Ruth of Boston: A Story of the Massachusetts Bay Colony

A young girl's diary recounts her 1630 voyage to New England with a Puritan company and the family's settlement in the Massachusetts Bay area. Written from a child's viewpoint, it records shipboard fears, arrival at Salem and Boston, domestic routines and chores, school life, and practical skills such as flax dressing, spinning, soap- and sugar-making. It also describes communal challenges: sickness, famine, shipbuilding, legal punishments, conflicts with neighboring villages and Native peoples, and events like religious disputes and town organization, offering a vivid, detail-rich portrait of everyday colonial life as seen by a twelve-year-old observer.