Showing titles in Colonial Period

Denial of Sadduceism in Salem: Caught in a Devil's Cloyster for Witches explores what it might have been like to live in Salem Village in the years between 1689 and 1693. Sadduceism was the belief that no such thing as ghosts, demons, witches, and other supernatural beings existed. To the minds of many who lived in that era that indicated a disbelief in God and in the teachings of the Bible. The King James translation of the Bible had been published in 1611, so educated people would have been able to read it.

From the Annapolis Convention to the Treaty of Paris, AudioLearn is your complete study guide to the Articles of Confederation. With its convenient format, AudioLearn fits your busy lifestyle, enabling you to study anywhere, anytime. Best of all, you'll significantly increase learning and retention with AudioLearn's proven study format.

The importance of the volume in the American Nation series is that it includes colonies of the three types which persisted down to the Revolution—the crown colonies, the proprietary colonies, and the three New England charter colonies. On one side the volume emphasizes the variety of conditions and experiments in government. On the other side, it brings out that characteristic that gives the volume its name, the steady determination of the colonists in all three types of colonies to enjoy self-government in internal affairs.

Do you want to learn about William Penn but don’t have the time or patience to read a thick book? Then this is the short and concise book for you! Some of the interesting accomplishments of William Penn covered in the book are: An early convert to the Society of Friends or Quaker religion. Wrote several books and pamphlets promoting his faith. One of the original proprietors of the colony of West Jersey. Was granted a large tract of land in North America from King Charles II of England. In 1681 established the proprietary colony of Pennsylvania in North America. Promoted the new colony of...

One of the most infamous American freethinkers in his day, Elihu Palmer has been largely forgotten. No cache of his personal papers exists, and his book has been long out of print. Yet his story merits telling, Kirsten Fischer argues, and not only for the dramatic account of a man who lost his eyesight before the age of 30 and still became a book author, newspaper editor, and itinerant public speaker.

In the frontier town of Springfield, in 1651, peculiar things begin to happen. Precious food spoils, livestock ails and property vanishes. People suffer fits and are plagued by strange visions and dreams. Children sicken and die. As tensions rise, rumours spread of witches and heretics, and the community becomes tangled in a web of spite, distrust and denunciation. The finger of suspicion falls on a young couple struggling to make a home and feed their children: Hugh Parsons, the irascible brickmaker, and his troubled wife, Mary. It will be their downfall.

James Oglethorpe and the “Georgia Trustees” founded the Georgia colony as a haven for Britain's poor and unskilled, where they could live, learn a skill, and become productive members of society. However, the best of intentions often do not come to fruition, and the Georgia colony was no exception. Rather than a debtor's haven, Georgia became a military stronghold, involved in border wars, wars with Native Indians, other colonies, and France and Spain.

Northeast Pennsylvania's Wyoming Valley was truly a dark and bloody ground, the site of murders, massacres, and pitched battles. The valley's turbulent history was the product of a bitter contest over property and power known as the Wyoming controversy.

This book is the substance of several sermons preached by Samuel Willard (1640-1707) for the help of dark souls laboring under divine withdrawings, taken from Psalm 30:7, "Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled."

The English settlement at Plymouth has usually been seen in isolation. Indeed, the colonists gain our admiration in part because we envision them arriving on a desolate, frozen shore, far from assistance and forced to endure a deadly first winter alone. Yet Plymouth was, from its first year, a place connected to other places. Going beyond the tales we learned from schoolbooks, Carla Gardina Pestana offers an illuminating account of life in Plymouth Plantation.

"Common Sense" was published anonymously on January 10, 1776, at the beginning of the American Revolution, and became an immediate sensation. Written in clear and persuasive prose, Thomas Paine marshaled moral and political arguments to encourage common people in the Colonies to fight for egalitarian government. "Common Sense" made public a persuasive and impassioned case for independence, which before the pamphlet had not yet been given serious intellectual consideration.

One of the most famous and influential examples of autobiography, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is the traditional name for the unfinished record of his own life written by Benjamin Franklin himself from 1771 to 1790. Franklin's account of his life is divided into four parts, reflecting the different periods at which he wrote them.

Historian Alejandra Dubcovsky tells a story of war, slavery, loss, remembrance, and the women whose resilience and resistance transformed the colonial South. In exploring their lives she rewrites early American history, challenging the established male-centered narrative.

In this eye-opening account, Eli Merritt reveals the deep political divisions that almost tore the Union apart during the American Revolution. So fractious were the founders’ political fights that they feared the War of Independence might end in disunion and civil war. Instead of disbanding into separate regional confederacies, the founders managed to unite for the sake of liberty and self-preservation. In so doing, they succeeded in holding the young nation together. To achieve this, they forged grueling compromises, in­cluding the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

While the battle had a profound impact, it has also been romanticized and mythologized beyond even epic proportions. Though often forgotten today (more than 250 years after the battle), the Battle of the Plains of Abraham was the culmination of a long siege, and the decisive action itself was an incredibly short affair at less than half an hour. Despite that brevity, both commanding generals were mortally wounded in the exchange, making British General James Wolfe a national hero on both sides of the Atlantic and French General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm a convenient scapegoat.

America, the land of the free and home of the brave. How much do you know of the history of modern-day America? From its discovery by Columbus to its participation in World War 1 and 2 we can see that America has left its mark on the world. It hasn't all been plain sailing and nobody should dare say otherwise, but has it been a success?

King Philip’s War was a conflict fought between English colonists and indigenous peoples in North America toward the end of the 17th century. Primarily, the clash occurred because the European migrants were encroaching on native land. But more than that, it was also a struggle for survival: The fledgling colonies were fighting to establish a semblance of European society against the Native Americans, who saw their cultures evaporating with the tremendous loss of land and life.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that it is much easier to overthrow a government than form a new one, and that in turn it is easier to form a government than to govern. The men who founded America knew these facts in theory, but in the last decade of the 18th century, they learned them by experience when, just a few years after the new Constitution had been ratified, a rebellion arose over taxes.

During the Revolution, relatively little consideration had been given to the role of the federal government in the new nation, and the precise role and authority of an overarching entity with responsibility for all states within the union was a major problem. One of the most urgent tasks Washington faced was the establishment of a treasury to oversee the finances of America and regulate its currency. The Panic of 1792 examines the origins of America’s financial system, and how it was disastrously affected so shortly after the Constitution was ratified.

To the period between 1689 and 1740 has been applied the term “The Forgotten Half-Century.” Most of the writers on colonial history in detail give special attention to the seventeenth century, the period of upbuilding; and general historians like Bancroft and Hildreth sweep rather lightly over the epoch between the English Revolution and the forerunners of the American Revolution.