The Birth of America- From Before Columbus to the Revolution

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advantage of official incapacity, sailing into the harbor to swap the goods
they had looted at sea.
Meanwhile in England, some members of the new government per-
ceived what had long been evident: that New England, now grown to about
300,000 people, was rapidly drifting away from Britain. By then, since com-
merce had flourished, there was much to be lost. Responsible officials were
worried. But they were not alone in seeking the ear of the new king and
queen. Men from America arrived to proclaim that they had acted against the
agents of James II in support of principles for which William and Mary
stood. Foremost among these men was the Bostonian firebrand, prelate, and
later president of Harvard, Increase Mather, who was sent by the General
Court to seek a new charter to restore “their auncient priviledges.”
In the new charter of 1691, Massachusetts received rather less from the
king and queen than its “auncient priviledges.” William and Mary decided that
the governor was to be a royal (not a church-designated) appointee; the “Great
and Generall Court of Assembly” was to consist of the governor, his council,
and men elected by freeholders (who need not be members of the Con-
gregational church); oaths were to be taken to the king (not to the government
of Massachusetts); and all inhabitants were to have the same “Libertyes and
Immunities of Free and naturall Subjects within any of the [British]
Dominions.” In the most sensitive area, for all Christians except Catholics,
“liberty of Conscience [was to be] allowed in the Worshipp of God.”
Finally, however, came one concession to Massachusetts that the
British would have much cause to regret in the days before the Revolution
of 1776: the Massachusetts General Court was empowered to appoint
judges and constitute courts. Those courts would become a painful thorn
in the heel of British imperialism.
I have dwelled at length on Massachusetts because it was in many ways
the most interesting of the rebellious “daughters” of the English mother,
but it was by no means unique. Virginia, the oldest of the colonies, was also
the one that most easily meshed into the imperial economic system: it pro-
duced agricultural products that the English either consumed or could
resell, and it was a major customer for British goods. It had developed
a society based on plantations that paid the English landed gentry the
supreme compliment of imitation. The Virginia elite read the English


“Mother England” Loses Touch 135
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