Henry Hudson's Discovery—Block Winters on Manhattan Island—The Dutch Take Possession—The Iroquois Friendly—Immigration of the Walloons—Charter of Privileges and Exemptions—Patroons—Manufactures Forbidden—Slave Labor Introduced—New Sweden—New Netherlanders Want a Voice in the Government,46
[ CHAPTER V. ]
Landing of the Pilgrims—Their Abiding Faith in God's Goodness—The Agreement Signed on the Mayflower—A Winter of Hardship—The Indians Help the Settlers—Improved Conditions—The Colony Buys Its Freedom—Priscilla and John Alden—Their Romantic Courtship and Marriage,52
[ CHAPTER VI. ]
The Puritan Immigration—Wealth and Learning Seek These Shores—Charter Restrictions Dead Letters—A Stubborn Struggle for Self-government— Methods of Election—The Early Government an Oligarchy—The Charter of 1691—New Hampshire and Maine—The New Haven Theocracy—Hartford's Constitution—The United Colonies—The Clergy and Politics—Every Election Sermon a Declaration of Independence,57
[ CHAPTER VII. ]
Where Conscience Was Free—Roger Williams and His Providence Colony— Driven by Persecution from Massachusetts—Savages Receive Him Kindly—Coddington's Settlement in Rhode Island—Oliver Cromwell and Charles II. Grant Charters—Peculiar Referendum in Early Rhode Island,64
[ CHAPTER VIII. ]
Puritans and Education—Provision for Public Schools—Puritan Sincerity—Effect of Intolerance on the Community—Quakers Harshly Persecuted—The Salem Witchcraft Tragedy—History of the Delusion— Rebecca Nourse and Other Victims—The People Come to their Senses— Cotton Mather Obdurate to the Last—Puritan Morals—Comer's Diary— Rhode Island in Colonial Times,68