colonial period, ca. 1600-1775

Describes Britain's American colonies in the year 1769. Includes some fictional material in the form of diary entries by Benjamin Wilcox.

Draws from primary source documents, including letters, diary entries, narratives, speeches, and newspaper articles, to present a history of America from the voyages of Columbus through the Civil War.

Profiles many of the individuals who sought to fulfill the promise of the New World, from explorers to religious and political leaders to writers who captured the spirit of the time, as well as those native inhabitants who strove both to preserve their ways of life and to peacefully coexist with the new settlers.

After the English Civil War, Martha Allen, a domineering servant in her cousin's household in colonial Massachusetts, lives in a world where wolves appear in many guises and assassins are sent from London to avenge the death of Charles I and starts to court with Thomas Carrier, a strong man with a mysterious past who also works for the family, and begins to learn more about Thomas's past and his involvement with the war.

Lucas Turner and his sister, Sally, arrive in New York in 1661 hoping to make a fresh start in the rough Dutch settlement of Nieuw Amsterdam, but they find it is harder to adjust to their new life than they thought it would be.

Describes the fates of the 153 passengers bound for the colony in Jamestown, Virginia, after a hurricane stranded them for nearly a year on uninhabited Bermuda, based on the journal records kept by castaway and English gentleman, William Strachey.

A collection of writings by Arthur Miller, including his masterpieces "The Crucible," "Death of a Salesman," his play "Broken Glass," as well as three other complete plays and an excerpt from a radio drama.

Phoebe, a slave in the Philipse household in colonial New York, must decide on the right course of action when her friend Cuffee is implicated in a reputed slave uprising.

While waiting for a church meeting in 1706, Susanna English, daughter of a wealthy Salem merchant, recalls the malice, fear, and accusations of witchcraft that tore her village apart in 1692.