Abandoning America : life-stories from early New England

Resource Information

The work Abandoning America : life-stories from early New England represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in European University Institute. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Abandoning America : life-stories from early New England

Title remainder

life-stories from early New England

Statement of responsibility

Susan Hardman Moore

Creator

• Hardman Moore, Susan

Subject

• England -- Emigration and immigration -- 17th century
• England -- Religion -- 17th century
• New England -- Biography
• England -- Biography
• New England -- Religion -- 17th century
• New England -- Emigration and immigration -- 17th century

Genre

• Biography

Language

eng

Summary

Abandoning America brings together the biographies of hundreds of people who crossed over to New England in the 1630s but braved the Atlantic again to return home. Some went back quickly, disenchanted or discouraged. Many invested everything to make New England a success, yet after ten or twenty years resolved to leave America behind. They reached their decisions in the context of dramatic events in England - civil war, fresh opportunities in Cromwell's commonwealth - and against a backdrop of personal dilemmas about family ties, health, prospects and profit. The stories of these people are usually overlooked because they are at odds with the onward march of American history. Abandoning America reconstructs, from thousands of fragments of evidence, the story of individual lives: not only magistrates and ministers, merchants and dissidents, but also wives and widows, servants, apprentices, military men, surgeons, shoemakers and shopkeepers. The book traces settlers' lives with an eye to the information historians look for. In a field where primary sources are thin and difficult, Abandoning America is an excellent tool for reference and research. The book is fully annotated and offers a substantial introduction providing for further historical context. SUSAN HARDMAN MOORE is Senior Lecturer, School of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh.--

Assigning source

Provided by publisher

Cataloging source

UkCbUP

Index

index present

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

dictionaries

Series statement

Cambridge Social Sciences eBooks