Commerce and Culture: The Maritime Communities of Colonial Massachusetts, 1690-1750

Examines the history of the maritime communities of Gloucester and Marblehead and notes the paradoxical retention of their conservative lifestyle in the face of economic prosperity. From their beginnings as simple fishing camps through their emergence as centers of the fishing industry in the eighteenth century, the communities of Gloucester and Marblehead retained the basic features of local life. In this book we are able to view life in these two maritime towns and see the remarkable continuity of traditional values and beliefs.