Read Conceived in Liberty Online
Authors: Murray N. Rothbard
Conceived in Liberty (92 page)
The best account of communism in Plymouth Colony is in the memoir by William Bradford,
Of Plymouth Plantation
(Morison ed., 1952). George F. Willison,
Saints and Strangers
(1945), is a history of the Plymouth Colony. More scholarly and up to date is George D. Langdon, Jr.’s
Pilgrim Colony: A History of New Plymouth, 1620–1691
(1966). Harry M. Ward’s
Statism in Plymouth Colony
(1973) is a recent attempt to cast the political history of the colony in a rosy glow.
The literature on Massachusetts Bay is legion. Brilliant and deeply critical is Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker,
The Puritan Oligarchy
(1947), which can be supplemented by James Truslow Adams’s
The Founding of New England
(1921). Darrett B. Rutman has a realistic view of Massachusetts; see his
Winthrop’s Boston: Portrait of a Puritan Town, 1630–1649
(1965), and his “The Mirror of Puritan Authority,” in G. A. Billias, ed.,
Law and Authority in Colonial America
(1965). Apologias for Massachusetts Bay Puritanism are legion; probably the best are such works of Edmund S. Morgan as
Visible Saints
(1963) and
The Puritan Dilemma
(1958). Marion L. Starkey,
The Devil in Massachusetts
(1949), is the best account of the Salem witch-hunt, but it considerably overemphasizes psychological factors.
Roger Williams has given rise to many biographies, none of which is outstanding. The best is Ola Elizabeth Winslow,
Master Roger Williams
(1957). Also worth looking at are Perry Miller,
Roger Williams
(1963); Edmund S. Morgan’s
Roger Williams
(1967); and James E. Ernst,
The Political Thought of Roger Williams
(1929). Samuel H. Brockunier’s
The Irrepressible Democrat: Roger Williams
(1952) is far overdrawn in trying to make of Williams a twentieth-century democrat.
There is no satisfactory biography of Anne Hutchinson or history of the Hutchinsonian movement. Best are Winifred K. Rugg,
Unafraid: A Life of Anne Hutchinson
(1930), and Edith Curtis,
Anne Hutchinson
(1930). Emery Battis’s
Saints and Sectaries: Anne Hutchinson and the Antinomian Controversy in the Massachusetts Bay Colony
(1962) is a totally reprehensible work that tries to smear Mrs. Hutchinson and antinomianism by reducing them to personal neuroses and by implying she had menopausal difficulties. The best account of Samuell Gorton is Kenneth W. Porter, “Samuell Gorton,”
New England Quarterly
(1934).
The best work on the history of early Rhode Island is still Irving B. Richman,
Rhode Island: Its Making and Its Meaning
(2 vols., 1902). See also Edward Field, ed.,
The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
(3 vols., 1902). The Narragansett country is discussed in Edward Channing,
The Narragansett Planters
(1886), and more recently in William D. Miller, “The Narragansett Planters,” American Antiquarian Society
Proceedings
(1953).
There is no satisfactory comprehensive study of New Netherland or New York during the seventeenth centruy. Dixon Ryan Fox,
Yankees and Yorkers
(1940), is well written; Samuel G. Nissenson,
The Patroon’s Domain
(1937), is the best work on Dutch patroonship. The best single work on New York politics in the seventeenth century is Lawrence H. Leder,
Robert Livingston, 1654–1728, and the Politics of Colonial New York
(1961). Jerome R. Reich,
Leisler’s Rebellion: A Study of Democracy in New York, 1664–1720
(1953), is the only full-scale account of that rebellion, but it suffers from trying to place Leisler’s rebellion in the “democratic,” class-struggle mold of poor vs. rich. David S. Lovejoy in his recent
The Glorious
Revolution in America
(1972) tries to tie together Leisler’s rebellion with all the other colonial responses to the Glorious Revolution against James II.
Those interested in the New Jerseys are fortunate to have two comprehensive works by John E. Pomfret,
The Province of West New Jersey, 1609–1702
(1954), and
The Province of East New Jersey, 1609–1702
(1962). New Sweden is covered in Amandus Johnson,
The Swedish Settlements on the Delaware
(2 vols., 1911); Christopher Ward,
The Dutch and Swedes on the Delaware, 1609–1664
(1930); and John H. Wuorinen,
The Finns on the Delaware 1638–1653
(1938).
Wesley Frank Craven’s
The Southern Colonies in the Seventeenth Century, 1607–1689
(1949) is a thorough account, and part of the distinguished series,
A History of the South.
Verner W. Crane’s
The Southern Frontier, 1670–1732
(1928) is outstanding on the Southern frontier and relations with the Indians during this period.
The best history of old Virginia is Richard L. Morton,
Colonial Virginia
(2 vols., 1960), vol 1.,
The Tidewater Period, 1607-1710.
