Women of Colonial America: 13 stories of courage and survival in the New World

"Using a host of primary sources, author Brandon Marie Miller recounts the roles, hardships, and daily lives of Native American, European, and African women in 17th- and 18th-century colonial America. Hard work proved a constant for most women--they ensured their family's survival through their skills while others sold their labor or lived in bondage as indentured servants and slaves. Even in this world defined entirely by men, a world where no one thought it important to record a female's thoughts, women found ways to step forth. Elizabeth Ashbridge survived an abusive indenture to become a Quaker preacher. Anne Bradstreet penned epic poetry while raising eight children in the wilderness. Anne Hutchinson went toe-to-toe with Puritan authorities. Margaret Hardenbroeck Philipse built a trade empire in New Amsterdam. Martha Corey lost her life in the vortex of Salem's witch hunt. And Eve, a Virginia slave, twice ran away to freedom. With strength, courage, resilience, and resourcefulness, these women and many others played a vital role in the mosaic of life in colonial America"--