While in London in 1705, Robert Beverley wrote and published The History and Present State of Virginia, one of the earliest printed English-language histories about North America by an author born there. Like his brother-in-law William Byrd II, Beverley was a scion of Virginia's planter elite, personally ambitious and at odds with royal governors in the colony. As a native-born American--most famously claiming "I am an Indian--he provided English readers with the first thoroughgoing account of the province's past, natural history, Indians, and current politics and society. In this new...

Presenting an innovative, interdisciplinary approach to colonial America's best-known literary genre, Andrew Newman analyses depictions of reading, writing, and recollecting texts in Indian captivity narratives.

Presenting an innovative, interdisciplinary approach to colonial America's best-known literary genre, Andrew Newman analyses depictions of reading, writing, and recollecting texts in Indian captivity narratives.

Offers a new framework for approaching American intellectual history, one that transcends political and cultural boundaries and reveals persistence across the colonial and national eras. By discovering the lost intellectual history of one region, Cameron Strang shows us how to recover a continent for science.

Examines the racially inclusive vision of America's first abolition movement. In showcasing the activities of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, the New York Manumission Society, and their African American allies during the post-Revolutionary era, Paul Polgar unearths this coalition's comprehensive agenda for black freedom and equality.