by The Editors
Cover Story | 1600-1799 1607, 1620 The first permanent British colonies in what
became the United States are established in Virginia and
Massachusetts. The faith-centered family plays a critical role in
settlements along the frontier, serving as both school and
workplace (and for that matter, as factory, mall, hospital,
hospice, and church). In colonial days, according to family
historians Steve Mintz and Susan Kellogg, convicts, miscreants,
misfits, children of the poor, and even new immigrants were
