Grandfather's Chair   By: Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)

or TRUE STORIES FROM NEW ENGLAND HISTORY, 1620 1808

By Nathaniel Hawthorne

CONTENTS.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

PART I.

I. GRANDFATHER AND THE CHILDREN AND THE CHAIR II. THE PURITANS AND THE LADY ARBELLA III. A RAINY DAY IV. TROUBLOUS TIMES V. THE GOVERNMENT OF NEW ENGLAND VI. THE PINE TREE SHILLINGS VII. THE QUAKERS AND THE INDIANS VIII. THE INDIAN BIBLE IX. ENGLAND AND NEW ENGLAND X. THE SUNKEN TREASURE XI. WHAT THE CHAIR HAD KNOWN APPENDIX. EXTRACTS FROM THE LIFE OF JOHN ELIOT

PART II.

I. THE CHAIR IN THE FIRELIGHT II. THE SALEM WITCHES III. THE OLD FASHIONED SCHOOL IV. COTTON MATHER V. THE REJECTED BLESSING VI. POMPS AND VANITIES VII. THE PROVINCIAL MUSTER VIII. THE OLD FRENCH WAR AND THE ACADIAN EXILES. IX. THE END OF THE WAR X. THOMAS HUTCHINSON APPENDIX. ACCOUNT OF THE DEPORTATION OF THE ACADIANS

PART III.

I. A NEW YEAR'S DAY II. THE STAMP ACT III. THE HUTCHINSON MOB IV. THE BRITISH TROOPS IN BOSTON V. THE BOSTON MASSACRE VI. A COLLECTION OF PORTRAITS VII. THE TEA PARTY AND LEXINGTON VIII. THE SIEGE OF BOSTON IX. THE TORY'S FAREWELL X. THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE XI. GRANDFATHER'S DREAM APPENDIX. A LETTER FROM GOVERNOR HUTCHINSON

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

IN writing this ponderous tome, the author's desire has been to describe the eminent characters and remarkable events of our annals in such a form and style that the YOUNG may make acquaintance with them of their own accord. For this purpose, while ostensibly relating the adventures of a chair, he has endeavored to keep a distinct and unbroken thread of authentic history. The chair is made to pass from one to another of those personages of whom he thought it most desirable for the young reader to have vivid and familiar ideas, and whose lives and actions would best enable him to give picturesque sketches of the times. On its sturdy oaken legs it trudges diligently from one scene to another, and seems always to thrust itself in the way, with most benign complacency, whenever an historical personage happens to be looking round for a seat.

There is certainly no method by which the shadowy outlines of departed men and women can be made to assume the hues of life more effectually than by connecting their images with the substantial and homely reality of a fireside chair. It causes us to feel at once that these characters of history had a private and familiar existence, and were not wholly contained within that cold array of outward action which we are compelled to receive as the adequate representation of their lives. If this impression can be given, much is accomplished.

Setting aside Grandfather and his auditors, and excepting the adventures of the chair, which form the machinery of the work, nothing in the ensuing pages can be termed fictitious. The author, it is true, has sometimes assumed the license of filling up the outline of history with details for which he has none but imaginative authority, but which, he hopes, do not violate nor give a false coloring to the truth. He believes that, in this respect, his narrative will not be found to convey ideas and impressions of which the reader may hereafter find it necessary to purge his mind.

The author's great doubt is, whether he has succeeded in writing a book which will be readable by the class for whom he intends it. To make a lively and entertaining narrative for children, with such unmalleable material as is presented by the sombre, stern, and rigid characteristics of the Puritans and their descendants, is quite as difficult an attempt as to manufacture delicate playthings out of the granite, rocks on which New England is founded.

GRANDFATHER'S CHAIR.

PART I. 1620 1692.