. Many enslaved Pequot frequently ran away, where they were taken in by surrounding indigenous settlements; Williams, as part of his constant mediation between colonists and indigenous peoples, negotiated for the return of runaway Pequots and facilitated the trade of indigenous slaves. In 1641, the Massachusetts Bay Colony passed laws sanctioning slavery. In response, under Williams' leadership, the Providence Plantations passed a law in 1652 restricting the amount of time for which an individual could be held in slavery and tried to prevent the importation of enslaved Africans. The law established terms for slavery that mirrored that of indentured servitude; enslavement was to be limited in duration and not passed down to children. Upon the unification of Providence Plantations with Aquidneck Island, residents of the latter refused to accept this law, ensuring it became dead letter. Later in life, at the time of King Phillip's War, tensions with the