Saints and Strangers

In the first general historyof colonial New Englandto be published in overtwenty-five years, Joseph A.Conforti synthesizes currentand classic scholarship to explorehow Puritan saints and“strangers to Puritanismparticipated in the making ofcolonial New England.In a concise volume aimedat general readers and collegestudents as well as historians,Conforti shows thatNew England was neither asPuritan nor as insular as mostfamiliar stories imply. As the region evolved into BritishAmerica's preeminent maritime region, the Atlantic Oceanserved as a highway of commercial and cultural encounter,connecting white English settlers to different races and religiouscommunities of the transatlantic world.The Puritan elect—but also Natives, African slaves, andnon-Puritan white settlers—became active participants inthe creation of colonial New England. Conforti discusseshow these subcommunities of white, red, and black strangersto Protestant piety retained their own cultures, coexisted,and even thrived within and beyond the domains ofPuritan settlement, creating tensions and pressure points inthe later development of early America.