Morton is the most judicious on Bacon’s Rebellion. The classic account of that rebellion is Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker,
Torchbearer of the Revolution
(1940), which overdraws Bacon as democratic hero and precursor of the American Revolution; but Wilcomb E. Washburn’s revisionist
The Governor and the Rebel
(1957) errs far more in the opposite direction by dismissing the libertarian and democratic elements in Bacon’s Rebellion and in trying to make Governor Berkeley the hero of the story. See also the always trenchant Bernard Bailyn’s discussion of Bacon’s Rebellion and its aftermath in “Politics and Social Structure in Virginia,” in James M. Smith, ed.,
Seventeenth-Century America
(1959). A cultural study of the Virginia aristocracy is Louis B. Wright’s
The First Gentlemen of Virginia
(1940).
Recent literature on Maryland is sparse. But Matthew P. Andrews,
The Founding of Maryland
(1933), and the first volume of James T. Scharf,
History of Maryland
(3 vols., 1879), are useful. Michael G. Kammen, “The Causes of the Maryland Revolution of 1689,”
Maryland Historical Magazine
(1960), deals with Coode’s Rebellion.
The major history of North Carolina for many years was R. D. W. Connor,
History of North Carolina
(4 vols., 1919), of which volume one is on the colonial period. A later overall history is Hugh T. Lefler and Albert R. Newsome,
The History of a Southern State: North Carolina
(1954). Also of use is Samuel A. Ashe,
The History of North Carolina
(2 vols., 1908). The classic history of South Carolina is still Edward McCrady’s
The History of South Carolina Under the Proprietary Government, 1670–1719
(1897). This should be supplemented by the broader
History of South Carolina
(4 vols., 1934) by David D. Wallace, which is summarized in Wallace’s
South Carolina: A Short History, 1520–1948
(1951). A more recent history of the early colony is M. Eugene Sirmans,
Colonial South Carolina: A Political History, 1663–1763
(1966).
Edwin B. Bronner,
William Perm’s “Holy Experiment”: The Founding of Pennsylvania, 1681–1701
(1962), is a superb work on the early days of the last colony to be founded in the seventeenth century. The early chapters of Frederick B. Tolles,
Meeting House and Counting House: The Quaker Merchants of Colonial Philadelphia, 1682-1763
(1960), are important on the Quaker merchants of early Pennsylvania. On culture in Pennsylvania, also see Tolles,
James Logan and the Culture of Provincial America
(1957). Rufus Jones,
The Quakers in the American Colonies
(1911), is the classic study on the Quakers. The best biography of William Penn is Catherine O. Peare,
William Penn: A Biography
(1957). Roy Lokken,
David Lloyd, Colonial Lawmaker
(1959), is a study of one of the major opposition leaders of the early colony.
The tightening of the English imperial system by the end of the century is covered in such classic works as Leonard W. Labaree,
Royal Government in America: A Study of the British Colonial System Before 1783
(1930); Lawrence A. Harper’s
The English Navigation Laws
(1939); and Oliver M. Dickerson’s work on the Board of Trade,
American Colonial Government, 1696-1765—A Study of the Board of Trade...
(1912). The best work on the new vice admiralty court system is Carl Ubbelohde,
The Vice-Admiralty Courts and the American Revolution
(1960). The growing influence of the British Treasury in American colonial affairs is studied in Dora M. Clark,
The Rise of the British Treasury
(1960). The new breed of Tory royal bureaucrat is brilliantly studied in Michael Garibaldi Hall,
Edward Randolph and the American Colonies, 1676-1703
(1960); see also Gertrude A. Jacobsen,
William Blathwayt: A Late Seventeenth-Century English Administrator
(1932).
A
Albuquerque, Alfonso de,
27
Aldridge, Ellen,
198
Alexander,
345
Allen, Samuel,
428
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429
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464
,
466
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467
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473
Andros, Sir Edmund,
149
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336
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338-40
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353
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354
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373
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379
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380
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381
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382
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383
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384
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385
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386
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390
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391
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396
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399
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412
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413
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414
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415
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417
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418
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419
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420
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422
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423
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425
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426
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427
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429
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430
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434
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435
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436
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445
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447
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456
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466
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478
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510
Anne, Queen,
135
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141
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151
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474
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480
Appleton, Samuel,
370n
Archdale, John,
138
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139
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142
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286
Arminius, Jacobus,
294
Arnold, Anthony,
111
Arnold, William,
188
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199
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200
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204
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206
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207
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208
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213
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215
Arundel, Sir Thomas,
42
Atherton, Humphrey,
278
Aviles, Pedro Menendez de,
36
Bacon, Nathaniel, Jr.,
101
,
102
,
103
,
105
,
106
,
107
,
108
,
109
,
110
,
126
,
144
Bacon’s Rebellion,
94
,
102-13
,
126
,
358
,
510
Bailyn, Bernard,
84
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Balboa, Vasco de,
26
Ballard, Thomas,
113
Baltimore, Lord,
81
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82
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85
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115
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116
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117
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127
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131
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132
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146
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147
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508
Barefoot, Walter,
247
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361
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362
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363
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366
Barlow, George,
275
Basset, Robert,
223
Batter, Edward,
240
Bayard, Nicholas,
323
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338
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432
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433
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435
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437
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443
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445
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446
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467
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468
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473
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474
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475
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476
Beale, John,
72
Becker, Carl,
510
Beekman, Dr. Gerardus,
434
,
446
,
465
Bellingham, Richard,
238
Bellomont, Earl of;
see
Robert Coote
Bellomont, Lady,
475
Bennett, Richard,
85