The Sovereignty and Goodness of God, by Mary Rowlandson

Book Review by: Ellen Stecker

The book put together on Mary Rowlandson's captivity is an educating primary document. This edition is especially worth reading because of the editor's Introduction and the Related documents that add to Mary Rowlandson's story. This book has three main sections: Introduction, Primary Document, and Related Documents.

The Introduction gave the history and setting leading up to Mary Rowlandson's capture by Indians. One of the big wars mentioned is Metacom's War. It also told about Mary Rowlandson before she married and moved to Lancaster. At the end, there is information on the time after the war and what happened after Mary Rowlandson was ransomed and returned from captivity. When I think of history, I think of dates and facts, so i am hesitant to think it is interesting. As a result, I have done pretty well at avoiding reading history. However, when I read about the Indians history and Puritans, I found it was very educating and supplementing to the story of Mary Rowlandson.

The Primary Document was written by Mary Rowlandson when she was in captivity. It is divided into sections by each time the Indians moved locations. Each of the movements are called removes, and Rowlandson records twenty. Rowlandson's writings are descriptive on how she is feeling, where she is going, and how the Indians treat her. I liked reading about Mary Rowlandson's experience because it made history a personal experience. Mary Rowlandson's story is unique and her individuality shows a different perspective. More specifically, the different perspective comes from her gender as a woman and her spirituality as a Puritan.

At the end, seventeen related documents helped fill in more information surrounding Mary Rowlandson's experience. A lot of the short documents were first-hand correspondence letters. The English and Indians negotiated for the captives. After the war, there are documents recording what happened to the Indians. Older Indians were sold, and the children whose parents died were placed into English households until age 20. An interesting experience that happened at the same time as Mary Rowlandson is Hannah Dustin's capture and escape. Hannah Dustin was capture with her nurse. With planning and help from her nurse, Hannah Dustin scalped 10 Indians and escaped back to Lancaster. The longest and most important document published with Mary Rowlandson's document is her husband's last sermon. Joseph Rowlandson's sermon gave insight on the Puritan perspective. I noticed the underlying belief from Joseph and Mary Rowlandson is that when people suffer it is God telling them they aren't where they need to be spiritually. I enjoyed reading the sermon because I could compare to what I believe and reflect on personal insights.

Mary Rowlandson's experience is a remarkable story to learn about history with the Puritans, Indians, and English. The history comes alive reading from the person who experienced it. I am thankful Mary Rowlandson recorded her captivity experience. History was brought to my interest in a new way by reading Mary Rowlandson's primary document.

Massachusetts Troublemakers: Rebels, Reformers, and Radicals from the Bay State by Paul Della Valle

Book Review by Jacquelyn McEwen

Throughout the history Massachusetts state has yielded many individuals who have, time and again, significantly impacted the United States. Paul Della Valle, a Massachusetts native and accomplished journalist, is passionate and prideful of his home state and the many “troublemakers” who have come from there. Della Valle’s obsession with finding and researching these historical persons is the origins of his book, Massachusetts Troublemakers: Rebels, Reforms and Radicals from the Bay State. The book was published by The Globe Pequot Press in 2009. This particular publisher, credible but not scholarly, publishes a wide variety of books from outdoor living to cookbooks. This book, a compilation of twenty short biographies, is written more for leisure than scholastic. Della Valle has researched each of his subjects extensively and put together an entertaining historical read.

I chose to read this book because the title captivated me, and while skimming through I found many of the biographies interesting. The quality that especially grabbed my attention was the fact that all the persons in the book stood up for what they believed and wanted something more than to just live a normal life.

In the introduction of the book Della Valle gives a brief personal story about how he first became captivated with these against the grain characters. He also tells a very short personal story about how one subject, Mayor James Michael Curley, directly impacted the life of Della Valle’s grandmother. Della Valle gave some background information on the state of Massachusetts, the Puritans, and the Pilgrims. He also used the introduction to thank those in whom made his book possible. It is in the introduction that one can see that Della Valle is an experienced and captivating writer, but also shows a slight bias both towards Massachusetts and the “troublemakers.”

