Listen on: iTunes Subscribe on Android Stitcher and more
Debt and mutiny in the New World
The history of new American colonies had a number of consistent themes.
There were:
- Investors who needed commodities to keep from going into debt.
- Colonists who needed money to survive.
- Groups of people with no loyalty to each other, no established governmental procedure and nothing in common trying to make life and death decisions together.
So, inevitably, there was rampant factionalism, constant conflict and harsh accusations being thrown around. Providence Island wasn’t alone in dealing with this, so why did it fail, when colonies with at least as much conflict survived?
Transcript
Welcome back! Last episode, we discussed the origins of the Providence Island experiment, and its ideological foundations, and ended with the departure of the Seaflower, which carried the first official group of colonists to their new home. An advance party was already there, building the settlement under the leadership of Governor Philip Bell, who’d jumped at the opportunity to leave unGodly Bermuda behind, and found a colony based on Puritan ideals.
Introduction
So, the Seaflower set sail from Plymouth harbor in February 1631. It was a 10 week trip, and predictably terrible. The man who the company had hired to stock the ship with food and supplies had cheated them, buying the worst goods he could find and billing the company the full amount. And, on the way, the Seaflower’s captain, John Tanner, cut everyone’s rations by a third, hoarding the excess to sell to the settlers once they reached their destination. Par for the 17th Century course. Power corrupts, and at sea in the 17th Century, the ship’s crew had absolute power. They lived a rough, hard life anyway, and as people in every single colony had learned, they didn’t often extend their benevolence to naïve strangers.
When they arrived, though, they got to work building their little settlement. Bell got a ceremonial seal and plate, as well as series of letters, both public and private, with detailed instructions as to how he was to run the colony. The company had complete, total and utter control, and Bell was to inform them about everything that went on so that they could make good decisions.
Each family built their own house, out of all the best mud on the island, and immediately after that they were ordered to continue work on the forts, three in total, under the supervision of Captain Samuel Axe, an experienced privateer and fortifications expert who had cut his teeth during the Dutch War of Independence. And, they would receive military training at least once a month and led by Captain William Rudyerd. They were, after all, at the mouth of the Spanish Empire.
And then, they were ordered to grow enough food to be self-sufficient. Only after they’d grown enough food would the company consider sending more settlers and servants to help with the work. Beyond food, they were to experiment with commodity crops. Bell would assign experimental crops to each family, and inform the company about which crops they were growing. Growing exotic plants would have the double benefit of supporting the company, and reducing England’s dependence on Catholic countries like Spain and Portugal for luxuries like silk, wine, ginger and silk. And Axe had brought the finest scientific books in England to maximize the chance of crop success.
And back in England, the company was also looking for profitable commodities. They had friends in other colonies and trading companies, like the East India Company, and it wasn’t long before their dock was full of samples of exotic seeds, shoots and plants. Some were foods, some were medicines, and plenty were used to dye cloth.
But, after one transatlantic voyage, the company was already in debt. In addition to paying the ship’s crew 4 pounds per passenger, the company had hired the ship at a rate of 130 pounds per month. It was supposed to be gone for 9-10 months, but was gone for over a year. There were only 20 people paying the entirety of this cost, which now came to about L1700, and some of the investors were reluctant to actually give the company the money they owed. To make up the difference, John Pym borrowed money, at interest. But, like so many before them, the Providence Island Company remained optimistic that this would be a one-time investment, and that soon the colony would be self-supporting, and sending back precious commodities.
And, to fuel their optimism, three months before the Seaflower returned to England (but a month after they’d expected it), the company received letters on a different ship, sent via Bermuda, in which the colonists expressed their own optimism. The island is amazing! It can grow anything! Precious things are already growing wild! We’ve already planted a ton of different types of fruit! This will grow into one of the gardens of the world! The growing season was long enough that they could plant 2-3 crops of corn per year, and because the advance party had done that, there was already tons of food before the Seaflower had arrived. And that food was the best on earth. The island was beautiful, the air was fragrant and filled with the songs of birds. This was the Eden of God, and the settlers had found all things to their hearts’ desire.
And, they said, the colony was doing well on the religious front. Bell was a wonderful governor. He was serious, religious, eloquent, and his deeds showed him to be all a Christian. And, he knew a lot about planting tobacco, which could keep the colony going until everything else matured. And, you know, the tobacco which grew on Providence Island was good enough to rival even the best Spanish tobacco, just saying.
