Quakers and Politics. Gary Nash. 1968

Nash contends that the lack of a structured society along with easy access to public office, the absence of persecution, and Quaker resistance to an established government promoted private discord and public chaos. Nash describes the Quakers as proud, militant, vain, eccentric, power hungry, vengeful, suspicious of outsiders, and disdainful of authority. Quaker elites would retain power as the result of struggles over land rights, political power, and economic issues.

American Slavery, American Freedom. Edmund Morgan. 1975.

One of the most important books on American colonial history and the origins of slavery in America, this book is a key to understanding both colonial Virginia and the American Revolution. Morgan's contention is that 'to a large degree it may be said that Americans bought their independence with slave labor.' What he means by this is that slavery and freedom became mutually reinforcing concepts. Southerners lived in a society where the fate of the enslaved was to be found around them every day. Slave owners were smart enough to recognize the need for white solidarity and thus convinced yeoman that Parliament could enslave them as well. This ideological agenda became the catalyst in bringing these two groups in Virginia society together and slavery only reinforced this ideological unity. Freedom was a concept that was transformed into freedom from English rule. Also, English society with its hierarchy served as a further basis for racist ideology. In Morgan's estimation, racism preceded slavery and developed primarily in the ongoing conflict with Indians. Africans became preferential for labor because of their resistance to disease, inability to runaway (as compared to Indians), and their inability to pass themselves off as a member of white society in the way that indentured servants could.

The New England Mind: From Colony to Province. Perry Miller. 1953.

The dominant author in any historiographical discussion of Puritan New England, Perry Miller perpetuates the idea that the English colonists living in North American became American because of their experience with the "wilderness." Smacking of Turnerian bias, Miller notes how the environment influenced American Puritanism and vice versa. He concludes that by the 1730s, the so-called "Errand" into this wilderness had failed. As the proponent of this "Declension" model, Miller argues that occasional sermons of Puritan ministers clearly indicates a fear that the population is losing sight of the religious founding of the colonial enterprise (Sound Familiar?). These sermons call the people to return to their piety of the past where their "City Upon a Hill" was still a conceivable notion to which the communities adhered. Apparently the wilderness experience made this errand impossible--it failed. The upshot was that Puritans were influential in carrying to the colonies their Puritan work ethic and Calvinistic drive towards prosperity.

A New England Town: The First One Hundred Years. Kenneth Lockridge. 1970

This important work is a community study of the town of Dedham, MA which Lockridge sees as a prototypical colonial New England town. By studying the town from its inception to the time of the revolution he hopes to uncover some general truths about the colonial era. One thing noted is that Dedham was in the 'mainstream of a wide and enduring New England tradition.' This tradition actually stretches back to Protestant Europe and affects the life of the community which was, in his estimation, a "Christian Utopian Closed Corporate Community." In other words, all of the villagers were initially Puritans and adhered to the Puritan vision of life in the New World. This society was gradually transformed and the Utopian dream of its founders gave way to a heterogeneous society based less on corporatism and more on individualism. American society as we tend to romanticize it during this era was only born after the American Revolution. The slow development of Dedham shows that change took place very slowly over a long span of time and that notions of radical Americanization do not hold.

Editorial Note

I find it humorous that most of the Google ads running on these pages tend to be for websites supporting the ultra-conservative position. I'm sure this is God's little joke on me. Hahaha very funny. Don't you have some horny little devil to be pranking instead?

The White Man's Burden. Winthrop Jordan. 1974.

In this book, Winthrop Jordan argues that slavery and racism were mutually reinforcing and that, as a result, they generated each other simultaneously. In other words, it is not possible to see slavery preceding racism or vice versa. Over the course of time, skin color played a factor as blackness became associated with dirt, filth, and, by extension, evil. Blackness was not, however, considered a prerequisite for slavery. It just so happens that West Africans became more susceptible to exploitation for various reasons other than race. Slavery was reinvigorated as a labor source with the cotton boom in the South. It was the profitability of cotton and other cash crops which helped to entrench slavery.

The Transformation of Virginia. Rhys Isaac. 1982

This important work highlights the role that religion played in changing the patterns of deference in colonial Virginia. The Baptist movement served as a counter-culture to the prevailing order dominated by the gentry. This hegemony waned as a result of the influence of the Baptists. This undermined the ideological hegemony of the elites as the Protestant movements began to spread throughout the colonies.