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Award-winning historian Mary Beth Norton reexamines the Salem witch trials in this startlingly original, meticulously researched, and utterly riveting study. In 1692 the people of Massachusetts were living in fear, and not solely of satanic afflictions. Horrifyingly violent Indian attacks had all but emptied the northern frontier of settlers, and many traumatized refugees—including the main accusers of witches—had fled to communities like Salem. Meanwhile the colony’s leaders, defensive about their own failure to protect the frontier, pondered how God’s people could be suffering at the hands of savages. Struck by the similarities between what the refugees had witnessed and what the witchcraft “victims” described, many were quick to see a vast conspiracy of the Devil (in league with the French and the Indians) threatening New England on all sides. By providing this essential context to the famous events, and by casting her net well beyond the borders of Salem itself, Norton sheds new light on one of the most perplexing and fascinating periods in our history.
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“An important new interpretation of how religious change shaped American cultural identity in the early republic.” —Journal of American History Northern New England, a rugged landscape dotted with transient settlements, posed challenges to the traditional town church in the wake of the American Revolution. Using the methods of spatial geography, Shelby M. Balik examines how migrants adapted their understanding of religious community and spiritual space to survive in the harsh physical surroundings of the region. The notions of boundaries, place, and identity they developed became the basis for spreading New England’s deeply rooted spiritual culture, even as it opened the way to a new evangelical age. “I strongly recommend Balik’s book for those studying colonial religious landscapes and heritages not only in New England, but in the nineteenth-century religious diasporas that swept the continent with varying mixes of European colonials and also African and Asian heritages.” —Stanley D. Brunn, University of Kentucky “In this beautifully written and richly researched work, Shelby Balik shows how the travels of early nineteenth century Methodists, Universalists and freewill Baptist itinerant missionaries and congregations recreated the geography of New England Protestantism, setting in motion (literally) a tension between religious rootedness and religious uprootedness, center and periphery, that endures to today. Early American religious history in Balik’s retelling of it is one of bodies in constant movement in and out and around the city on the hill. The delight Balik takes in maps and journeys is infectious. This is a wonderful addition to American religious historiography.” —Robert Orsi, Northwestern University
The foreign missionary movement of the early 19th century grew out of the efforts of churches in New England to deal with the changes then taking place in society. The erosion of traditional institutional structures and social values plus the rise of Unitarianism threatened the destruction of the traditional faith. Mr. Andrew holds that the Congregational clergy used foreign missions not only to implant New England culture in heathen lands but also to awaken a sense of community at home.
During the nineteenth century apocalyptic and utopian fervor blazed across much of the northeastern United States, nowhere with greater intensity than in part of upstate New York called the " Burned-over District." The Millerites, religiously inspired, believed that the Second Coming of Christ was imminent (it was confidently predicted for some time in 1843 or 1844), and they actively sought converts to their belief. Other groups - following the doctrines of Robert Owen, Mother Ann Lee, Charles Fourier, and John Humphrey Noyes - separated from society, which they perceived as imperfect and sinful, to establish new social patterns in utopian communities. Michael Barkun examines all the leading millennial movements of New York in the 1840's showing intricate linkages among social reformers, community builders, and revivalists. In its discussion of the origins, organizational and intellectual styles, and significance of the various millenarian movements, Crucible of the Millennium adds to our understanding of the richly textured fabric of American social and religious experimentation, even to the present day.
Land speculator, revolutionary, pamphleteer, politician, and empire builder, Ira Allen (1751–1814) was a key figure on the Green Mountain frontier. In a remarkable Vermont pioneer generation that included such noteworthy leaders as Ethan Allen, Thomas Chittenden, Moses Robinson, Isaac Tichenor, and Stephen Row Bradley, Ira Allen stood out for his extraordinary energy, vision, and accomplishments. He helped create and sustain the independent State of Vermont; held such important state offices as treasurer, surveyor general, and member of the Governor’s Council; published hundreds of pages defending Vermont against a host of internal and external enemies; and represented Vermont in negotiations with the British Empire, other American states, and Congress. As an entrepreneur Allen amassed a Champlain Valley land portfolio of 120,000 acres and dreamed of developing the commercial and industrial potential of northwestern Vermont to establish profitable trade networks with Canada, England, and France. When his financial reach exceeded his grasp in the 1790s, he devised an audacious plan for a French Canadian rebellion against British authority that he hoped would restore his fortunes and turn his dreams into reality. At the end of his life, alone and destitute in Philadelphia, Allen remained true to his revolutionary roots, throwing his support behind an ill-fated filibustering expedition against Mexican control of what two decades later became Texas. J. Kevin Graffagnino’s biography ably details Ira Allen’s extraordinary life. As the first published examination of Allen’s career in nearly a century, this book shines new light on Allen and his prominent role in Vermont’s formative decades.