Death in Early New England: Rites, Rituals and Remembrance - Paperback

by Robert a. Geake (Author)

Death in early New England came early and often during those harsh first decades of settlement.

Epidemics, hunger, accidents and childbirth contributed to a heavy toll in New England. Disease in some cases erased entire families, and almost always affected the majority of individuals in the communities. For most families, death was still a private affair. Traditions brought over with European customs and others that were strictly American were eventually interwoven, and these ceremonies, tokens and portraits of remembrance became part of these rites and rituals of mourning. Other forms of remembrance were carved into stone with heart-wrung epitaphs, the cause of death and brief biographies. Burial sites themselves evolved from family plots and church graveyards to public, garden-like cemeteries.

Historian Robert A. Geake explores the development of rites and rituals of death in this New World.

Author Biography

Robert A. Geake is a public historian and the author of fourteen books on Rhode Island and New England history, including From Slaves to Soldiers: The First Rhode Island Regiment in the American Revolution. His other books include A History of the Narragansett Tribe: Keepers of the Bay and New England Citizen Soldiers of the Revolutionary War: Mariners and Minutemen (The History Press). His essay on Rhode Island and the American Revolution is among those contributed to EnCompass, online tutorials for the Rhode Island Historical Society and the Rhode Island Department of Education.