John Hammond attempted to describe Virginia and Maryland honestly at a time when honest descriptions were rare. In mid-seventeenth-century England, where both pamphlets and rumors proliferated, the New World was either extravagantly praised or bitterly damned. Glowing promotional tracts promised paradise, while early reports depicted hell. Published in London in 1656, Hammond's Leah and Rachel, or The two fruitfull sisters Virginia and Mary-land disputed many of "the odiums and cruell slanders cast on those two famous Countries ...," but in doing so he neither overpraised nor overpromised. Ultimately, according to Hammond's articulate and balanced view based on over two decades of residence, the New World promised nothing more than opportunity--a new beginning in a fertile country. Like many later American writers, he placed the burden of success or failure squarely on the individual. Those coming to the New World determined, self-reliant, and willing to work would prosper.

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