Converging Worlds Communities and Cultures in Colonial America, A Sourcebook

Providing a survey of colonial American history both regionally broad and "Atlantic" in coverage, Converging Worlds presents the most recent research in an accessible manner for undergraduate students.

The ideal accompaniment to Converging Worlds: Communities and Cultures in Colonial America, this Sourcebook is a collection of primary documents that contextualize and bring to life the exciting narrative of early America. The expert authors of each chapter have hand-picked multiple documents corresponding with the same chapter in the textbook to help students delve deeper into the diverse geographic regions and variety of topics covered in this time period, including:

• Letters
• Pamphlets and newspaper articles
• Excerpts from diaries
• Patents and charters
• Court records
• And much more!

While the Sourcebook and text make a perfectly integrated package, the Sourcebook also features general introductions and section introductions framing the documents, so students can easily use it on its own to explore the vast colonial world up close.

In addition to the helpful maps, timelines, and further resources available for students on the companion site, instructors will have access to the full text of many of the documents included in the Sourcebook.

For additional information and classroom resources please visit the Converging Worlds companion website at www.routledge.com/cw/breen.

Beginnings

1. European Ambitions by Timothy Walker

Document 1: Spain and Portugal divide the world at the Treaty of Tordesillas, 1494

Document 2: The Spanish way of announcing their intention to take control, 1512

Document 3: Queen Elizabeth issues a patent to Humphrey Gilbert, 1579

Document 4: Sir Walter Ralegh receives the Roanoke patent, 1584

Document 5: The States General of the Netherlands establishes the Dutch West India Company, 1621

2. Tentative Testimonies by Heather McCrea

Document 1: Bartolomé de las Casas decries the "Destruction of the Indies," 1542

Document 2: Spain enrages colonists with "new laws" that protect Indians, 1542

Document 3: Bernal Diaz remembers the Conquest

Document 4: Florentine Codex account of the Massacre at Cholula

3. First Contacts by Michael Oberg

Document 1: Thomas Harriot reports on the native people at Roanoke, 1588

Document 2: Henry Hudson arrives at Manhattan, 1609

Document 3: William Bradford comments on an epidemic among native peoples of New England, 1634

Regions

1. Chesapeake by L.H. Roper

Document 1: A Jamestown planter asks permission to marry a native woman, 1614

Document 2: An Englishman writes the Virginia Company with news of Jamestown, 1620

Document 3: Charles I takes the Governor and Council of Virginia to task, 1637

Document 4: Virginians complain about the founding of Maryland and the actions of their governor, 1635

Document 5: A rebellious colonist denounces William Berkeley, 1676

Document 6: Virginians develop laws on slavery, 1661-1705

2. New England by Richard Gildrie

Document 1: John Winthrop instructs and encourages colonists traveling to New England, 1630

Document 2: A minister warns against the dangers of religious toleration, 1647

Document 3: A militia officer envisions Pequot women captured in war as servants, 1637

Document 4: The Narragansett sachem Miantonomi tries to create a pan-Indian union, early 1640s

Document 5: An English war captive recalls her suffering and the workings of providence during King Philip’s War, 1682

Document 6: The Massachusetts General Court legislates against the immoral behaviors thought to have "provoked" God to allow New Englanders to suffer Indian violence, 1675

Document 7: An Englishman voices sympathy for the suffering of Indians during King Philip’s War, 1677

3. Caribbean by James Robertson

Document 1: Barbadians discover and punish a plotted slave rebellion, 1675

Document 2: A ship master complains of being robbed by Spanish sloops, 1730

Document 3: A patriot planter from Georgia advises his son to leave Jamaica, 1776

Document 4: The governor of Jamaica sympathizes with the plight of his counterpart in Virginia, 1776

4. Middle Colonies by Wayne Bodle

Document 1 The Half Moon crew explores the future New Netherland while seeking a route to Asia, 1609

Document 2 : Early colonists recall the geographical extent of Dutch holdings

Document 3: The Mohawk Iroquois and representatives from the Chesapeake engage in diplomacy under the Covenant Chain, 1677-79

Document 4: William Penn proposes a scheme for intercolonial cooperation, 1697

5. Carolinas by Noeleen McIlvanna

Document 1: An Anglican missionary proclaims the evils of the Albemarle during Cary’s Rebellion, 1711

