Abandoning America: Life-stories from early New England
Abandoning America: Life-stories from early New England
Susan Hardman Moore
Copyright Date: 2013
Published by: Boydell and Brewer,
Pages: 400
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7722/j.ctt31nj2b
Search for reviews of this book
Book Info
Abandoning America: Life-stories from early New England
Book Description:

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.

eISBN: 978-1-78204-124-5
Subjects: History
You do not have access to this book on JSTOR. Try logging in through your institution for access.
Log in to your personal account or through your institution.
Table of Contents
Export Selected Citations Export to NoodleTools Export to RefWorks Export to EasyBib Export a RIS file (For EndNote, ProCite, Reference Manager, Zotero, Mendeley...) Export a Text file (For BibTex)
Select / Unselect all
  1. Front Matter
    Front Matter (pp. i-vi)
  2. Table of Contents
    Table of Contents (pp. vii-vii)
  3. List of illustrations
    List of illustrations (pp. viii-viii)
  4. Acknowledgements
    Acknowledgements (pp. ix-ix)
    Susan Hardman Moore
  5. Abbreviations
    Abbreviations (pp. x-xvi)
  6. Map: ‘The South part of New-England, as it is Planted this yeare, 1634’
    Map: ‘The South part of New-England, as it is Planted this yeare, 1634’ (pp. xvii-xvii)
  7. Map: New England, c. 1660
    Map: New England, c. 1660 (pp. xviii-xx)
  8. Timeline
    Timeline (pp. xxi-xxviii)
  9. Introduction
    Introduction (pp. 1-28)

    The stories of those who went over to New England but did not stay are at odds with the onward march of American history. They have largely been overlooked. Yet the newly-built Harvard College saw almost half its graduates sail away to England before 1660. Of the godly preachers who left England in the ‘Great Migration’ of the 1630s – inspiring members of their congregations to emigrate too – around a third abandoned their flocks after 1640 and returned home. Among the population at large, perhaps as many as a quarter of New England’s earliest settlers sailed back across the Atlantic: not...

  10. Life-stories from early New England
    • A
      A (pp. 31-43)
    • B
      B (pp. 44-73)
    • C
      C (pp. 74-87)
    • D
      D (pp. 88-95)
    • E
      E (pp. 96-103)
    • F
      F (pp. 104-115)
    • G
      G (pp. 116-125)
    • H
      H (pp. 126-156)
    • J
      J (pp. 157-165)
    • K
      K (pp. 166-173)
    • L
      L (pp. 174-191)
    • M
      M (pp. 192-216)
    • N
      N (pp. 217-221)
    • O
      O (pp. 222-226)
    • P
      P (pp. 227-259)
    • R
      R (pp. 260-265)
    • S
      S (pp. 266-290)
    • T
      T (pp. 291-298)
    • V
      V (pp. 299-302)
    • W
      W (pp. 303-331)
    • Y
      Y (pp. 332-333)
  11. Appendix 1: Settlers leaving New England before 1640
    Appendix 1: Settlers leaving New England before 1640 (pp. 334-353)
  12. Appendix 2: Settlers visiting England, 1640–1660
    Appendix 2: Settlers visiting England, 1640–1660 (pp. 354-378)
  13. Bibliography
    Bibliography (pp. 379-391)
  14. Index
    Index (pp. 392-412)
  15. Back Matter
    Back Matter (pp. 413-413)