As many of you know, I am what many have called a square since high school. I don't remember the last time I read a fiction book, reading New England history, food history, the history of New England towns and anything related to our great Yankee culture. But primarily the way of life of the toiler and poorer class. The richer families of New England simply do not interest me because as someone once said, if the world were to begin all over again, only the hard working people of the past, and even presently, would know how to begin life anew.
Think about it for a moment. Take a banker from Boston for example. If he had to feed his family from scratch by planting, sowing, reaping, drying, preparing and canning....could he do it? If an article of clothing needed to be made from scratch, could they do it? The list could go on and on and .......
And then we have our history that so many are trying to erase now. If this idiotic tread continues, we will have no knowledge in which to learn from our mistakes of the past. I adore history, whether it offends the delicate sensibilities of some or not.
Having giving my two cents worth, here are some fascinating reads for those of you who think as I do. These links are chalk full of interesting information of our Yankee ancestors and are an invaluable tool in research as well. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did, and still do very often.
This first one is the project Gutenburg of New England Prospect, by William Wood. It is a first hand account of every day life of our pre-colonial ancestors.
file:///home/chronos/u-cb0b6b1afd4ebbdcd026239c1aa7e571d69eb59b/MyFiles/Downloads/47082-0.txt
These next links are the records of 17th century Massachusetts :
This next links are 5 volumes of the History of New England, by Palfrey. Again, a fine, in-depth telling of everyday life in Puritan New England.
https://archive.org/details/historyofnewengl01john
https://archive.org/details/historyofnewengl02john
https://archive.org/details/historyofnewengl03john
https://archive.org/details/historyofnewengl04john
https://archive.org/details/historyofnewengl05john
And the following is a newly found poem written for the Rev. Dr. James Bailey. An esteemed member of the Bailey family who graduated Harvard in the 17th century and became the first minister of Salem village only a year before the infamous witch trials I write about in my book Witch Hunts,
https://www.amazon.com/Witch-Hunts-Jim-Bailey/dp/1977785174
It would do you well to research and understand what he was going through right before death before reading this great poem. He was suffering from "the stone" at the time and would soon die from it.