Document 2: A South Carolina official describes the Stono Rebellion, 1739

Document 3: Josiah Quincy of Massachusetts visits South Carolina, 1773

Themes

1. Salem Witchcraft by Louise Breen

Document 1: A Boston merchant denounces witchcraft beliefs and the Salem trials

Document 2: Magistrates interrogate Tituba, 1692

Document 3: A Boston sea captain and merchant remembers being accused as a witch, 1700

Document 4: Cotton Mather’s advice to two witchcraft judges, 1692

2. Purgatory – Christian Missions by David J. Silverman

Document 1: Puritan Thomas Shepard describes the first encounter between the Wampanoags and John Eliot, 1647

Document 2: Jesuit missionary Paul LeJeune writes of the hardships of life with the Montagnais, mid 1630s

3. Slave Trade and Slavery by Ty Reese

Document 1: A former slave ship surgeon reveals the horrors of the Middle Passage

Document 2: An English traveler comments on the rape of a slave in Massachusetts, 1638

Document 3: Virginia owners advertise for help recovering runaway slaves, 1761-66

4. Women by Linda Sturtz

Document 1: William Bradford describes communal and church obligations using familial and gender metaphors, 1644

Document 2: A Marblehead fisherman describes how a crowd of women killed his two Indian prisoners, 1677

Document 3: An African woman, "prophetess," and freedom fighter in Jamaica, 1732

Document 4: A slave woman pleads with the Archbishop of Canterbury for religious liberty and protests her sale to the West Indies, 1760

Document 5: Georgia’s founder extols the importance of women in ensuring order and productivity during a time of chaos and war, 1742

Document 6: A war captive from Pennsylvania recalls how she made a new life among the Indians

Document 7: Advice from 18th century almanacs on family, women and marriage, 1736-1760

Transformations

1. Backcountries by Warren Hofstra

Document 1 German explorer John Lederer reports on the Shenandoah Valley, 1669-70

Document 2: Moravian missionaries trek through western Virginia, 1749

Document 3: Ohio Company agent Christopher Gist scouts for land and trade opportunities, early 1750s

Document 4: An English traveler presents an idyllic view of the Shenandoah Valley, 1759-60

Document 5: Ben Franklin condemns the "Paxton Boys" as barbaric, 1764

Document 6: The "Paxton Boys" defend their actions and express their frustrations, 1764

Document 7: An Englishman travels the backcountry, 1774

2. Spiritual Awakenings by Kenneth Minkema

Document 1: Johann Arndt on "Dying to the World," 1606

Document 2: George Whitefield proclaims the necessity of the New Birth, 1737

Document 3: John Marrant narrates the "Lord’s Wonderful dealings" following his conversion, 1785

Document 4: Handsome Lake calls for a hybridized nativism, 1799

Document 5: Joanne Southcott’s dispute with Satan, 1802

Document 6: Pierre Cholenec praises Catherine (Kateri) Tekakwitha, ca. 1700

Document 7: An account of the first sighting of the Virgin of Guadalupe

3. Enlightenment by Ned Landsman

Document 1: Women correspond in efforts to help one another "improve"

Document 2: Benjamin Franklin networks and experiments with a secular way of inculcating virtue

Document 3: A Virginia planter expounded on the characteristics of native peoples and Africans

4. New France by Robert Morissey

Document 1: A Jesuit explains the "Polity of the Hurons, and Their Government," 1636

Document 2: A French negotiator works to establish unity among Menominee (Malhominis) and Potawatomi refuses at Chequamegon Bay. 1660s

Document 3: A French ceremony asserting possession at Sault Ste. Marie, 1671

Document 4: Grand Treaty establishes peace with the Iroquois, 1701

5. French and Indian War by James Piecuch

Document 1 Virginia governor instructs George Washington to assess French strength in the Ohio Country, 1753

Document 2 George Washington describes defeat, 1755

Document 3: The colonies contemplate union, 1754

Document 4 A French officer reflects on the direction of the war, 1758

Document 5 Indian Superintendent William Johnson explains the strategic importance of the Iroquois, 1763

Louise A. Breen is Associate Professor of History at Kansas State University. She is the author of Transgressing the Bounds: Subversive Enterprises among the Puritan Elite in Massachusetts, 1630-1692.