In England, 17th century tyranny led to bloody civil wars, the execution of a king, and the start of a republic. In early New England, many of the same forces propelling violence in England led, not to war, but to the …
On first impression, the witchcraft trials of the Colonial era may seem to have been nothing but a free-for-all, fraught with hysterics. Margo Burns explores an array of prosecutions in 17th century New England, using facsimiles of primary source manuscripts, …
The Capital Crime of Witchcraft: What the Primary Sources Tell Us Read More »
Stroll through history with our newly revised walking tour of early Boston. We start with Shawmut, the land of the Massachusett people, and move to the first days of colonial Boston with the arrival of the Puritans. Who were the …
Join Evana Rose Tamayo in exploring the founding myth of American history: Thanksgiving. From primary school we’re taught that Thanksgiving was a moment of harmony between Indigenous people and colonists. From David Silverman’s acclaimed This Land is Their Land we’ll …
Book Club: This Land is Their Land and the myth of Thanksgiving Read More »
We think of revolutionary ideas originating in 1775/1776 but more than a century before, English political thinkers were proposing representation, elements of democracy and an end to monarchy. Historian Rachel Foxley, University of Reading, explores the unexpected, even startling, radicalism …
Radical Thought and Political Resistance in the English Civil Wars Read More »
If you have ancestors in Massachusetts Bay Colony, you may very well have Osgoods, Stevens, Abbotts, Chandlers, and other founding families in your family tree, as Kathleen Osgood & Richard Pitra do. They will take you on a romp through …
In celebration of Salem 400+, join PEM for a series of four virtual readings of Salem’s Centuries: New Perspectives on the History of an Old American City, written and edited by Donna Seger and Brad Austin of Salem State University. …
In 1675, war broke out in Rhode Island when Native people fired on a handful of colonists, killing a young English man. Or so goes the story. If you're one of the relatively few people in the US who have …
Women, children, combatants, noncombatants, Christian and non-Christian - anyone who was Indigenous during King Philip’s War could be captured and sold into slavery to places as distant as Tangier or the Caribbean. Historian Lin Fisher reveals this little known history …
Surviving Slavery: The Sale of Indigenous People Read More »
For centuries, mainstream understanding of King Philip’s War was based on accounts such as Mary Rowlandson’s story of her captivity and ransom. But then William Apess, Pequot minister, author and activist, came along. His Eulogy on King Philip, published in …
Book Club: Whose Story? Two Views of King Philip’s War Read More »
Why don’t we know about King Philip’s War? The answer, says the Congregational Library’s Tricia Peone, is found in the archives. Historians from John Eliot and Increase Mather wrote their accounts of what happened - and this point of view …