Few images reflect the character of hardy New Englanders like that of the eighteenth-century colonial ranger. Rugged characters such as Robert Rogers, Israel Putnam and John Stark spent much of their lives carving a living out of the harsh wilderness of the region, while later proving themselves in battle against seasoned Abenaki warriors. The Wright and Porter families fought throughout western New England, from skirmishes in Charlestown, New Hampshire, to climactic battles on Lake Champlain and Lake George. From the bloody King Philip’s War battlefields of Massachusetts to the fight for the wilderness of New Hampshire and Vermont, author Anthony Blasi explores the journey from frightened homesteader to toughened wilderness warrior.
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Colonial Taverns of New Jersey
9781467148962
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Eat, Drink, Be Merry and Join the Revolution
New Jersey was the Crossroads of the American Revolution, and its colonial taverns were havens for Patriots and Loyalists alike to debate the political question of independence and even plan much of the Revolution itself. Taverns were the social and political centers of colonial society and the Garden State had a myriad of establishments that played prominent roles in the founding of the nation. Taverns became recruitment stations for colonial militias and provided a meeting place for local committees of safety. George Washington used them as headquarters and safe houses for his spies and local troops.
Discover the intoxicating history of the driving force in the fight for freedom, the colonial tavern in New Jersey. Â
Colonial North Carolina
9781467151283
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Historian Joe A. Mobley recounts events in the Carolinas from prehistory and the first settlement by colonists through North Carolina’s emergence as a state in a new, democratic nation.
The history of North Carolina began before the first European explorers gazed upon its shores. Its Native inhabitants had long dominated the land and waterways. Before the colonial era ended vast numbers of English, Scottish, Swiss, Germans, French, Welsh and Africans had immigrated to North Carolina, pushing Native Americans to the margins and leaving their mark on the culture of the colony. In some ways, colonial North Carolina was unique in the early American experience. The peculiar configuration of the Outer Banks limited its commercial opportunities, but the colony was very much a part of the Atlantic world.
Accused of Witchcraft in New York
9781467153515
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The history of infamous witch trials and witchcraft accusations is deeper than just those most often discussed at Salem. The Empire State has had numerous moments of pandemonium over the potential existence of witches.
From Native Americans viewing European colonists as witches in the Mohawk Valley to witchcraft hysteria among early Long Island colonial settlements, the history of New York state's witchcraft accusations encompases all regions and communities in the state.
Join author Scott R. Ferrara as he presents harrowing narratives of those who were accused of witchcraft, the feverish community dramas that resulted and the lives of those who faced their community as an outsider.
Death in Early New England
9781467154789
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Death in early New England came early and often during those harsh first decades of settlement.
Epidemics, hunger, accidents and childbirth contributed to a heavy toll in New England. Disease in some cases erased entire families, and almost always affected the majority of individuals in the communities. For most families, death was still a private affair. Traditions brought over with European customs and others that were strictly American were eventually interwoven, and these ceremonies, tokens and portraits of remembrance became part of these rites and rituals of mourning. Other forms of remembrance were carved into stone with heart-wrung epitaphs, the cause of death and brief biographies. Burial sites themselves evolved from family plots and church graveyards to public, garden-like cemeteries.
Historian Robert A. Geake explores the development of rites and rituals of death in this New World.Â
Colonial Forts of the Champlain and Hudson Valleys
9781467144865
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From Montreal to New York City, the rivers and lakes of the Hudson and Champlain Valleys carved a path through the primeval forests of the Northeast. The rival French and English colonies on either end built strategic strongholds there throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The establishment of Fort St. Frederic at Crown Point gave the French command over the vital Lake Champlain. The French and Indian War saw the construction of frontier forts such as the English Fort William Henry at the headwaters of Lake George. Fortifications sometimes changed hands and names, such as when French-built Fort Carillon became the famed Fort Ticonderoga after a successful English siege. Author Michael G. Laramie charts the attempts to secure the most important chain of waterways in early North America.
Connecticut Witch Trials
9781626193871
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Connecticut's witch hunt was the first and most ferocious in New England, occurring almost fifty years before the infamous Salem witch trials.
Between 1647 and 1697, at least thirty-four men and women from across the state were formally charged with witchcraft. Eleven were hanged. In New Haven, William Meeker was accused of cutting off and burning his pig's ears and tail as he cast a bewitching spell. After the hanging of Fairfield's Goody Knapp, magistrates cut down and searched her body for the marks of the devil. Through newspaper clippings, court records, letters and diaries, author Cynthia Wolfe Boynton uncovers the dark history of the Connecticut witch trials.
Witchcraft in Colonial Virginia
9781467144247
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While the Salem witch trials get the most notoriety, Virginia's witchcraft history dates back many years before that.
Colonial Virginians shared a common belief in the supernatural with their northern neighbors. While the witchcraft mania that swept through Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692 was significant, fascination with it has tended to overshadow the historical records of other persecutions throughout early America. The 1626 case of Joan Wright, the first woman to be accused of witchcraft in British North America, began Virginia’s own witch craze. Utilizing surviving records, author, local historian and Emmy Award-winning screenwriter Carson Hudson narrates these fascinating stories.