I mean, how many times have we heard this story? Or rather, how many times have we heard a different story as a colony started? There was always a good deal of genuine optimism, but the colonists also relied on the money that investors put into the project, so, they played up their optimism to encourage more generous investments. They didn’t talk about the dissatisfaction and conflict which had started to emerge on the island. The only negative they noted was that drought conditions had reduced the corn crop. But, Providence Island hadn’t suffered from the high initial death rate that most colonies had endured. Their buildings went up faster, the climate was nicer, the food was more plentiful, and there was nothing resembling a seasoning sickness. However, when it comes to options trading, finding the best advisory service can be crucial. That’s why exploring platforms like Medium.com – best option advisory service can provide valuable insights into market trends and opportunities. You may also check out this guide to Alchemy Markets.
And, the extreme optimism had its desired effect. Before the Seaflower even returned, the investors had decided that they would send an even bigger ship. They’d already put more money than they’d expected to into the colony, but you’ve got to spend money to make money just like when investing on the best investment apps uk today. This time, they planned to recruit 150 colonists, as well as a magazine of supplies big enough to support all the settlers, old and new alike. This ship was the Charity. Throughout this time, Pym was absolutely steadfast, urging the investors to pay more, and to worry less.
And finally, the Seaflower did return. Captain Tanner explained that the Spanish coast guard had attacked him off the coast of Florida at the end of December, and that in the attack he’d lost an eye and many of his crew. That was why he’d been delayed. But, he brought a new bundle of letters from the colonists, as well as the products the colonists had sent back. But, this bundle of letters wasn’t quite as glowingly positive. For one, they told the company about Tanner’s behavior en route to the island, and the poor quality stuff food they’d been sent. In response to this, the company decided to buy its own supplies in the future, to avoid being cheated. They considered firing Tanner, but they decided not to because he had successfully fought the Spanish, and protected the company’s property.
More disappointingly, though, the settlers hadn’t sent back huge quantities of precious commodities. They had just sent back a couple bags of poor quality tobacco, and a letter explaining why. First, the late summer heat had killed a lot of their plants, and late autumn had brought storms which killed even more. But, more importantly, the colony was on the verge of mutiny.
So why a mutiny? Well.
By this point in time, and by this point in time, I mean after two small batches of colonists had moved to Providence Island, the colony’s society was a hodgepodge of different people with different ideas, motivations and backgrounds. They may have dreamed of an ideologically pure colony, but at the end of the day, survival in 17th Century America depended on bringing in the people who had the skills their colony needed, period. Providence Island had tried to minimize this, but it couldn’t eliminate it entirely.
The first group was the servants. These were mainly teenagers, and mainly people who had relocated unwillingly, to put it nicely. Yes, they had the promise of freedom after three years, but unlike most colonies, after their term was up, they wouldn’t be given land, because no one owned land in Providence Island. They faced beating from their “fathers” and were forced to conform with Puritan society even though most of them didn’t hold Puritan ideals. They even seemed to face beatings with some degree of regularity. And for them, and everyone who worked the land, Providence Island’s long growing season had a very tangible downside. In temperate climates, and even in Bermuda and Virginia, agricultural workers worked very hard during the planting and harvesting seasons, but other than that they had a lot of leisure time. All of their work was concentrated into a couple months a year, and the rest was pretty much light maintenance work. In the tropics, the growing season lasted the majority of the year, and there could be three planting and harvesting seasons, plus continual attempts to cultivate new crops. And on top of that, they had to help build all of the public buildings and fortifications, and undergo regular military training. There was no leisure time, but there was also no increased reward for the increased work. They didn’t get the type of security they would have gotten in England, they didn’t have any hope of getting land, the way they would have gotten in any other colony, and there wasn’t anything to buy, even if they had been paid. They couldn’t even relax at the pub. And, they weren’t allowed to engage in even the free forms of recreation, like sports or cards. All they were doing was following the orders of people who weren’t much higher class than they were, with those people governed by an authority half a world away.
The second group of people were the Puritans who led the families and ran their farms. It wasn’t too long before this group of people discovered that the company’s magazine was playing favorites. Most of these people had traveled to Providence Island as the individual patrons of one of the investors in London, and some of those investors had a lot more power and money than others. So at the magazine, some people got virtually nothing, or even had their goods confiscated, while others got as much as they needed.
To make matters worse, there were actually Dutch ships regularly passing by, who offered to sell them supplies at better prices, but even the people who were being cheated by the Magazine had to turn down the offer. They also faced all the problems of increased work with decreased compensation. They were reminded of the Spanish threat, but they still resented the imposition.
