New England's Generation: The Great Migration and the Formation of Society and Culture in the Seventeenth Century

by Virginia DeJohn Anderson

• ISBN13: 9780521447645
• ISBN10: 052144764X
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1992-11-27
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Through analyses of the process of migration and settlement and of the symbolic meaning that participants attached to their experiences, this book tells the story of New England's origins as one of dynamism and change. Focusing on the lives of nearly seven-hundred emigrants, the narrative examines such topics as the settlers' motives for leaving England, their experience of the voyage, their patterns of settlement in the New World, and their search for economic security in a new land. The descendants of the founders erected the story of their 'great' migration into early British America's only effective foundation myth - a record of achievement that succeeding generations could never match. Rich in detail and insight, this exploration of New England's founding examines both the lives of ordinary people and the transcendent meanings that those lives ultimately acquired.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	1	(11)
1 Decision	12	(35)
2 Passage	47	(42)
3 Transplantation	89	(42)
4 Competency	131	(46)
5 Legacy	177	(45)
Appendix	222	(5)
Index	227