New Jersey from Colony to State--1609-1789 (The New Jersey Historical Series, Volume 1)

xv, 191 pp. Volume 1 in The New Jersey Historical Series. "Despite obvious imperfections – slavery, a barbarous criminal code, limitations on the suffrage, monopolies in land – the society of colonial New Jersey probably offered as much to the common run of men as any in the world at the time. Freedom of religion, extensive participation in self-government, broad economic opportunity, the rudiments of education – very soon these came to be regarded as undeniable rights that must be safeguarded and extended at all cots. In this manner the earliest ideals of American democracy were formed, and from these beginnings New Jersey has moved in its course through three centuries. [From the Preface]"