PAL: Perspectives in American Literature: The Puritans  A brief introduction to American Puritanism  .  Captain John Smith  A history of the settlement of Jamestown and short biography of its founder.  Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony  Links to historical materials from one of the most endearing of the early European colonies.  Pilgrims and Puritans in New England  An introduction to the Separatists and the Puritan movement in England.    "A Plea for Religious Liberty" by Roger Williams  Constructed as an argument, this essay espouses the principle of religious freedom as it would be practiced by Williams and the inhabitants of the Colony of Rhode Island.  A Selection from Thomas Morton's New English Canaan  This short section includes Morton's song sung by the settlers as they drank and danced around their infamous Maypole.

The first page of one of the most important colonial documents in existence, the "Journal" of John Winthrop chronicles the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630.

John Winthrop 
A brief biography and photograph of the statue of the colonial governor in the United States Capitol. 

Massachusetts Historical Society Exhibit of the Journal of John Winthrop 
The fascinating saga of the Winthrop manuscripts 

"A Model of Christian Charity," by John Winthrop 
The essay, written during the passage across the Atlantic in 1630, reflects Winthrop's concept of the Christian community he and the other Puritans hoped to found in their New England settlement. 

http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/rownarr.html 
The e-text of the history of Mary Rowlandson. 

Mary Rowlandson 
A website devoted to the publication of the Narrative. 
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Click here to see a panorama of Plymouth Plantation grounds.