In this first modern history of the Huguenots' New World experience, Jon Butler traces the Huguenot diaspora across late seventeenth-century Europe, explores the causes and character of their American emigration, and reveals the Huguenots' secular and religious assimilation in three remarkably different societies—Boston, New York, and South Carolina.

"The Huguenots came to this country to start a new life in which they would be able to worship God in accordance with their Protestant religious faith based on the teachings of John Calvin. What they brought here with them was far more important than the possessions, money, homes, treasures which so many had to leave behind in fleeing persecution, imprisonment, or murder. Whjat the Huguenots brought with them to America can be summarized as a composite of entrepreneurial zeal, commercial and industrial experience, skillfulness in crafts, self-discipline, perseverance, adaptablility, integrity of character, strict morality, a striving for excellence in culture, education and the fine arts, and above all, a devout and enduring religious faith"--from Editor's preface (pages 9 and 10). Includes lists of Huguenot refugees.

Doubtless one of the scarcest Huguenot studies and yet unquestionably a classic, Lee's "Huguenots in France and America" is essentially a history rather than a treatise on emigration or a list of names, with primary emphasis on the exposition of facts and notable events. It is an exhaustive account of the origins of the Huguenots in France, their persecution and their subsequent flight, embracing sketches of many leading contemporaries and an account of the Reformation of the church in Europe and kindred circumstances resulting in the rise of French Protestantism. Particularly close attention is given to the major events leading to the Huguenot dispersion to England, Holland, Germany, and America; namely, the St. Bartholomew Massacre (1572), the assassination of King Henry IV (1610), and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685). An important section of nearly 100 pages is devoted to the Huguenots of America, with emphasis on the formidable Huguenot settlements at Oxford (Mass.), New Rochelle (N.Y.), New Paltz (N.Y.), Frenchtown (R.I.), and Jamestown (S.C.). The work further contains a "List of the Names of Huguenot Families in America," documenting the arrival in Boston of those families who later settled in Maine, New York, and Rhode Island; and the names of those who settled in the South, including the settlement on the Santee River in South Carolina.