Early Colonies

Discover the Epic Birth of a Nation The Thirteen Colonies by Jaime Bedoya Martínez is a powerful and engaging journey through the early history of the United States. From the indigenous roots and European conquests to the foundation of each of the thirteen original colonies, this book brings to life the struggles, ideals, and triumphs that shaped America. With vivid storytelling and a humanist lens, Bedoya explores the political, cultural, and religious forces that drove English settlers across the Atlantic. Readers will uncover the foundations of democracy, freedom of religion, economic ...

In the first volume in the Penguin History of the United States series, edited by Eric Foner, Alan Taylor challenges the traditional story of colonial history by examining the many cultures that helped make America, from the native inhabitants from millennia past through the decades of Western colonization and conquest and across the entire continent, all the way to the Pacific coast.

Four centuries ago, and 14 years before the Mayflower, a group of men - led by a one-armed ex-pirate, an epileptic aristocrat, a reprobate cleric, and a government spy - left London aboard a fleet of three ships to start a new life in America. They arrived in Virginia in the spring of 1607 and set about trying to create a settlement on a tiny island in the James River.

With over 19 million copies in print and a remarkable record of #1 New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestsellers, Bill O'Reilly's Killing series is the most popular series of narrative histories in the world. Killing the Witches revisits one of the most...

What would you find in a time capsule of the Jamestown Colony? Perhaps a portrait of John Smith, glass beads, or skeletal remains? Listeners examine artifacts like these as they explore the history of the first permanent English settlement in North America in this Time Capsule History book.

In a landmark work of history, Russell Shorto presents astonishing information on the founding of our nation and reveals in riveting detail the crucial role of the Dutch in making America what it is today. In the late 1960s, an archivist in the New York State Library made an astounding discovery...

Captain Robert Beheathland: A Jamestown Life at the Edge of Empire follows one of the quietest names on the 1607 passenger list and uses his life to strip the romance off early colonial Virginia. A younger son from a modest Cornish gentry family, Robert Beheathland sailed with the first Jamestown expedition because England’s inheritance laws left him little else. He survived the Starving Time, earned “Ancient Planter” status, took land on the James, and disappeared into the background of other people’s genealogies – yet his choices helped fix the basic pattern of English America: ...

What if the first English colony in America never vanished, but lived on in silence, hidden within another world? In The Last Signal: Tracing a Carved Word, a Vanished Colony, and the Mystery That Shaped America, historian and storyteller Rowan Edevane revisits one of history’s most haunting enigmas, the disappearance of the Roanoke Colony, and transforms it into a powerful tale of endurance, humanity, and truth. When Governor John White returned to Roanoke in 1590, he found an empty settlement and a single word carved into a post: CROATOAN. For centuries, that word has echoed through ...

Convicts, Colonies, and Survival They were sent away to disappear. Instead, they built something new. Australia began not as a dream of opportunity, but as a desperate solution to a British problem. By the late 1700s, Britain’s prisons were overflowing. For decades, criminals had been transported to the American colonies. But after the American Revolution, that option vanished overnight. Faced with overcrowded jails and rising crime, the British government made a radical decision. They would send their prisoners to the farthest edge of the known world. In 1787, the First Fleet set sail ...

A book about a tiny island with a huge history, from a New York Times bestselling author of the forthcoming book, Valiant Ambition (May 2016) “For everyone who loves Nantucket Island this is the indispensable book.” —Russell Baker In his first book of history, Away Off Shore, New York...

* Pre-order David J. Silverman's next audiobook, The Chosen and The Damned: Native Americans and the Making of Race in the United States. Coming February 2026. * Bloomsbury presents This Land Is Their Land by David J. Silverman, read by William Roberts. Ahead of the 400th anniversary of the...

They were the professionals, the men who had been toughened by combat in the mine-laden fields of Europe, in Korea, in Greece, in Indochina. Now, in the twilight of a dying decade, they must return to the United States to forge a new type of American soldier - one to be tested on the beaches of Cuba and in a new war yet to come....

