The Whole History of Grandfather's Chair / Or, True Stories from New England History, 1620-1808

An elderly storyteller uses a single household chair as a thread to introduce successive episodes of New England life, linking domestic detail to larger events across generations. The narratives range from early settlement and everyday economies of barter and coinage to tense encounters among communities and with Indigenous neighbors, and from religious conflicts and moral panics to military skirmishes, forced migrations, and political protests. Scenes describe civic institutions, currency and trade, wartime hardships, and popular acts of resistance, while occasional reflective appendices and vignettes offer background and moral perspective on the people and times portrayed.