Women of Colonial America: 13 Stories of Courage and Survival in the New World (14)

Women of Action

by Brandon Marie Miller

New York Public Library Teen Book List

In colonial America, hard work proved a constant for most women—some ensured their family's survival through their skills, while others sold their labor or lived in bondage as indentured servants or slaves. Yet even in a world defined entirely by men, a world where few 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 her poems 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. And Eve, a Virginia slave, twice ran away to freedom. 

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 the 17th and 18th centuries. With strength, courage, resilience, and resourcefulness, these women and many others played a vital role in the mosaic of life in the North American colonies. 

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, Historical, Womens, American History, Cultural

256 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2016

About the author

Brandon Marie Miller
Author Biography
Brandon Marie Miller earned her degree in American History from Purdue University. She writes about famous people and common folk, about great events and everyday life. Her award-winning books for young people have been honored by the International Reading Association, the National Council for the Social Studies, the American Library Association, the Society of School Librarians International, Voice of Youth Advocates, Bank Street College, the Junior Library Guild, the New York Public Library and the Chicago Public Library, among others.
Brandon encourages readers to think of history as the greatest story of all. Fiction has nothing on history for tales of courage, sacrifice, redemption, cruelty and betrayal. As a writer of history Brandon aims to inspire readers with stories of people who have struggled, overcome great odds, and made a contribution to our human spirit. It’s no coincidence that “story” is right there in the word history!
Born and raised in Illinois, Brandon lives in Cincinnati, Ohio. When not researching and writing, she loves to read biographies and murder mysteries, travel, play games, attend the ballet, watch sports and old movies from the 1930s and 1940s, and enjoy great conversation. She includes her middle name on all her books so people know she is a girl named “Brandon”
Find out more:
www.brandonmariemiller.com
http://hands-on-books.blogspot.com

Reviews

[Sesana · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting collection of biographies, engagingly told. This is a fairly diverse group of women, with very different experiences, everything from relative wealth and comfort to outright deprivation and even abuse. There's a few familiar names, because any collection of colonial era women would be incomplete if it didn't even mention Pocahontas, Anne Hutchinson, Anne Bradstreet, and the women connected with the Salem witch trials. But the majority of the women profiled here are far more obscure than that. I also greatly appreciated the chapters that gave context, describing the average experiences of the average woman during the period.

[Sarah - All The Book Blog Names Are Taken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good introduction to the lives of women at the time. Full review to come.

++++++

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Rating: 4 Stars

For its purpose - to inform younger readers of this time period - this book serves is purpose very well. I did not now when I first snagged it off an end cap in the library that it was YA. This happens to me quite often, but I went ahead with it anyway because when I was younger I really loved this time period. As I have gotten older, my interests have jumped across the pond, but still gave this one a go.

The purpose of this text specifically is to introduce readers to various women of the time. This includes Native American women, indentured servants from Europe, young (mail-order-ish) brides sent for to help the colonies survive, and African women brought to the colonies as slaves.

Though I was familiar with a couple of the women - Pocahontas, Anne Hutchinson, Martha Corey, and Eliza Lucas Pinckney - I still learned new information about them. I had no idea that Pocahontas was kidnapped and held hostage for over a year, or that that is how she came to be married to John Rolfe. Whether she ever actually agreed to the marriage herself or not, is something we will likely never know, but either way she accompanied him to England eventually, where she subsequently died. The later facts I knew, but the rest of my knowledge was scanty at best.

One of the reasons I have lost interest in colonial and revolutionary times is the details regarding the battles and skirmishes between Native Americans and colonists. After I became a mother, it became nearly impossible for me to even watch the news anymore, with such terrible things being reported all the times in regards to crimes against children. Seriously, I can't even watch Law and Order: SVU anymore, and those are fictionalized stories. But there are so many terrible accounts of babies and children murdered by raiding parties, it just makes my heart break for these little ones who were murdered and their mothers who sometimes survived. This book was no exception, as there are accounts both of Anne Hutchinson and many of her children, who were scalped and murdered. Later on in the text there is the account of a young woman who had recently had a baby, and the baby was murdered in a raid as well. I an hardly type the words, it just makes me sick.

Now, I do of course realize the terrible crimes committed against the Native Americans as well, their lands taken, their cultures destroyed, their entire way of life changed after thousands of years. However, my sympathies are not solely given only to the little ones belonging to the colonists. It is all children period, that I simply can not abide the violence against them, regardless of the violence of the age. It just sickens me and makes me hold my sweet girl tighter and give her more hugs, and thank God once again that we live now and not then. This world is not without its own dangers of course, but that is a whole different can of worms I do not care to open right now, nor is it directly related to my review.