And perhaps most of all, there was also a deep sense among these people that the system of land distribution was unfair. Not only did they not get land, they had to give the company half of everything they grew, plus pay a corrupt magazine for supplies they could buy more cheaply elsewhere, plus give their time to build public works and take care of the public officials. So for the privilege of being in the colony, they had to work harder than they’d ever worked in their lives, ultimately give everything back to the company, and be treated unfairly by the company.
Finally, the third group of people who colonized the island were the military-type people. These people may have been Puritan, but in a fiery, brash and oftentimes cruel way reminiscent of John Endicott, who shared a very similar background. These were predominantly ship’s captains with dreams of privateering, and whether or not the company wanted them, their presence was an undeniable necessity. Never since the earliest days of Jamestown had a colony been so brazenly encroaching on Spanish territory, so likely to provoke an attack.
Under the circumstances, conflict was inevitable. The company actually got a hint of the colonists’ disgruntlement at the land situation, but they brushed it off and simply said all colonies had used a similar system. And, they said, they’d soon all be so rich that no one would care. Now, the full story is that all colonies had started with such a system, but no colony but Providence Island was using it by 1631, because in each colony it had led to severe economic failure. Every colony had had to turn to a system of private land ownership, and the quicker they did that, the faster their economic recovery. But the Providence Island company ignored that, and maintained its position that total control from London was necessary to preserve an ideologically pure, Godly society. And that need for control meant that the land needed to be their property.
Of course, there’s no such thing as ideological purity. Differences will always arise, and it was a difference of opinion on proper Puritan practice that set off the powder keg that was Providence Island society. Specifically, it was a difference of opinion between William Rudyerd and the colony’s minister, Lewis Morgan.
Lewis Morgan. Lewis Morgan was 22 years old, enthusiastic, Oxford educated and devoted. He was certainly young, but older ministers had wives and children, and the company wasn’t allowing families to go to the colony yet. He led the colony in prayers twice a day, and at the end of the evening prayers, he liked to lead his congregation in the singing of psalms. But, singing psalms was a controversial practice. People who supported psalm singing said they were a Godly alternative to raunchy ballads and folk songs, but others argued that singing psalms had never been a part of traditional Church services. And Captain Rudyerd was in that camp. Rudyerd was the younger brother of Benjamin Rudyerd, who was one of the London investors, and he was a cousin of the Earl of Warwick. Plus, he was the colony’s military leader.
So, Rudyerd criticized Morgan, and Morgan returned the insult, calling Rudyerd’s remarks sacreligious. And soon, the fight wasn’t about psalms anymore. Rudyerd was older, respected, higher class, and used to military-style authority. On the basis of any one of those things, he felt that Morgan should back down, but Morgan stood his ground. In fact, Morgan voiced lots of criticisms of Rudyerd that the other colonists hadn’t previously been able to. The colonists split into factions supporting either Rudyerd or Morgan, with the military supporting Rudyerd, and everyone else supporting Morgan.
Morgan then wrote to London telling the company that Rudyerd was frequently drunk, abused his power over the settlers, and caused constant conflict. He said Rudyerd needed to go, and then he criticized the company. He said hadn’t laid the foundations for a community of devout believers. And then, after listing the settlers’ grievances, he accused the company of being primarily motivated by greed, and said the investors were “putting on a hypocritical show of Godliness for the encompassing of unGodly ends.”
And that was the main letter that came on the Seaflower. Other private letters complained to individual investors, evidently with even harsher accusations about the company, and concerns about the military presence on the island. They were particularly worried about Elfrith’s increasingly reckless behavior. And, in fact, one of the leaders of Morgan’s faction, a man named John Essex, had boarded the Seaflower personally, so that he could voice the colonists’ complaints in person. He may have even been planning to publish some of the letters if the company didn’t agree to change its policies, but he’d been killed in the Spanish attack.
The company wasn’t happy, and Morgan took the bulk of the blame. They had outfitted him lavishly and allowed him to live in the governor’s mansion, but at the end of the day, he was little more than a middle class kid who was filling the role of minister until the colony stabilized and they could send someone more experienced. He was not supposed to be leading revolts. So, they ordered that Bell return Morgan to London, but told him not to tell Morgan about the plan until the Charity was getting ready to leave the island.
