Cape Cod and Plymouth Colony in the Seventeenth Century

Book excerpt: This book examines the contribution of Cape Cod to the transformation of the Pilgrims' Plymouth into a mature colony. The author covers the exploration of the region as well as the early travels to the Cape before its settlement, explaining the eventual significance of individual towns like Sandwich, which became the colony's center of Quakerism. Politically, Cape towns forced the colony to adopt a representative legislature and economically, the Cape provided acreage for farming and sites for additional towns. King also examines why, despite the expansion and the growth, Plymouth still remained a poor and underpopulated colony. This book stands alone as the only study of the entire Cape to be published in this century.