I appreciated the way the information in the text was organized. The women are divided up among categories and a brief kind of summary, just a few pages, of relevant information is given before getting to the women themselves. For example, one chapter is called 'In This New Discovered Virginia', where we find first the section on Pocahontas, then the next on Cecily Jordan Farrar. The last chapter, 'A Changing World', gave information about the later period, before discussing four more remarkable women - Eliza Lucas Pinckney, a slave known only as Eve, and Christiana Campbell and Jane Vobe - two women busy running competing taverns in that time.

Overall I would definitely recommend this one for its intended demographic. It is well-written and well-researched. The author left a dedication at the beginning of the text, which I find especially poignant and accurate.

"Dedicated also to the women of Colonial America. How I wish you'd left more of yourselves behind, your stories in your own words."

If only, indeed.

[Olivia C · Rating 3 out of 5]

I give this book 3 stars because I am somewhat indifferent about this book. I didn't hate this book, but I wouldn't rave about it, either. It was kind of boring. I will give the author credit for not weighing down the book with over-complicated writing, but this book was very quote-heavy, which tended to slow down narratives. Some of the stories were quite interesting, but others seemed unnecessary and dragged on. I admire the amount of research Miller did to write the book, and I also appreciate that it revealed the stories of women in colonial America, but I still was not very interested.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great little book describing the lives of Native American women, colonizers and slave women and indentured servants from when the first colonizers and slaves arrived in the late 1500s and early 1600s through to 1776. I actually learned a lot especially about Native American women's lives with their much more equal positions in their tribes but also about the very heavy workloads of women during colonialization. It's no longer surprising that their lives were so short since they basically never stopped working. Few women are detailed from their own writings but since history has always been from men's writings these are especially interesting.

[Sherry Ellis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Women of Colonial America is a well-researched account of thirteen prominent and influential women who lived from 1600 - 1750. Author, Brandon Marie Miller paints a very clear picture of the hardships and daily lives these women experienced in colonial North America. Featured women include Pocahontas, Anne Hutchinson, Anne Dudley Bradstreet, Martha Corey, and other lesser-known names. Within the context of these stories, readers can learn about what life was like for Native American women, the role of women in a world dominated by men, and the Salem witch trials.

Historians will find the included photos of written records, paintings, and buildings fascinating. One I found particularly interesting was a photo of the poem, Meditations Divine and Morall, written in Anne Bradstreet's own hand. Ms. Miller also includes quotes written in the language of the time - a different variation of our modern English. It is interesting to see how the language has evolved over time.

Women of Colonial America is an outstanding book for those wishing to learn more about the history of Colonial America, and the courage and resourcefulness of some of the women of that time. Highly recommended.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first I was concerned that this narrative would skip over or dismiss Indigenous women out of hand. But as we meander through the early days of what would become the United States, there’s a fair amount of acknowledgment of the women who were already here. Similarly, there is no flinching away from the use of women as slaves.

As the book moves through the colonies, one little tidbit of note was that Harvard was originally funded as a direct reaction to the heresies of Anne Hutchinson and her trial (62). A little later, in a discussion about indentured servitude, we learn of a case where a female indentured servant got pregnant, then claimed she lost the baby. She was convicted of killing her child and hanged (92).

Full of interesting women from United States’ colonial history, the narrative does not neglect the way that white women colonists treated both indigenous women and enslaved women. The author does a pretty even-handed job at telling all these stories, finishing up with a reminder that most women left little trace of themselves at this time, but the erasure of Native American and African American women has been even more pronounced.

And yet these women lived full lives, and should be remembered.

[Ben Truong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Women of Colonial America: 13 Stories of Courage and Survival in the New World is written by Brandon Marie Miller and pays homage to thirteen women heroes that lived in colonial America and how difficult life could be during those time. This book is divided into eight chapters of which six of them are dedicated to the chosen women.

Miller has written powerful, riveting, and concise biographies of each of these Baker's dozen of women who lived during Colonial America. It is written intelligently with engaging narrative, which recounts the roles, hardships, and daily lives of Native American, European, and African women in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. These women are strong, courageous, resilient, and resourceful and are just a tiny shard in the mosaic that is the life in Colonial America.

All in all, Women of Colonial America: 13 Stories of Courage and Survival in the New World is a wonderfully written book and a magnificent collection of mini-biographies of thirteen distinctive early Americans, who happens to be women. It is a good read and reference book for anyone who wants to learn more about women in history.

