The settlements on either side of the Connecticut River have long been the neglected step-children of colonial Massachusetts history. Those seeking information on the important events that transpired there (bitter religious controversy, intermittent warfare, growing revolutionary sentiment, and the trend toward manumission) needed to search out clues in dusty antiquarian local histories and reverential family genealogies. Now the valley has received the historical attention it long deserved in a series of well-written scholarly essays by Carl I. Hammer.
— John W. Tyler, Colonial Society of Massachusetts
Carl I. Hammer has made a welcome and richly-textured contribution to the growing literature on the history of early western Massachusetts. By focusing on particular characters and groups—African slavery, relations with the Natives, the experiences of women settlers as well as the political and religious leadership—he highlights the surprisingly diverse history of this long-neglected region. This area, still very much a frontier through the eighteenth century, emerges in the pages of this study as unique and as a time and place that still has much to teach and to reveal.
— Kenneth P. Minkema, Yale University
Carl I. Hammer’s deeply-researched study of Hampshire County traces in extraordinary detail the first century of a colonial settlement. Through multiple biographies and institutional investigations, he uncovers the complicated religious, political, and economic developments that shaped early western Massachusetts, up to the American Revolution. With probing attention to the histories of indigenous and African American peoples in the region, Hammer presents a compelling interpretation of how ‘modern’ forces shaped the colonial-American backcountry.
— Daniel Livesay, Claremont McKenna College
This excellent book on the colonial history of Western Massachusetts gives valuable insights into frontier life there, including provisions for old age and mental illness, relations with Native Americans, the treatment (and manumission) of slaves, religious life, and colonial government in Western Massachusetts. One chapter treats the failure to establish a college in Hampshire County. Another chapter treats the Williams family at Stockbridge, the relationships among family members, and the problems with the will of Ephraim Williams, who died in 1754. The author has skillfully combined general themes with many examples of inhabitants of colonial Western Massachusetts. The result is both informative and interesting. Highly recommended, especially to those researching families in colonial western Massachusetts.
— The New England Historical and Genealogical Register