The rest of the book contained twenty short biographies of men and women, white and black, that stood up for what they believed and started a trend to reform. Della Valle constructed each biography in the same format. He started with their major accomplishment (in some cases what they became famous for), then moved into their childhood and upbringing (if the information was available), and then finally how they either executed and accomplished their life’s work or how they started a trend to reform (sometimes both). He stayed very true to this format throughout the entire book which made it very easy to read- even though this order is not chronological.

While he gave each of his subjects proper amounts of research and information to support the main point of his book, it seemed as though some subjects intrigued Della Valle more and received even more attention and a more informative biography. Some of the subjects that I felt especially obtained Della Valle’s writing include: Thomas Morton, Joseph Palmer, Horace Mann, Dorothea Lynde Dix, and Lucy Stone. On the contrary it also seemed like some subjects did not captivate his interest as much, but were still major reformers of their time. These subjects include: Margaret Fuller, Helen Hunt Jackson, and Robert Gould Shaw.

Throughout the entire book Della Valle expressed his extreme dislike for many of the individuals who would have been seen as the “oppressors” of the multiple time periods. For the majority of the book the oppressors were the Pilgrims, Puritans, and church leaders within these groups. Later in the book white southerners and white men were added to this list. All of these groups had their own ideals of what change should be occurring, and that change did not include that which was brought upon by these reformers.

Della Valle definitely achieved his over all goal in writing this book. I feel he successfully portrayed many “rebels, reformers, and radicals” from Massachusetts. He found freedom fighters, abolitionists, women’s right activists, education reforms, and many others. Della Valle found men and women from all different historical backgrounds and dates, and was able to compile their attributions to society in his book. All the subjects fully encompassed the criteria he laid out in the introduction of his book.

Della Valle’s experienced journalist background definitely came through in his writing style. He used clear language and it was easy to follow and enjoyable. He was witty and humorous. The book was an easy and enjoyable read. Although it encompassed all these things it had it’s short comings. Most of his witty comments came at the expense of characters in the book he was not found of and he portrayed bias writing. He usually did this when referring to the Puritans, Pilgrims, and church authorities. His writing style also linked the book to more of a leisure read than a scholarly one.

Even though his writing is unorthodox in typical historical writing, I feel that this should still be considered a book with great historical value. It is a fabulous introduction to many major influential persons in history. He gives just enough information (who the person was, their background, and their major accomplishments) to entice the reader to do further research on their own. Also his writing style is easy to follow and would not scare potential readers with elaborate language and confusing terms.

I would recommend this book to a reader that has a general interest in reformers of America and is looking for an enjoyable read. I also see this book having great potential as an introduction book to reformers in a classroom setting. Since it is easy enough to read students would be able to get through the book quickly and get a good idea of the diverse range and varieties of reformers.

Over all I enjoyed this book. I feel Della Valle accomplished what he set out to do in this book. Regardless of his writing style I would still consider it an enlightening book of history. I also feel that, despite Della Valle’s occasion bias, the book obtained enough credible sources to prove Della Valle’s thoroughness in knowing his material.

