In this complex and dynamic history, Russell M. Lawson navigates the story of the Piscataqua Valley from Martin Pring in 1603, through the turbulent Indian wars of colonial days, around the volatile American Revolution and into the smooth sailing of the nineteenth-century shipbuilding industry. In Dover, Durham, Exeter and the entire valley, Piscataqua played a major role in the foundation of the United States, all the while surrounded by the river's natural splendor.

The first complete narrative history of Captain John Smith's exploration of the New England coast

A little-known moment in colonial history that changed the course of America’s future. A riveting account of a brutal killing, an all-out manhunt, and the first murder trial in America, set against the backdrop of the Pequot War (between the Pequot tribe and the colonists of Massachusetts Bay) that ended this two-year war and brought about a peace that allowed the colonies to become a nation. The year: 1638. The setting: Providence, near Plymouth Colony. A young Nipmuc tribesman returning home from trading beaver pelts is fatally stabbed in a robbery in the woods near Plymouth Colony by a vicious white runaway indentured servant. The tribesman, fighting for his life, is able with his final breaths to reveal the details of the attack to Providence’s governor, Roger Williams. A frantic manhunt by the fledgling government ensues to capture the killer and his gang, now the most hunted men in the New World. With their capture, the two-year-old Plymouth Colony faces overnight its first trial—a murder trial—with Plymouth’s governor presiding as judge and prosecutor,interviewing witnesses and defendants alike, and Myles Standish, Plymouth Colony authority, as overseer of the courtroom, his sidearm at the ready. The jury—Plymouth colonists, New England farmers (“a rude and ignorant sorte,” as described by former governor William Bradford)—white, male, picked from a total population of five hundred and fifty, knows from past persecutions the horrors of a society without a jury system. Would they be tempted to protect their own—including a cold-blooded murderer who was also a Pequot War veteran—over the life of a tribesman who had fought in a war allied against them? Tobey Pearl brings to vivid life those caught up in the drama: Roger Williams, founder of Plymouth Colony, a self-taught expert in indigenous cultures and the first investigator of the murder; Myles Standish; Edward Winslow, a former governor of Plymouth Colony and the master of the indentured servant and accused murderer; John Winthrop, governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony; the men on trial for the murder; and the lone tribesman, from the last of the Woodland American Indians, whose life was brutally taken from him. Pearl writes of the witnesses who testified before the court and of the twelve colonists on the jury who went about their duties with grave purpose, influenced by a complex mixture of Puritan religious dictates, lingering medieval mores, new ideals of humanism, and an England still influenced by the last gasp of the English Renaissance. And she shows how, in the end, the twelve came to render a groundbreaking judicial decision that forever set the standard for American justice. An extraordinary work of historical piecing-together; a moment that set the precedence of our basic, fundamental right to trial by jury, ensuring civil liberties and establishing it as a safeguard against injustice.

A microhistorical examination of early American culture

How has the U.S. dealt, throughout its long history, with one of the worlds oldest problems? Although poverty has always been part of the human experience, societal reactions and responses to it have been as varied as the condition has been static. Poverty in America has its own turbulent history of causes, effects, and remedies, from debtor's prison to the War on Poverty, from Social Darwinism to food stamps. This in-depth encyclopedia covers the entire history of American poverty from every angle—historical, social, cultural, political, spiritual, and literary. How has poverty been defined in America? What has been done to prevent it? How have minority groups been affected? How has the church reacted? And what, if anything, can be done to eliminate it? Poverty in America covers these issues in vivid detail, from the colonial period to the Industrial Revolution to the global economy of the 21st century. Impactful primary document excerpts from key periods throughout American history are also included, providing firsthand accounts from all sides of the issue. A chronology of events and an extensive bibliography round out this fascinating work.

Originally published in 2011, this volume publishes the letters of Jeremy Belknap and Ebenezer Hazard. The letters encompassed twenty years, from 1779 to 1798, during a time when the United States was warring against England, establishing new governments, building a national identity, exploring the hinterland, and refining an American identity in prose and verse. The letters of Hazard and Belknap tell of an age when science and religion had not yet divorced due to irreconcilable differences, when the most profound philosophy nestled comfortably next to a childlike fascination with the remarkable. The two friends explored in their epistles the nature of love, death, and piety; the best way for humans to govern themselves; matters of religious and scientific truth and the best means to arrive at it; the methods and writing of history; human credulity; and the wonders of nature.

The volumes in this set, originally published between 1967 and 2011, available as ebooks for the first time, include succinct, accessible books on two of the most important periods of American history which offer concise treatment of these major historical topics, as well as some lengthier, finest single-volume studies of the American Civil and Revolutionary Wars ever written and an outstanding reference tool in a 2 volume Encyclopedia. Among other things they: Bring central themes and problems into sharper focus. Discuss the pivotal roles played by Benjamin Franklin and Abraham Lincoln. Examine the role of medical doctors in the northern campaigns during the revolutionary war. Elucidate the character of the underlying moral and political problem of slavery. Discuss the social and political experience of the civil war whilst examining the centrality of what happened on the battlefield. Evaluate the legacy of the Civil War for America and for the world and emphasize its relationship to many of the dominating themes of modern history – democracy, freedom, equality and nationalism.