[Sofia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is probably the first non-fiction book that I liked that was not a memoir/biography. It was just so intriguing to read about the lives of forgotten women in colonial America. The author talks about the lives of Native American women as well which I found super interesting.

This book has a lot of listing and going through daily tasks of women which I didn't quite mind. This book talked a lot about the culture of colonial America; it didn't focus much on historical events. I still really enjoyed it even though some parts I sort of skimmed. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves history and is interested in reading about women who stood up against the norms of their society.

[Miriam Kahn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series of 13 biographical sketches provide a sweeping history of women in the American colonial period. You'll read about famous and not so famous women, their occupations and daily lives, their trials building a new land along side their men. The author includes some men, but they aren't the focus of any of the biographies. Beautifully written, the sketches and historical pieces will hold everyone's attention.

for a longer review, see the OHIOANA Quarterly Newsletter http://www.ohioana.org

[Mark Matzeder · Rating 4 out of 5]

I originally read this book because one of my ancestors has her own section in the early chapters and I am trying to get a sense of young adult narrative conventions so I can tell my grandson about our own ancestors who first came to North America. These stories are both fascinating and informative. It's a very easy read. The tales of each individual woman have a lively pace. It is well-cited. And author Brandon Marie Miller honestly portrays the warts of English-American history in a manner appropriate to its target audience.

[Heather Bondeson · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting collection of short stories highlighting some famous and some lesser-known colonial women. The book provides a peek into the difficult life of common women in colonial America and the specific hardships of select women. The endurance, fierce strength, courage and fortitude of our founding women is a timely reminder of our origins and our blessings.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provided a nice overview of the lives of women in the British colonies in the 1600s and 1700s in America. It was written at a young adult level, so it wasn't as detailed as some may want, but it provided a good overview and detailed accounts of women who lived during this time period.

[Ashley Morrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love how each stories were written by brave and important colonial women. It was not easy for women to live in the Colonial Times since they were pressured to be housewives instead of their own person.

[Olivia · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first it was very interesting but as I kept reading it kept dragging on, reading as a documentary.

[Heather Sobek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating stories but wish the narration had a faster pace to hook the reader.

[Dan Vincent · Rating 2 out of 5]

For my own reasons, I expected the stories to be centered around the American Revolution, 1774-1784. It was not. I read about 5 of the stories, and was not interested in the rest.

[Jennifer Sommer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Find my interview with the author here:
https://jennifersommer.weebly.com/jen...

[Chelsea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Puritan poet Anne bradstreet was interesting. Quick history fix.

[Carmen Gordon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful book covering 13 different women's lives in colonial America. I found it very interesting.

[Abby Epplett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Plenty of fun facts about courageous women in colonial America.

[Kate Welsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This did a nice job of using the lives of specific interesting people to get kids engaged with history, and of foregrounding the stories of women (including Native American and enslaved African American women along with European colonists) that are so often overlooked in textbooks and classrooms.

[Literary Chic · Rating 5 out of 5]

GREAT READ!! Not the same boring blurb from US History 101 you remember. A fresh and fair look at women of colonial America. Ms. Miller covers women from the famed Pocahontas to the lesser known tavern owner Christiana Campbell. Each heroine is portrayed fairly, revealing her strengths and failures (i.e. slave owner, etc.) An interesting quick read for adults and a great educational tool for younger readers. I received this book in a Goodreads Giveaway.

[Juliana Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic collection of stories and historical artifacts documenting the lives of 13 women who lived when America was young. Native American women, European American women, and African American women are all featured in honest compelling narratives. Although this book is shelved for Young Adults, I know many adults would love reading it and learning more about the lives of women in colonial America. This book explores the lives of women, often overlooked in history books.

[Larae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this book is for young adults I found it very interesting especially in light of the information I have found on my ancestors. Great biographies of very strong, courageous, and sometimes independent (not the norm for the time) women.

[Doris Raines · Rating 4 out of 5]

What. And. Amazeing. Book. And. Story.

[Meghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The research was clearly up to date and there were many women I knew about and some I didn't. Only wish that Martha Ballard had gotten a chapter.

[Wendy Wolpert-DeWitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clear, compelling descriptions of historical female lives. I learned many new, interesting details and gained some valuable perspective.

[Linda]

DNF

[Hunter McCleary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some inspiring stories here. Tough enough being a woman nowadays. I can't imagine the grit they needed to excel in a man's world back then.

[Tori (Book Chick) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars