Sometimes I think the dynamism of the Colonial Experience took Colonists and the English in the Home Country unawares. I have already begun to emphasize how much of the colonial experience was of the "make it up as you go along" kind. We need to note now that the rates of change were not uniform throughout the colonies. Indeed, rates of social change were not the same in various parts of individual colonies. This day we will be taking a look at social unrest in a variety of different places: Virginia, New York, Maryland, and New England. We'll notice that in some of these places unrest was an echo of or perhaps a reaction to political turmoil in England. So many crises happening in so many places at near the same time suggests that there may be some underlying root cause or causes. These we'll look at today.
Internet Assignment
In addition to the readings in Reich, I would like you to locate primary source materials on the various revolts mentioned in the chapter, download them, and add them to your collection of documents. Clicking on the buttons at the right will bring you to them.
King James II, whose secret Catholicism and marriage to a Catholic wife led to a largely bloodless "glorious" revolution in England and, indirectly, to a series of tumults in the American Colonies.
For Wednesday, February 14 Colonial Government
Read, in Reich: Chapter 10 pp. 111-121
Our major story here is the evolving conflict between English and Colonial views of the relationship between home country and colony. You'll note once again a lot of ad hoc governing. The "official" body in England governing the colonies bore the cumbersome title of The Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations. The familiar shorthand version, Board of Trade, suggests the weight given to Colonial affairs. Most colonists were involved in "trade" only tangentially, and their sense of what was needful or appropriate was much different.
Internet Assignment:
In addition to the readings in Reich, I've located a sampling of early Colonial Charters and Frames of Government. I'd like you to read them and ponder on them. Are there any features which seem to be common to several? Pay some particular attention to the third section of the Frame of Government of Pennsylvania entitled Laws Agreed Upon in England, &c. These constitute the first laws passed and give an insight into what the freemen of Pennsylvania thought most important.
For Friday, February 16 Catch up and review
There are two more chapters in the first segment of this course, and we're making good time of it. I would like to slow a bit and return to some of the primary source documents I've assigned earlier. Most particularly, the documents in chapter 7 of Kupperman. I would like to go over each of them individually as much as time allows, to see what kinds of information can be extracted from them using a closer reading technique than we've used so far. I would also like to have you download, read, and bring with you to class these documents:
Both of these give suggestions on how to get the most out of primary sources like the ones in Kupperman and the ones you'll be locating on the internet. Download and read also,
The primary sources in Kupperman have been modernized in typography and to some extent in spelling as well, but the last of these three articles will suggest ways to cope with editions which haven't been quite so kind to you.
