New World, New Roles

?New World, New Roles, edited by Sylvia R. Frey and Marian J. Morton, is a rich and stimulating collection of documents that reveals the texture, complexity, and diversity in the experiences of women in pre-industrial America. This collection goes far beyond sermons by men and diaries of elite women in its presentation of a remarkable range of documents that enable readers to examine experiences of white women of different classes, regions, and religions, and also the experiences of slave and Amerindian women. In addition, Frey and Morton have provided concise and informative discussions of the major historiographical issues in their introductions to the chapters and excellent headnotes for the individual documents.... Although this collection will probably be too difficult for students in introductory courses, it will be invaluable for those in more advanced courses on early America and women's history. The range of documents readers will encounter in this one collection is impressive: the usual diary and journal excerpts, sermons, trial records, newspapers, and advice literature; but other sources encountered less frequently in documentaries: slave petitions, recipes, and account book and mortality records from slave ships, a midwife's list of deliveries, the rules and relugations of a lying-in hospital, marriage contracts, household inventories, divorce petitions, and licenses. This long list is but a sampling of the materials in this rich and rewarding book.?-Teaching History