TABLE OF CONTENTS
[Preface] v I Settlements North and South [The Founding of Jamestown] 1 [William Simmonds Describes the Settlers’ Problems] 2 [John Smith’s Adventures] 4 [The Founding of Plymouth] 9 [William Bradford’s History Of Plymouth Plantation] 9 [John Winthrop, Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony] 17 [Cotton Mather Describes John Winthrop] 18 [John Winthrop’s Letters to His Wife] 19 II Religious Life in America [New England] 22 [Edward Taylor’s Poems] 23 [The Salem Witch Trials] 25 [Samuel Sewall’s Confession of Error] 30 [The Great Awakening: Jonathan Edwards] 30 [Other Colonies] 33 [John Woolman’s Journal] 33 III Colonial Problems [Indian Troubles] 37 [Mrs. Rowlandson’s Captivity] 38 [Conflict with France] 42 [George Washington’s Letter on Braddock’s Defeat] 42 [Benjamin Franklin’s Comments on Braddock] 44 IV Colonial Life [Transportation] 46 [Sarah Kemble Knight Journeys to Connecticut] 46 [Life in the South] 49 [William Byrd, a Virginia Gentleman] 49 [William Byrd Sees North Carolina] 50 [William Byrd Visits Colonel Spotswood] 52 [Life in a City] 52 [From Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography] 53
The excerpt from Of Plymouth Plantation, by William Bradford, edited by Samuel Eliot Morison, which begins on [page 11], was reprinted by permission of Alfred Knopf, Inc., 1952.
The poems by Edward Taylor, “Housewifery” and “The Joy of Church Fellowship Rightly Attended,” which begin on [page 23], were reprinted by permission of the New England Quarterly, December, 1937.
The picture on [page 1], of Pocahontas saving the life of Captain John Smith, and the picture on [page 22], “The Witch,” were reprinted through the courtesy of the Library of Congress. The picture on the [cover] and the picture on [page 37], of a colonial woman captured by Indians, were reprinted through the courtesy of the National Life Insurance Company of Montpelier, Vermont. The picture of Benjamin Franklin shown on [page 46] was reprinted through the courtesy of the John Hancock Mutual Life Insurance Company of Boston, Massachusetts.