Colonial life in America, with its physical and psychological changes, are presented in this book from four different perspectives. Mary Rowlandson tells of her capture, in 1676, by native Americans, Sarah Kemble Knight's journal reflects her growing resourcefulness as she travels from Boston to New Haven in 1704, William Byrd II records the secret history of the 1728 expedition to survey a disputed boundary line between Virginia and North Carolina, whilst Dr Alexander Hamilton vividly describes colonial life in 1744.