Encyclopedia of the North American colonies

This groundbreaking compendium covers the colonial experience from the 11th-century Norse settlers in Newfoundland to the Spanish in New Mexico and the Russians in 1850s Alaska. Articles speak to the daily circumstances, historical events and prevailing climates of thought that gave shape and purpose to people's lives during the centuries of imperial expansion and settlement.

Vol. 1. Pt. 1 : The American context ; The natural environment ; The first Americans -- Pt. 2 : Old world expansion. The age of reconnaissance ; Emergence of empires : Spain, France, Britain, The Netherlands -- Pt. 3 : Colonial settings. Norse settlements ; Settlements in the Spanish borderlands : Southwest, Southeast ; French settlements ; Dutch and Swedish settlements ; British settlements ; The West Indies and North America ; The Russian settlements -- Pt. 4 : Government and law. Colonial political thought ; Colonial political culture ; The framework of government ; Relations with the parent country ; Local government ; The suffrage ; Taxation ; Crime and law enforcement ; The legal profession ; Civil law -- Pt. 5 : Economic life. Mercantilism ; Growth and welfare ; Poverty ; Transportation and communication ; Trade and commerce ; Currency and finance ; The colonial merchant ; Artisans ; Manufacturing and extractive industries ; Maritime enterprises ; The fur trade ; Landholding ; Farming, planting, and ranching ; Native American economies ; Ecological consequences of economic development --

Vol. 2. Pt. 6 : Labor Systems. Hired labor ; Bound labor ; The slave trade ; Slavery -- Pt. 7 : Racial integration. Indian-colonist contact ; Mission communities ; Detribalized and manumitted Indians ; Interracial societies ; Free blacks ; African-American culture ; Slave resistance -- Pt. 8 : War and diplomacy. Indian-colonist conflicts and alliances ; The European contest for North America ; The conquest of Acadia -- Pt. 9 : The social fabric. Repeopling the land ; Internal migration ; The structure of society ; Gender relations ; Patterns of community ; Rural life ; Urban life ; Men in arms ; Social tensions -- Pt. 10 : Folkways. Recreations ; Home and hearth ; Festival traditions ; Dress ; Manners -- Pt. 11 : Families and the life course. Family structures ; Sexual mores and behavior ; Marriage ; Childhood and adolescence ; Old age and death ; Native American families and life cycles --

Vol. 3. Pt. 12 : The life of the mind. Literacy ; Indian languages ; Literature ; The colonial press ; Libraries and learned societies ; Philosophy ; The Enlightenment -- Pt. 13 : Science and technology. Scientific inquiry ; Medical practice ; Technology -- Pt. 14 : The arts. Architecture ; Painting and sculpture ; Crafts ; Music and dance ; Drama ; Native American aesthetics -- Pt. 15 : Education. Theories of education ; Patterns of socialization ; Schools and schooling ; Higher education -- Pt. 16 : Religion. Church and state -- Roman Catholicism ; Anglicanism ; Puritanism ; Quakerism ; Dutch and French Calvinism ; Protestant pluralism ; Judaism ; Native American religions ; Magic and witchcraft ; Revivalism and the Great Awakening -- Pt. 17. Toward independence. The reorganization of empires ; Crises of empire ; Ideologies of revolution ; Independence : the British colonies ; the Spanish Colonies ; The Canadian perspective.