The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon-Read

Book Review by Stephanie Lamp

Annette Gordon-Reed has been a professor at New York law school since 1992. She won a Pulitzer Prize in history for her book the Hemingses of Monticello. She is also recognized as one of the most distinguished presidential scholars. She has written many different books about Jefferson, because of her fascination with him in general.
For many years the life and history of Thomas Jefferson has not been completely told. There has always been rumor, suspicion, and gossip concerning his “moral life”. Gordon-Reed has achieved the most complete record of this unique family by combining approximately three hundred and fifty sources with all the joy, sadness, and horror this brings. The main theme Gordon-Reed appears to always return to is accurate detail no matter how small.
In gathering her resources she never limits herself to records that are specifically from Jefferson’s life. If she finds material with a date, and it is proven that Jefferson was present, she will often combine this information with many other details that seemingly have nothing to do with the immediate story. This technique gives her a fuller story then any of its individual parts. This book does not flow like a typical story, in my mind it seems more like a scholarly thesis. Structurally she is correct, but the story definitely does not always flow.
I did not choose to review this book. Looking back I am glad that I got the opportunity to read this amazing story of a past president’s personal life. Honestly I do not think I would have chosen this particular book. Not because of its content but because of the form it was written in.
Now that the material in this book is in my head I believe Gordon-Reed did complete what she set out to do in telling this controversial story. I want to qualify this statement by saying that she was often repetitious. Hundreds of pages could go by and suddenly we are being told something we covered long ago in previous chapters. I found myself doubting my own memory, looking back to see if I had in fact read this. Surprisingly, I had. Gordon-Reed’s material was sound, but her talent in combing thousands of facts is often lacking. She is talented in digging up facts, but does not create a story that flows. To give you an example; just when we think were through with the seventeen nineties and are currently in the eighteen twenties, suddenly were back in the previous century. Another example is the topic of Jefferson’s migraines. I can’t stress strongly enough how many times throughout this book she finds a new reason to bring up Jefferson’s already established migraines. It almost seems as if she was just trying to complete a specific high word count. Another serious distraction is her continual unnecessary use of “thousand dollar” words, simplicity could have added sufficiently to her subject.
Gordon-Reed’s strength lies in her detailed development of individual characters. It must be said, it’s impossible to finish this book without truly feeling intimate knowledge of Jefferson himself, Sally, their children together, or even his white children from Martha. Interestingly more detail is found concerning Sally’s brothers James and Robert than about Sally herself. Gordon-Reed surmises, this could be largely because there are no existing letters, diaries, or journals to or from Sally herself. We know Jefferson was amazingly private. His inclination to destroy all communication with his wife Martha leads us to understand why nothing exists in written form from Sally. His fear was always that his personal words would fall into the wrong hands, and be used against him.
The author should be given credit not only for her character development but also for her detailed portrayal of daily life in this early American time period. Truly this is an amazing historical investigation. The words that come to my mind are compelling and yet disturbing. Throughout the whole book no matter what details were looking into the most overriding fact seems to be class, race and the differences that could never be breached, not even by love.

The Infortunate: The Voyage And Adventures Of William Moraley, An Indentured Servant, by William Moraley

Book Review by Makala Portis

After reading, The Infortunate: The Voyage And Adventures Of William Moraley, An Indentured Servant, by William Moraley, edited and with an introduction by Susan E. Klepp and Billy Gordon Smith, I got the impression that the editor wants to show how important William Moraley was because not a lot of people know who he is. People know who Moraley's contemporary Benjamin Franklin is and William has most of the similar values. William put an impact on how people view the life of an indentured servant. It's not sugar-coated, it's real and he shares his struggles that he had.

William Moraley's autobiography begins in England during the 18th century. William was the only born child to a clockmaker and his wife. William is a very educated man who was taught in Latin, Arithmetic, Music, and Dance. When William's dad died he left all his property to his wife and left his son only with some clock making tools and a little bit of money. After this Moraley travels to North America and becomes an Indentured Servant and serves a five years.

When he gets there he is sold to a clockmaker who lives in Burlington. After a while he gets tired of working for his master and wants to move to Philadelphia. He mentions this to his master but he is not very happy to hear this and is against it. William takes matters into his own hands and runs away. He doesn't get very far until hes caught and sent to jail. After this he is sent back to his master were he finishes his servitude.

He has different views of things that people wouldn't necessarily agree with. One being is that he viewed woman as property. He envied slaves because they were able to have a family and not have to deal with money. William had different views on people with different ethnicity's. He was a very social person and got to know peoples background and their story. He shared his view on slaves and Native Americans.

William returns to New castle after struggling so much. He moves in with his mother who got married three times after his father died. Three years of living with his mother she dies. In 1743 William Moraley publishes his autobiography, and dies in 1762.

William is a very interesting man who had a hard life. I would recommend this book for anyone who likes to get to know about different people and who wants to read a good book. It has its amusing moments and also describes how someone from long ago dealt with certain situations and got through them.