Colonial New England Curiosities
9781626196421
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The New World was full of unusual occurrences and strange trials for the early colonists of New England. Devastating plagues, violent conflicts with Native Americans and freak weather ravaged whole communities. When settlers saw an array of colors dancing through the night sky, they thought the Northern Lights were a sign that their end was near. Violators of public drunkenness were forced to wear large, red embroidered D's around their necks for a year under the strict laws of the colonies. Through the letters, diaries and journals of influential figures of the time, historian Robert A. Geake uncovers the oddities and wonders that amazed New England's pioneers.
Forgotten Drinks of Colonial New England
9781626192492
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New England food and drinks writer Corin Hirsch explores the origins and taste of the favorite potations of early Americans and offers some modern-day recipes to revive them today.
Colonial New England was awash in ales, beers, wines, cider and spirits. Everyone from teenage farmworkers to our founding fathers imbibed heartily and often. Tipples at breakfast, lunch, teatime and dinner were the norm, and low-alcohol hard cider was sometimes even a part of children's lives. This burgeoning cocktail culture reflected the New World's abundance of raw materials: apples, sugar and molasses, wild berries and hops. This plentiful drinking sustained a slew of smoky taverns and inns--watering holes that became vital meeting places and the nexuses of unrest as the Revolution brewed.
Arrival of the First Africans in Virginia
9781467145985
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In 1619, a group of thirty-two African men, women and children arrived on the shores of Virginia. They had been kidnapped in the royal city of Kabasa, Angola, and forced aboard the Spanish slave ship San Juan Bautista. The ship was attacked by privateers, and the captives were taken by the English to their New World colony. This group has been shrouded in controversy ever since. Historian Ric Murphy documents a fascinating story of colonialism, treason, piracy, kidnapping, enslavement and British law.
Pirates of Colonial Newport
9781626192508
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Sail the seas and journey with Newport, Rhode Island's pirates beginning with war and ending with revolution that inspired swashbuckling legends for generations to come!
From 1690 to the American Revolution, many of Newport's fathers, husbands and sons sailed under the black flag. They would return home from plundering the high seas to attend church and serve in public offices. The citizens of Newport welcomed pirates with their exotic goods and gold to spend. The community changed its tune when Newport's prosperous shipping fleet was on the receiving end of piracy during the early 18th century. The locals who had once offered safe haven were suddenly more than pleased to cooperate with London's hunt for pirates.
Author Gloria Merchant delves into the fascinating history of Newport's pirates from Thomas Tew and Captain Kidd's buried treasure to the largest mass hanging of pirates in the colonies at Gravelly Point.
Historic Tales of Colonial Rhode Island
9781609499112
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A fascinating history of the landmarks and architecture that serve as the remnants of Rhode Island's colonial past.
Roger Williams purchased the fertile Aquidneck Island from the Narragansett tribe in 1637. The intrepid dissenters of Rhode Island Colony saw their community flourish with the founding of Portsmouth and Newport townships. It was here that Anne Hutchinson, along with William Coddington and other colonists who had been banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, found shelter from persecution. The Battle of Rhode Island was the only clash between American colonials and the British on Rhode Island soil during the Revolutionary War. From the mercantile success of the Atlantic triangle trade routes to the establishment of the United States Navy, noted historian Richard V. Simpson brings these and other stories from the Ocean State to life. Join Simpson as he explores the landmarks and architecture of the period to discover the remnants of Rhode Island's colonial past.
Colonial Marblehead
9781596294110
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Carved out of a rocky wilderness, Marblehead grew to become one of the most important significant in the British Empire.
Far from the religious hysterics associated with their Salem neighbors, Marbleheaders earned a reputation as a hard-drinking and godless people--people who nonetheless played a significant role in establishing the colonies' independence. In addition to being the fishing capital of Massachusetts, Marblehead is also often referred to as the birthplace of the American Navy, and even the site of George Washington's famed crossing of the Delaware River. In Colonial Marblehead: From Rogues to Revolutionaries, historian and Marblehead resident Lauren Fogle records the story of this grand old town's birth and its significant role in building a nation.
Ghosts of Concord's Colonial Inn
9781467153980
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Nestled in the town square of Concord, Massachusetts, the windows of the Colonial Inn have gazed upon more than three centuries of bloodstained history.
Known for its role in the American Revolution, the Inn was originally built as three separate buildings with the oldest section of the property dating back to 1716. A stone's throw from Old North Bridge, the Inn is notoriously haunted by the ghosts from its Revolutionary War past. Guests report phantom footsteps, disembodied voices, and spirited soldiers lurking in the shadows of the labyrinthine hallways and empty rooms of this infamous inn.
Local author Sam Baltrusis has worked the graveyard shift at Concord's Colonial Inn trying to unravel the chilling mysteries and lingering legends associated with one of the country's oldest and most haunted hotels.
