Pilgrims bookcover

Pilgrims

New World Settlers & the Call of Home
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Description

As many as one in four English settlers who joined the Great Migration to New England in the 1630s went back. Why?

This book uncovers what might seem to be a dark side of the American dream: the New World from the viewpoint of those who decided not to stay. At the core of the volume are the life histories of people who left New England during the British Civil Wars and Interregnum, 1640-1660. More than a third of the ministers who had stirred up emigration from England deserted their flocks to return home. The colonists' stories challenge our perceptions of early settlement and the religious ideal of New England as a "City on a Hill." America was a stage in their journey, not an end in itself.

Susan Hardman Moore first explores the motives for migration to New England in the 1630s and the rhetoric that surrounded it. Then, drawing on extensive original research into the lives of hundreds of migrants, she outlines the complex reasons that spurred many to brave the Atlantic again, homeward bound. Her book ends with the fortunes of colonists back home and looks at the impact of their American experience.

Of exceptional value to studies of the connections between the Old and New Worlds, Pilgrims contributes to debates about the nature of the New England experiment and its significance for the tumults of revolutionary England.

Product Details

PublisherYale University Press
Publish DateApril 13, 2010
Pages336
LanguageEnglish
TypeBook iconPaperback / softback
EAN/UPC9780300164053
Dimensions7.7 X 5.0 X 1.2 inches | 0.8 pounds

About the Author

Susan Hardman Moore is director of post-graduate studies at the School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh.

Reviews

"Readers will find this work is ''spot on.'' Recounting wonderful stories, its elegant writing and prodigious research make it a worthwhile addition to the literature on mid-seventeenth-century England and New England." -- Carla Gardina Pestana "American Historical Review" (06/01/2008)

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