Forced Founders, by Woody Holton

Book Review by Natalie Martinez

Woody Holton, author of Forced Founders: Indian, Debtors, Slaves, and the Making of the American Revolution in Virginia, argues that Indians, debtors, slaves (etc.) had a bigger influence of America’s declaration of independence than one would first think.
The first section of the book is entitled grievances. He begins by explaining the history between Land Speculators, Indians, and Privy Council. I think this was a very helpful part of the book to include because it showed that the Indians made peace among their nations to try to keep their land. The conclusion of this section showed that the anti-British league that the Indians made in order to keep their land frightened both Britain and the colonists. As a result, the Virginians (colonists) took the land by force ( Dunmore’s War) because Britain was not going to play apart in negotiating land. Because wars generally violate treaties with Britain and the Indians, Virginia needed to declare independence to have the right to do what they pleased. I can see Holton’s opinion of how Indians pushed the Virginians to declare independence because the date of the war 1774 and the date of declaration of independence 1776 are very close.
The second section explains how boycotts from the tobacco growers and small land owners pushed American’s declaration for independence. America was not doing too well economically because Britain would tax everything that America produced and as a result not make much profit at all. This made tobacco growers want to make more profit and the only way they could become independent so that Britain was not in control of their money. However this section doesn’t really result in declaration of independence from Britain, only that they wanted independence and in the end hurt Britain financially by not exporting any tobacco to Europe. As a side note, I did like how the boycott did result in a decreased gap between the classes of small land holders and gentleman. On page 103 it reads, “Although, the recession that began in 1772 had created fissures in the alliance between gentlemen and smallholders, non-importation seemed to close the gap. Farmers apparently appreciated the gentry’s aggressive effort to protect both their civil liberties from parliamentary encroachment and their farms from the auctioneer’s gavel.” It’s amazing how when people work together, classes become less divided.
The third section explains how the issue of slavery contributed to the push for independence. Governor Dunmore threatened the colonists that he would put an end to slavery in America. The colonists didn’t want slavery to end because without slavery they would not progress economically. Britain had already offered freedom to any slaves that would join the military. The colonists wanted to keep the slaves in America. In order to do that, they must become an independent nation. This section again supports his thesis, that slaves want for independence did push the colonists to declare independence.
The last section doesn’t really go into how Indians, debtors, and slaves contributed to the declaration of independence, rather how the idea of independence was accepted and sought after. This section is very detailed with the very complex process of how the American government came to be. The title of this section is called ‘Spirit of the People’ because what the people really wanted was independence.
I appreciated the way Holton was very forward about the not so perfect American history. What I mean by this is how he explains the stingy nature of the colonist and the driven and protective Indians caused America to go into war and try to become independent to do that. I did not feel very proud to see that America wanted slavery while Britain did not. Again this was selfishness so that they could get out of debt by using someone else’s labor for free. Holton was very unbiased in the way he wrote the book. I developed these feeling just from the facts. He did a great job in giving the Indians, debtors, and slaves credit for the push for American independence. I would recommend this book to people who have already taken an American History class because it is a little hard to read if you don’t have background in the terms of those times. I think those people would find it very interesting to connect Indians, debtors, and slaves to important contributors of American history.

The Ties that Buy by Ellen Hartigan-O'Conner

Book Review by Mary Kneefel

After reading The Ties that Buy: Women and Commerce in Revolutionary America, by Ellen Hartigan-O’Connor, one cannot question her passion and interest in American history. She obviously spent a large deal of time, compiling all her sources. Throughout every chapter, there were countless examples of real women who had lived throughout the eighteenth century. She tracked single, married, widowed, and enslaved, women who surpassed great adversity. Despite the title and introduction, I cannot help but question her motives for allegedly writing this book. I feel The Ties that Buy is a fine read, just was not solely based on expanding knowledge of women’s participation in society in an economic sense.