Colonial Inns and Taverns of Bucks County
9781596293441
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Inns and taverns occupied a position of central importance in colonial American society. Rest stop, hotel, provisioning center, drinking saloon, dining establishment, center of news and gossip, quartering for soldiers—these retreats served an astonishing variety of roles. In Colonial Inns and Taverns of Bucks County, author Marie Duess filters the colonial and early modern history of Bucks County through the area's wide array of stagecoach stops, grog shops and taprooms. These inns created a whole world unto themselves, with a distinct vernacular (did you know the concepts of backlog and minding your Ps and Qs both originated from inn life?), set of customs and rituals and purpose within the greater societal framework. Follow author Marie Duess into the past and discover a fascinating facet of life in early Pennsylvania.
Colonial Life in New Hampshire
9780738594569
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It is the belief of the author that the aim of all teachers of history should be to cultivate and foster in the minds of children a fondness for historical reading, rather than the mere memorizing of historical facts. In order to best accomplish this purpose, the child's interest should first be awakened by the historical associations of places with which he is familiar. He should be told the legends and stories of the town or city in which he lives, and at the same time carefully led to see their connection with the broader historical life of the country. Following the stories of local interest, the early history of the colony, with its accounts of the struggles and hardships endured by the early settlers, should be developed. This method will tend not only to broaden and intensify the child's interest in historical reading, but will give to him some conception of the value of his birthright as an individual of the state and of the nation.
A Guide to Historic Burial Grounds in Newport
9781467150163
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While now known as America's summer playground, Newport was at one time the nation's fifth-largest seaport, containing a diverse population that is reflected in its burial sites. Of special significance is the largest marked site for eighteenth-century African Americans in the country, as well as the oldest surviving colonial Jewish burial site. Notable burials include those for William Ellery, who signed the Declaration of Independence, and Richard Morris Hunt, the eminent nineteenth-century architect. It is also home to John Stevens, a noted gravestone carver who led six generations of his family to create exquisite stones throughout the city. Those same traditions are carried on today by the Benson family, America's premier stone carvers. Join local author and tour guide Lewis Keen as he explores the fascinating history behind the city's early burial grounds.
Crime in Colonial New Orleans
9781467159159
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Author David Schneider takes readers into the crime history of colonial New Orleans.Â
The French colonial empire was a brutal money-making machine. And French society, which was carefully organized by the Church and the Crown, broke down in the environment of the Gulf Coast, from New Orleans to Biloxi. The Catholic church lost control of social morals. The colonial regime was unable, or altogether disinterested, to provide for the basic needs of colonists. In this environment, things were very tense, and very wild, but the stories are fascinating, invigorating tales of life on the edge of empire.
Colonial Virginia's War Against Piracy
9781467152198
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The story of a high stakes rivalry between Governor Francis Nicholson and pirate captain Louis Guittar.
Governor Francis Nicholson of Virginia was a proven pirate-hunter and enforcer. By the spring of 1700, his concerns about pirate activity in the Chesapeake Bay and rivers of Virginia were at a fever pitch. Nicholson was unimpressed with the HMS Essex Prize and its commander, John Aldred, who had been tasked with keeping colonial shores safe from smuggling. The HMS Shoreham was sent to Virginia to secure the area from the scourge of piracy, and its arrival brought some relief. Then, the arrival of the ship La Paix, commanded by buccaneer captain Louis Guittar, brought Nicholson on high alert and ready for action.
Author Jeremy Moss tells the stories of Nicholson and Guittar through their fateful battle on the Lynnhaven Bay.
Hidden History of Colonial Greenwich
9781467138574
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Greenwich in the seventeenth century was a lost world with tythingmen and meeting warners, wild horse hunters, herdsmen, townsmen, pounders and planters.
Faced with an ever-changing environment, citizens set many new-world boundaries. Farmers created common fields along the coast and redesigned wilderness. They balanced religious and civic authority, private and common interests and financial inequities across communities. The first comers found it more challenging to please their own than it was to please their God. Their departure from the past fashioned an idealized, yet still imperfect, new society the Puritans proudly called the Greenwich Plantation. Author Missy Wolfe details the strategies and setbacks of creating community in colonial America's First Period.
A View of Boston Common
9780738594903
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Boston Common belongs to the world. In or around it took place events which link it with the history of government for and by the people in this country. From it radiated the influences that led to democratic as opposed to aristocratic rule. To it can be traced the gatherings in town halls by the substantial men in Massachusetts, and other commonwealths; and the famous little red schoolhouses date their inspiration from the public exercises that took place on the classic green in Boston. Boston, the American Athens, stands in the front rank of social, commercial and political prominence. The reputation of families of culture has spread throughout the country, and its leading men, as one generation has followed another, have wielded a mighty influence in moulding public opinion and promoting its resources. It abounds in historic landmarks, which date from Colonial days, and its modern development, with its broad avenues, buildings and parks, has equalled, if not excelled, any city in the world. The Common, with all its historic associations, is now the Park of the City with its fountains, statues, malls and lake. It has always been the scene of all kinds of incidents--historic, dramatic, tragic, and is now the feature in its landscape and beauty. It might be called an indicator of all that ever occurred in Boston.