American heroes : profiles of men and women who shaped early America / Edmund S. Morgan

Includes index.

The conquerors. The conquerors -- Puritans, witches, and Quakers. Dangerous books -- The unyielding Indian -- John Winthrop's vision -- The Puritans and sex -- The problems of a Puritan heiress -- The case against Anne Hutchinson -- The Puritan's Puritan: Michael Wigglesworth -- The courage of Giles Cory and Mary Easty -- Postscript: Philadelphia 1787 -- the contentious Quaker: William Penn -- Ezra Stiles and Timothy Dwight -- Revolutionary leaders. The power of negative thinking: Benjamin Franklin and George Washington -- The end of Franklin's pragmatism -- The founding fathers' problem: representation -- The role of the Antifederalists -- The genius of Perry Miller.

Reexamines the lives of bona-fide American heroes such as George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, and reevaluates the legacies of religious figures such as Anne Hutchinson, whose trial for heresy and banishment riveted the colonies in 1637, and unknown martyrs such as Mary Easty and Giles Cory, executed for practicing witchcraft.