Puritans, Pilgrims and Merchants : Founders of the Northeastern Colonies

Discusses the lives of eight people who were responsible for the founding of colonial settlements

Gr 7 Up-Doherty describes the creation of 6 of the original 13 colonies through brief biographies of their founders, including William Bradford and John Winthrop (Massachusetts), Peter Stuyvesant (New York), Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson (Rhode Island), Thomas Hooker (Connecticut), John Wheelwright (New Hampshire), and William Penn (Pennsylvania). Sidebars provide definitions of terms, additional points of interest, and quotations. Reproductions of prints, paintings, and photographs illustrate the volume. There are a few inaccurate dates; Susanna Hutchinson is captured by Indians in 1643 and released "In 1645, four years after her capture-" and one caption identifies a picture as the signing of the Declaration of Independence-in 1787. Readers may also have a hard time reconciling the statement, "By the time the colonists began to arrive, the American Indian population in New England had been nearly wiped out," with the frequent mention of their dealings with the colonists. Also problematic is that "-Puritans tried to perform good works and obey moral laws to prove they deserved salvation"; Calvinists would not claim that anyone "deserved" salvation, but that good works were a demonstration of a person's salvation. Doherty does provide a great deal of information for report writers, but there is little here that cannot be found in any of the biographies currently available on the subjects or on the colonies themselves.-Elaine Fort Weischedel, Turner Free Library, Randolph, MA

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