They also sent a public letter aboard the Charity, accusing the colonists of being no better than the Israelites, “who were not satisfied with the promise of that good land which God had provided for them.” They pointed out their own enormous expenses, which already came out to over 600 pounds per person. They told the colonists that their peers would call them fools for investing so much, but said that they and the colonists alike had been given a great opportunity to serve their nation and religion, and that neither group should take the mission lightly. And, they said a lot of the blame for the problems lay with the settlers, who hadn’t adequately experimented with commodities, or even planted a large quantity of tobacco. And, they said the settlers knew the terms before they went, and that they’d had nothing before, so why were they complaining exactly? And, with a similar attitude, they went through all of the complaints voiced in the colonists’ letters.
And for the time, they left it at that. Essex had been killed, and Morgan would be sent back, so maybe the situation would dissipate. They forgave the other ringleaders, like Edward Gates, and sent some seeds of potential commodities, like mulberry trees, rhubarb roots, and cotton, pomegranate and pepper, which would be picked up on the way to Providence Island. So, there were some concessions and promises, including the potential of sending women, eliminating the family structure, and organizing some lifelong leases.
They also sent more instructions for the colonists, telling the colonists to plant some sugar for their own personal use, even if the island wasn’t fit for large-scale plantations. The new instructions included specific guidelines for Elfrith, in response to colonists’ increasing concerns, explicitly ordering him not to provoke any hostile confrontations unless he had specific instructions from London. If the island was attacked, he could defend it, and that was it. And they reiterated that Elfrith would be subservient to Bell and the Council. They’d send away some of the less Godly people, most of whom had come from Bermuda, and they would lock up the liquor and have the authorities distribute it, with the exception of private stores owned by people who had demonstrated their Temperence. And, they ordered that any cards, tables and dice colonists requested be burned on arrival. If colonists wanted recreation, they could play chess or go shooting. That’s it. And they were still forbidden from trading with other countries’ ships.
Then, the company sold the tobacco the colonists had sent them. They sold their tobacco first, and the colonists’ after that. This showed all the potential for abuse that the colonists feared, with the company potentially assigning all the best tobacco to the investors, and selling the planters’ share in a glutted market.
So yet again, a fledgling colony had fallen into internal chaos, and yet again, colonists and investors had turned against each other, and yet again, they were flinging the same old insults at each other across the Atlantic. Lazy, greedy, ungrateful, corrupt. It’s a pattern we’ve seen over and over again at this point.
And that’s to be expected. This was an extremely high stakes, high stress situation for both sides, but especially for the colonists. If you’ve ever taken a trip with someone, or done a group project, you know how quickly things can get heated, and how fast people, even those who normally get along, can turn on each other. And that’s not even something where death or financial ruin are potential outcomes.
And there’s another thing that happened in all the colonies except the ones in New England. The power structures which had always ordered English society were gone. Entire congregations would move to New England, and they still dealt with their fair share of faction fighting, but in Virginia, in Bermuda, to a slightly lesser extent in Maryland, but also in the Caribbean colonies, people went individually. And, they went individually to a place that didn’t have a pre-existing government, where ultimate authority was weeks away, and where life and death depended on doing the right thing, regardless of what class you were. Most higher ranking people came with some expectation of being treated better, but it was never long before the middle and lower classes started to question that. There simply wasn’t anything in it for them, the other people hadn’t earned their respect, and there was no one who could compel them to behave differently. I’m not going to say the middle and lower classes worked harder, because plenty of people in England at the time were lamenting how lazy workers were getting, and actually trying to figure out why that was the case, but regardless of how hard they worked, there was no benefit to simply submitting to people who would have been their social superiors in England.
And with both colonists and investors struggling, and relying on things the other just wasn’t providing as fast as they needed it, the transatlantic namecalling was equally inevitable. Were the accusations true? Were investors really driven by pure greed, and were colonists really so lazy that they’d rather fail, even die, than work? Well, whether you believe them is for you to decide.
And more relevantly, the question is why did Providence Island fail to overcome these problems, where places like Jamestown and Plymouth succeeded. And, there’s really one tangible difference we’ve seen so far, because other colonies were slow to privatize land. That is the determination of the company to avoid the creation of government structures within the colony, and requiring that even the most minor decision go through the company. You could argue that that was kind of sort of the case in Maryland, but every other colony allowed settlers to at least run their day-to-day affairs without supervision. And, they didn’t strictly regulate settlers’ recreation, either.
But, was that enough to tip the scales from endurance to failure? We’ll continue to think about that. But next week we’ll see the escalation of all these problems, and the creation of a couple more.