First Generations

"A marvelously readable yet scholarly history" of American women—of European, Indigenous, and African backgrounds—in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (Kirkus Reviews).

The European, Native American, and African women of seventeenth and eighteenth century America were wives, mothers, household managers, laborers, and rebels—and just as important as men in shaping the culture and history of their country.


In First Generations, Carol Berkin delves into the great variety of female lives—as defenders of their native land, pioneers on the frontier, willing immigrants, and courageous survivors of slavery. Through meticulously reconstructed profiles of individual lives, Berkin shows that colonial women, while separated by class, region, and race, were linked by laws, presumptions, and prejudices that defined them by gender. Berkin's gripping portrait gives early American women their proper place in our history.