The Brittle Thread of Life

Backcountry People Make a Place for Themselves in Early America

By: Mark Carlson Williams

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Hardcover | 1 August 2009 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Hardcover
288 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
24.3 x 16.3 x 2.3

Hardcover

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The colonists who settled the backcountry in eighteenth-century New England were recruited from the social fringe, people who were desperate for land, autonomy, and respectability and who were willing to make a hard living in a rugged environment.

Mark Williams' microhistorical approach gives voice to the settlers, proprietors, and officials of the small colonial settlements that became Granby, Connecticut, and Ashfield, Massachusetts. These people-often disrespectful, disorderly, presumptuous, insistent, and defiant-were drawn to the ideology of the Revolution in the 1760s and 1770s that stressed equality, independence, and property rights. The backcountry settlers pushed the emerging nation's political culture in a more radical direction than many of their leaders or the Founding Fathers preferred and helped put a democratic imprint on the new nation. This accessibly written book will resonate with all those interested in the social and political relationships of early America.

Industry Reviews

"A deeply researched, vivid and absorbing account of the truculently independent people of New England's backcountry and their place in the history of the region and the nation."-Keith Wrightson, Yale University -- Keith Wrightson

"In this finely-crafted comparative study of Granby, Connecticut, and Ashfield, Massachusetts, Mark Williams recounts the struggles of eighteenth-century settlers on the upland frontier of the Connecticut River Valley. The Brittle Thread of Life recalls classic New England town studies of the 1970s, and vividly conveys struggles over land and religion, as well as local, colony, and state-wide politics from the late seventeenth-century to the beginning of the republic."-Richard D. Brown, University of Connecticut

-- Richard D. Brown

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You Can Find This Book In

Non-Fiction History Regional & National History History of the Americas Society & Culture Social Issues & Processes Poverty & Unemployment Social Groups Social Classes Earth Sciences, Geography, Environment, Planning Geography Human Geography

Local & Family History, Nostalgia Local History Rural Communities Specific Events & Topics in History Social & Cultural History Earliest Times to Present Day Modern History from 1700 to 1900

Preface	p. ix
Prologue: Nothing for History to Say?	p. 1
Salmon Brook	p. 11
A Place Called Sammon Brooke	p. 19
On Penalty of Loosing Our Freeholds	p. 44
Zeal for the Support of the Darling Liberty	p. 69
In Our Corporate Capacity	p. 93
Huntstown	p. 117
Settled Our Land According to Your Command	p. 121
We Ought to Obey God Rather Than Man	p. 148
We Do Not Want Any Goviner but the Goviner of the Univarse	p. 175
As They Shall Judge Necessary	p. 201
Epilogue: A Hazardous State and Condition	p. 221
Notes	p. 229
Index	p. 263
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

The Brittle Thread of Life

Backcountry People Make a Place for Themselves in Early America

At a Glance

Hardcover

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

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