The introduction retells a story of a widow, who must take her deceased husband’s promissory note (written on a nine of clubs) to court. This real account appears so full of emotion of symbolism of women’s status during this era. I believe O’Connor picked an excellent example to begin her novel: as nothing could appear more trivial in the eyes of a judge than a run-of-the-mill playing card. I begin with the assumption her book would be filled with examples to try and spread awareness of women’s struggles, their role in the economy, the process of getting there, and why women failed to receive recognition for so long. It seems she was only able to answer a couple of those. In the midst of examples on how networking, bonds, trusts issues, kin relationships, she added sub-themes. The sudden onset of multiple dimensions in the book, offered greater interest, however, they tended to get lost in translation. This trend continued throughout the course of the text. For example, in Chapter 1, Urban Housefuls, O’Connor she writes about the various components that women used to extend their professional networks beyond the home, such as: managing rent, and hiring slave labor. She continues to expand on the idea providing other tasks like managing account books, and possible advertisements. It seemed she wanted to establish the fact that women were progressing in “allowed” skills, that males initially apposed or never recognized in society. And yet, the next paragraph informs the reader of the eighteenth century law, which prohibits a free man, controlled his wife’s time, and slave’s time. They in turn were able to spend the profit from deals with borders and employers (37) if they had those connections. Another instance can be seen towards the end of the book. In chapter 6, The Republic of Goods, describes the shopping networks women had been able form, and how they had been able to combine domesticity, individual touches, and marketable staples to transform the market as we know it today. After an example on a pair of pockets, the idea that an emotional tie was also being purchased with material value came up. A couple of pages later, she describes how women began personalizing uniforms for slaves. These passages, creates some confusion, because it presents such a negative side of women.

The themes are placed around the idea of class. It describes the socioeconomic status of the era, where men are on top, women in the middle, and enslaved men and women on the bottom. There is no doubt, these issues need to be addressed, but not in such a jumbled manner. In one paragraph women are making improvements, and males are trying to hold them back. Laws continue to tie women down, but they somehow manage to make networks to form economic trade. However, still do not receive recognition, although their presence in the economy is consistent. Slaves at this time were also gaining opportunities, but on a much smaller scale. Laws also held them down. But under all of that, white free urban men and women still had managed to suppress their freedom, as they think that will assert their dominance.

The conclusion of the book carries a distinctly different tone, then both the introduction and the body. In the end there is no heartfelt story of the poor widow Abigail Stoneman, or any woman like her. There is no woman at all. It begins with a quote from Thomas Jefferson to George Washington about the development and position of commerce in the world, not a single reference to anyone of the female gender. Her position seemed to change as well. No longer were women responsible for forming the present-day economy by subconsciously adding domestic details men would not think of. Now men and women efforts complemented each other, as represented in a reference of Enos Hitchcock. O’Connor wrote about how society benefited from unity and equality very eloquently, then makes the reader take a second look after reading the quote, “These forms of knowledge and patterns of work did not just help men navigate the urban economy; they were the economy” (193). No wonder women could not receive recognition for their work a few centuries ago we do not even understand their position now.

The final paragraph of the conclusion is the most puzzling of all: “Such questions, always ambiguous in a society where human beings were brought and sold on city streets, only became more troubling as the nineteenth century progressed” (196). This does not shine positive light on anyone, and does not seem to correlate with the Introduction at all.

I applaud O’Connor for choosing to write a book, on such a complicated topic, with several components, which capture the human race at its worst. But it seems, her primary goal in mind while writing was not trying to describe women and commerce, rather show the facets of societal flaws. Progression of both race and gender was, is, or for that matter will probably never be stable. This too is demonstrated throughout the inconsistent topics in all six of the chapters. The Ties that Buy offers a great deal of information of the economy and class of America throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth century, but do not let cover or Ms. Stoneman’s story mislead you.

