New England's Generation: The Great Migration and the Formation of Society and Culture in the Seventeenth Century

by Virginia DeJohn Anderson

Through analyses of the process of migration and settlement and of the symbolic meaning that participants attached to their experiences, the book tells the story of New England's origins as one of dynamism and change. Focusing on the lives of nearly 700 emigrants, the narrative examines such topics as the settlers' motives for leaving England, their experience of the voyage, their patterns of settlement in the New World, and their search for economic security in a new land. The descendants of the founders erected the story of their "great" migration into early British America's only effective foundation myth--a record of achievement that succeeding generations could never match. Rich in detail and insight, this exploration of New England's founding examines both the lives of ordinary people and the transcendent meanings that those lives ultimately acquired.

Genres: History, American History, Nonfiction

248 pages, Paperback

First published August 30, 1991

About the author

Virginia DeJohn Anderson is Professor of History at the University of Colorado, Boulder. She is the author of New England's Generation: The Great Migration and the Formation of Society and Culture in the Seventeenth Century, Creatures of Empire: How Domestic Animals Transformed Early America, and American Journey: A History of the United States.

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

An essential book if your genealogical research or interests draw you to colonial New England. I rank right alongside such classics as Lockridge's "A New England Town," Bailyn's "New England Merchants," Greven's "Four Generations," and Boyer and Nissenbaum's "Salem Possessed."

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found this on my Mom's pile of "books I hope John will just take already so I don't have to lug them to Twice Sold Tales." Probably belonged to my grandfather. Very solid social history of the Great Migration generation. It was a good book for me because there are a few easy takeaways that I can slide into my US History lectures. One big one, that I never really had a clear source for but I kind of knew, was that New England was one of the only places in the English Empire of the 17th century that would have felt basically...normal. Age and gender-wise, I mean. And really not just the English Empire...it was practically impossible to reproduce a relatively "normal" society in New France, or the Caribbean, or Brazil, etc. Almost every European who came to the New World was a young man. But New England, from the very start, had children and old people. Almost as many women as men. Whole families came, who already had a couple children and would soon have more. There were babies. And maybe even more important than that, there was a certain amount of class unity. There were very few totally impoverished people, because they couldn't afford the trip, and almost everyone got land when they got to New England. And there were very few extremely wealthy people. Some, but not many. So you have this migratory generation, who are very unified and honestly ARE kind of special, but also who have a very inflated impression of their own specialness. The which gives birth to the founding mythology of New England. Which, let's be honest, is still wicked strong. New Englanders have always thought they invented America, and because other colonies were settled in this kind of chaotic way, without a real founding generation, and New England DID have this legendary founding generation, they (OK, we) have always had this tendency to paint themselves as the true "original" American citizens.
Anderson also points out this fact that should have been obvious but that I had never really considered, which is that everyone in this founding generation had THE PASSAGE as a kind of chosen-one, Puritan origin story. They all had this reference point, this moment that loomed super large in all of their lives - the time they gave their fate over to God and got on the boat. And you know, it was miraculous to them. Most of them had no experience with ocean going ships, and never would again. They saw whales. They survived storms. They prayed together and sat on deck and talked about how beautiful the ocean was. I know that everyone who crossed the ocean dealt with crossing the ocean, so I'm not saying that I think these people were particularly special. But it is easy to understand why THEY thought they were special.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting overview of what life was like for early immigrants to New England. Examples are drawn from the settlers who arrived on a few specific ships in the 1630s, but quite a lot of the discussion is general (at least to Massachusetts). Some of my ancestors arrived in Lynn about this time and I feel like I have a better idea of what their lives were like now than I did before. Also, the discussion of settlement patterns gave me some new ideas about how to hunt for people in my genealogy research.

[Rachelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very academic book, but essential if you are doing genealogical/ historical research for this period and location.