In the shadows of Salem Village in 1692, one young girl must navigate the complexities of a divided society. Often cold and hungry, eight-year-old Verity Manton, an orphaned ragpicker, clings to the scraps of love and kindness in her harsh world. Things get tangled as the village Puritans' strange behavior grows more alarming. Verity is caught between the safety of her life and the promise of a better future with a Quaker family who reaches out to her. Yet, she has been warned her whole life that Quakers are evil. Will Verity have the courage to trust her heart and choose a path that defies...

A historical biography set in 17th century England and Pennsylvania. Delve into the extraordinary life of William Penn, a renowned minister in the Society of Friends, celebrated for his intellect, cultural pursuits, and unwavering Christian character. Born in London in 1644 to Admiral William Penn Sr., young William's journey was marked by a deep sense of faith and conviction that would lead him to challenge the status quo and shape the course of American history. From his early years with his mother at Wanstead, to his encounter with Thomas Loe, a Quaker from England, which left a lasting ...

Leading into the 400th anniversary of the voyage of the Mayflower, Martyn Whittock examines the lives of the "saints" (members of the Separatist Puritan congregations) and "strangers" (economic migrants) on the original ship. Collectively, these people would become known to history as "the Pilgrims". The story of the Pilgrims has taken on a life of its own as one of our founding national myths - their escape from religious persecution, the dangerous transatlantic journey, that brutal first winter.

John Winthrop did not cross the Atlantic to escape power. He crossed to build it. In 1630, Winthrop led the Massachusetts Bay migration into New England with a charter, a fleet, and a vision of a godly commonwealth. His settlers did not arrive as loose refugees seeking private freedom. They came to build a disciplined Puritan society where law, faith, work, and obedience were bound together. From the founding of Boston to the famous “city upon a hill” warning, Winthrop shaped one of the most influential colonial societies in early America. But the New England he helped create was not a ...

Transform Your Thanksgiving into a Feast of Laughter, Learning, & Legendary Fun! 🦃🍁 Why settle for just turkey & pie when you can add a side of brain-boosting, belly-laughing trivia to your holiday table? This book is your ultimate Thanksgiving companion, packed with 101+ trivia questions with incredibly fun and funny detailed answer explanations that will entertain kids, challenge adults, & spark hilarious debates over who really knows their Pilgrim history. From fascinating facts about the First Thanksgiving to funny turkey tidbits, this quiz is the perfect way to bond while ...

The story of the Lost Colony of Roanoke has endured for centuries. At its centre stands a young woman whose life was shaped by ambition, failure, and silence. Eleanor Dare was not meant to be remembered. She was a London woman, a wife, and a mother, carried across the Atlantic as part of England’s first attempt to build a permanent colony in the New World. In 1587, she gave birth to Virginia Dare, the first English child born in America. Within three years, both mother and child had vanished from history. When John White returned to Roanoke in 1590, he found the settlement abandoned. No ...

One mistake cost him everything. Building a new life might give him a second chance at love. Thomas Bray came to Gloucester to escape his disgrace in Plymouth Colony, not to find his future. The skilled carpenter seeks redemption through hard work until he meets Mary Wilson—a founding family's daughter who sees beyond his painful past. As Thomas builds a canal vital to the settlement's future, Mary challenges the barriers around his heart. But when a wealthy merchant pursues her and whispers from Plymouth resurface, Thomas must decide: retreat again or finally fight for the love he ...

The true story of Reginald Lacy, written in novel form, tells of Reginald’s rebellion against his father, Colonel John Lacy, who came to America shortly before the Revolutionary war. Though John wants Reginald to follow in his footsteps, and become a squire of their plantation in Kentucky, Reginald wishes to be a woodsman. In pursuing his own ambitions, Reginald becomes close friends to the Cherokee and learns their language, and how to fight like an Indian. However, when he saves a Cherokee Princess, Winona from a bear, he is confronted by the man she is betrothed to, Tartongawaka, a ...