"This social and cultural history of seventeenth-century Bermuda recounts the colony's development under the Virginia and Bermuda companies, with particular emphasis on how multiracial, multicultural interaction, a distinct maritime island environment, a pervasive Puritan religious culture, and thickening ties with other Anglo-American colonies created a distinctive new American-Bermudian identity. Puritanism, slavery, family tobacco farming, overcrowding, and out-migration shaped Bermuda's development and a growing network of Atlantic linkages that islanders formed that primed it to become a major maritime hub in the age of sail"--

As English adventurer Francis Drake and his contemporaries opened up seaborne trade with Asia and the East, so dreams of untold wealth fuelled the appetites of European nations. A new form of co-operation arose between governments and entrepreneurs - the merchant company. Vital to the entire commercial and colonial endeavour, part of the story of Empire lies in the outposts they established."The Company's Island" focuses upon one such company colony - St Helena. With no indigenous population on the island, the East India Company had to establish a society from scratch but far from settling 'in love and amity' a repressive and turbulent regime ensued. The civilian population rebelled, the garrison mutinied, assassinating the governor, and a rebellion by black slaves was savagely punished. The result is a vivid, compelling tale involving issues of race, morality, gender, trade and defence within the context of Empire. Drawing on new archival material, the author sheds fresh light on an important yet little known aspect of the colonial endeavour.

A freshly researched account of the dramatic rescue of the Jamestown settlers The English had long dreamed of colonizing America, especially after Sir Francis Drake brought home Spanish treasure and dramatic tales from his raids in the Caribbean. Ambitions of finding gold and planting a New World colony seemed within reach when in 1606 Thomas Smythe extended overseas trade with the launch of the Virginia Company. But from the beginning the American enterprise was a disaster. Within two years warfare with Indians and dissent among the settlers threatened to destroy Smythe's Jamestown just as it had Raleigh's Roanoke a generation earlier. To rescue the doomed colonists and restore order, the company chose a new leader, Thomas Gates. Nine ships left Plymouth in the summer of 1609—the largest fleet England had ever assembled—and sailed into the teeth of a storm so violent that "it beat all light from Heaven." The inspiration for Shakespeare's The Tempest, the hurricane separated the flagship from the fleet, driving it onto reefs off the coast of Bermuda—a lucky shipwreck (all hands survived) which proved the turning point in the colony's fortune.

"This special issue ofPost-Medieval Archaeology, guest edited by Brent Fortenberry (Boston University) and Marley Brown III (The College of William and Mary), celebrates archaeology in Bermuda on the eve of the island's 400th anniversary. The volume presents the diverse nature of contemporary archaeological research on Bermuda, drawing together a wide array of scholars from the disciplines of archaeology, history, material culture studies, heritage and architectural history. The volume seeks to bring about a greater awareness of the island's archaeology and to explore its place within the historic and contemporary Atlantic world."

"Shaping the Stuart World" examines the wide-ranging European interaction inherent in British expansion and discovers a multi-dimensional, multi-national Atlantic as a result. Spain, Sweden, and especially the Netherlands emerge as central to English and Scottish endeavors overseas and to the extremely diverse populations and cultures that eventually came to be known as British North America.

The book is a new study that examines the contrasting extension of the Anglican Church to England's first two colonies, Ireland and Virginia in the 17th and 18th centuries. It discusses the national origins and educational experience of the ministers, the financial support of the state, and the experience and consequences of the institutions.