Introduction

About this Collection

This collection of historical documents is offered as a public service and as an example of the quality of our work.

Selection

We have selected scholarly books and articles on American colonial history that appear to be of continuing interest.

Our goal is to add four documents (articles or book chapters) per week. Readers are invited to suggest further public-domain documents for digitization. Contact us

Technique

We transcribe the text as found in the original. When it is necessary to insert notes of our own, these are bracketed and in red text to distinguish them from bracketed material in the originals.

We make minor changes to the layout to enhance readability in the Web environment:

• Headers are omitted, except for page numbers.
• Page numbers are included even if blank in the original. They are uniformly in bold text and placed in the upper left corner of the page.
• Block quotes are indented and in the same size text as the original. (Some of the sources show them unindented and in smaller text.)
• Words that break over two pages are shown on the first of the two pages. However, if such a word is followed by a footnote sign, it is shown on the second page.
• Footnotes are enclosed in boxes at the bottom of the page and are in the same size font as the body text. When a source shows two short footnotes on one line (a common space-saving practice of the time), they are placed on separate lines. Any footnote that breaks over two pages is shown on the first of the two, with the notice “[footnote continues on p. __.]” at the dividing point.

Accuracy

Our work has been carefully proofed. You are encouraged to contact us if you find any errors. Please check the original before doing so, since standards of spelling and punctuation have changed over the years.

Commentary

The information in these documents may have been superseded by later historical research. Our readers are invited to comment on the accuracy of the sources, the validity of the conclusions, and the historiographical significance of the documents. Comments deemed useful will be posted as addenda to the documents. Commentators must agree to have their names and qualifications listed. Contact us

Copyright

All documents in this collection were published before 1923 and are therefore in the public domain.

Dinsmore Documentation claims no copyright on the digitization of the documents. As a courtesy to the creators, you are asked to notify us if you post any of these documents to another website or include them in a database, and to make no changes in them without our consent. Contact us