The New Jersey Colony

Children's Literature

New Jersey's history is marked by a study in contrasts. To begin with, many of the early settlers in New Jersey were Pilgrims fleeing religious persecution in their homeland of England. Despite that history, New Jersey was one of the last northern states to ban slavery and its citizens finally struck down that heinous institution in 1830. And as a colony founded upon the pursuit of religious freedom, New Jersey's early European settlers had no qualms about not only stripping the Native American inhabitants of their lands but also wantonly slaughtering them. When the American Revolution broke out, New Jersey was the scene of some of the toughest fighting of the war. There, in harsh winter weather, General Washington was able to turn dismal defeat into victory at Trenton and Princeton. Thus, it is all together fitting that New Jersey history be a topic worthy of study. In this entry in the "Our Thirteen Colonies" series, Myra Weatherly outlines some of the more significant events in the colonial history of this state. In the end, New Jersey' representatives voted for the ratification of the Federal Constitution and established the third state in the Union. By recounting this story in an illustrated format, author Weatherly does a very competent job of introducing younger readers to the history of this state. 2004, The Child's World, Ages 8 to 10.
— Greg M. Romaneck