New England Frontier Puritans and Indians by Alden T. Vaughan

Book Review by Joseph Osorio

During the 17^th Century the Puritans migrated to the Americas, as a form of escape form England. During their stay in the new world, they met a group of natives, also called Indians that both colonized and disputed among their differences. The book The New England Frontier was written by Alden T. Vaughan, during the colonial periods of 1600-1675. This book was the third edition published in 1995 but the original first edition was published in 1965. The reason for three different editions was to clear up points that Vaughan thinks the reader might misinterpret about the relations between the Indians and the Puritans. New England Frontier investigates the deep roots of the relations between the Indians and the Puritans. Vaughan combines history with stories about the lives of the early Puritans and their actions or attitudes toward the Natives.The book is mainly written to individuals such as young adults who seek to know the truth between the lives of Puritans and Indians in more depth.

Many people get the wrong idea about the relationship between the early Puritans and the Native Indians. They may assume that the Puritans came to take the land of the Indians, enslaved them, and cause a near extinction of the Indian race. However, all these perceptions are wrong. Vaughan, in the book New England Frontier, argues that the purpose of the Puritans attitude toward the Indians was to civilize them and try to get along with the natives. Vaughan takes a while before he goes more in depth with his main argument. The main reason for this is because he wants to prepare the reader of the situation of the Puritans leaving England. Vaughan also prepares the reader by devoting two whole chapters of the different cultures between the Indians and the Puritans. He starts off by showing us the life of the Indians and later the life of the Puritans. This helps our minds understand the clash of cultures that later happens in the book.

As Vaughan is writing the book I get a sense that he is sometimes in favor with the Indians and tries to justify the things they did. For example, in the book Vaughan speak about an Indian tribe named the Pequot’s who did not appreciate the Indians stay in America, therefore they planned to rebel against the early settlers. As Vaughan keeps writing he tries to explain the reasons why they did it, and how they had all the right to fight for their land. Yet, later on in the book he goes on the Puritans side and explains why they had to put up a fortress for protection, and why they had to take captive some prisoners for their well being and safety. Vaughan argues for both sides, creating a sense that he is not bias. Something that sparks interest is how could he know how the Indians felt or how they reacted if they had no written language or recorded documents. The only documentation and record of the early settlers came form the Puritans. There is little information or records about the Indians own writing and their actual feeling about the situation in which they were living. Therefore, I have debated on how Vaughan actually knew the true mind set of the Indians, because all he bases his writing on was their actions. This may lead to the dilemma of actions speak louder than words, but then how specific is the truth interpreted.

Although Vaughan seems confused on which actions to justify on behalf of either race he is able to show how the mix cultures bonded. He also helps the reader picture his composition by writing in detail about their cultures. Vaughan not only makes the word come to life, but also helps the reader visualize the early America, by providing us with early map, drawing, and photographs. Vaughan shows the specific borderlines of the Indian tribes, and also drawings of how the Indians felt on attacks such as the Mystic Fort. Vaughan is also able to tell the story of the relationship between the Indians and Puritans in a chronological order. He goes in order by the specific date and events that have occurred. The author is not too descriptive in the sense of making one feel as if he were there, but he tries to give the primary purpose of the way things were between the two races. During the book the author makes good argument points of how well they got along, but he also realizes that there were always going to be clashes between the races. Nevertheless he writes that even through all this, they were able to put their difference aside and understand and forgive one another.

As Vaughan is concluding the book he argues against other historians, and how they have misinterpreted the relations between the Indians and Puritans and how many of them have “ clouded our understanding of the Puritans treatments toward the Indians.” The author should have gone right into the argument and points of the book, but not of why others were wrong and of why he is the only one that did not fall into the myth of misunderstandings the attitudes of the early settlers towards the Indians. In spite of all this, Vaughan finishes with good arguments points on how the Puritans and the Indians got along with each other despite their differences in culture, and not in their race. The ending of Vaughan’s book is interesting in reassuring that the Puritans relationship between the Indian race had their differences, but they did not look at their skin color instead they saw them as he says “ sinners in God’s great Universe.” In similar response with Vaughan ideas, he makes good arguments with great detail on the relations between the two races that are misinterpreted. They actually were able to put things aside and live together no matter what circumstances they endured. The two races were always able to find some form of compromise that satisfied each side. In all, the author Vaughan described the relationship between the Indians and Puritans from a unique perspective that cleared the minds of many who were misguided by other historians.