Carl I. Hammer is research associate at the University of Pittsburgh.

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.

• Chapter 1: “The Worshipful Peter Tilton” of Hadley: A Backwoods Puritan Populist Politician and His Books Chapter 2: “Being Old and Dayly Finding the Symptoms of Mortality”: The Troubled Last Years of Hannah Beamon of Deerfield and the Law of 1726 Chapter 3: “He Would Have the Honour of It”: William Huxley’s Madness and Slave Manumission in Eighteenth-Century Suffield, Massachusetts Chapter 4: “Her Natural Temper Disposes Her Much More to Dominion than Subjection”: Abigail Williams, Jonathan Edwards and the Indian Mission at Stockbridge Chapter 5: “To Promote Religion and Learning and Piety”: The Failure of Queens College, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, Revisited Chapter 6: “To be More of a Willow and Less of an Oak”: Charles Phelps, Thomas Hutchinson and the Failure of Israel Williams Chapter 7: “Laggard Revolutionists”?: The Coming of the Revolution to Hampshire County Conclusion: A “Surprisingly Modern” Hampshire County?

Carl I. Hammer is research associate at the University of Pittsburgh.

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.

• Chapter 1: “The Worshipful Peter Tilton” of Hadley: A Backwoods Puritan Populist Politician and His Books Chapter 2: “Being Old and Dayly Finding the Symptoms of Mortality”: The Troubled Last Years of Hannah Beamon of Deerfield and the Law of 1726 Chapter 3: “He Would Have the Honour of It”: William Huxley’s Madness and Slave Manumission in Eighteenth-Century Suffield, Massachusetts Chapter 4: “Her Natural Temper Disposes Her Much More to Dominion than Subjection”: Abigail Williams, Jonathan Edwards and the Indian Mission at Stockbridge Chapter 5: “To Promote Religion and Learning and Piety”: The Failure of Queens College, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, Revisited Chapter 6: “To be More of a Willow and Less of an Oak”: Charles Phelps, Thomas Hutchinson and the Failure of Israel Williams Chapter 7: “Laggard Revolutionists”?: The Coming of the Revolution to Hampshire County Conclusion: A “Surprisingly Modern” Hampshire County?

Carl I. Hammer is research associate at the University of Pittsburgh.

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.

• Chapter 1: “The Worshipful Peter Tilton” of Hadley: A Backwoods Puritan Populist Politician and His Books Chapter 2: “Being Old and Dayly Finding the Symptoms of Mortality”: The Troubled Last Years of Hannah Beamon of Deerfield and the Law of 1726 Chapter 3: “He Would Have the Honour of It”: William Huxley’s Madness and Slave Manumission in Eighteenth-Century Suffield, Massachusetts Chapter 4: “Her Natural Temper Disposes Her Much More to Dominion than Subjection”: Abigail Williams, Jonathan Edwards and the Indian Mission at Stockbridge Chapter 5: “To Promote Religion and Learning and Piety”: The Failure of Queens College, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, Revisited Chapter 6: “To be More of a Willow and Less of an Oak”: Charles Phelps, Thomas Hutchinson and the Failure of Israel Williams Chapter 7: “Laggard Revolutionists”?: The Coming of the Revolution to Hampshire County Conclusion: A “Surprisingly Modern” Hampshire County?