John Rathbone, second son of an English shoemaker, stepped ashore in the Colony of Massachusetts in 1654 with high hopes of a prosperous life. What he found was a social environment fraught with religious and political prejudices leading to his settling on Block Island, twelve miles off the coast of the Colony of Rhode Island. This extensively researched novel based on his life is a micro look at what made America. Nearly all the individuals in To a Better Place are based on actual colonials who assisted, threatened, or otherwise associated with the Rathbone family in the early years of American History.