These narrative sketches of certain dames and daughters of our colonial days are designed to illustrate the different types, epochs, and sections that made up our early American history. Other names of almost equal importance with those chosen could have been included in the pages of this volume, but that might have given undue preponderance to a particular epoch or a special section. It has been the author's endeavor to show in her choice of characters, periods, and environ ments the changing conditions of colonial life from the stern and controversial days of early settle ment to the broader if no less strenuous times that saw the birth of the republic.