num_pages: 340
description: Coming Over discusses the 17th century English migration to New England &amp; shows the importance of English connections in the lives of colonists. Cressy reviews the information available to prospective migrants, the decisions they had to reach &amp; the actions necessary before they could migrate. Englishmen &amp; women moved with a variety of motives, a multitude of circumstances. Puritanism, involving religious harassment in England &amp; the desire to follow God's ordinances, was only one of many factors impelling people to move. Rather than developing in wilderness isolation, the society &amp; culture of 17th-century New England were shaped by their English roots. A two-way flow of correspondence, messages &amp; information linked colonists to the homeland. Family duties, political sympathies, friendships, business &amp; legal obligations all led to a continuing attachment across the Atlantic. In treating early America from a British perspective, as a part of English history, Prof. Cressy provides insight into the 17th century.PrefaceList of Figures &amp; TablesList of AbbreviationsThe excellency of the place: English impressions of New EnglandA mixed multitude: the peopling of early New England Reasons moving this people to transplant themselves: migrant motives &amp; decisions Needful provisions: the cost of emigration Promiscuous &amp; disorderly departing out of the realm: the control of emigration The vast &amp; furious ocean: shipboard socialization &amp; the Atlantic passage Occasions in England: debts, obligations &amp; inheritances across the ocean A hankering desire for old England: homesickenss, return visits &amp; back migrationA constant intercourse of letters: the transatlantic flow of information Dangerous &amp; unsettled times: English news in New EnglandThe part of a kinsman: separation, reunion &amp; the wide circle of kinEpilogueBibliographyIndex
language: English
title: Coming Over: Migration and Communication Between England and New England in the Seventeenth Century
publisher: Cambridge University Press