After the Restoration prompted a bloody revolt by Thomas Venner’s Fifth Monarchist group in London, Charles II cast a wary eye on New England. Meanwhile, regicides Whalley and Goffe had escaped punishment in England to make their home in Massachusetts. The fallout would lead to the end of New Haven as a colony. Patreon BuyMeACoffee Read more about Restoration 2: hopes of paradise lost[…]
The Quaker movement had its origins in the deepest radicalism of Interregnum England. Characterized by the most extreme of religious and political thought, combined with outlandish and belligerent behavior, they were soon the most feared group in the English speaking world. This fear led to persecution which was even intense by the standards of the Read more about ECW 28: Mary Dyer and the earliest Quakers[…]
Featuring an elk that decided to bugle during my recording, this episode discusses the first witch trials in American history. Forty years before the Salem Witch Trials, these happened mostly in Bermuda and Connecticut, with a few in Massachusetts. Bermuda was a disaster, Connecticut had a disaster of a legal system, and over a dozen Read more about ECW 27: Witch trials in the Devil’s Isles[…]
Massachusetts takes over the floundering colony of Maine … or, the floundering colonies of Maine and Lygonia. Full text In today’s episode, we’re going to talk about a colony we haven’t discussed much. We’ll go a little bit into its history, but ultimately we’re bringing Maine into our story just long enough to kill it Read more about ECW 26: Maine[…]
The common thread in our last two episodes was that the end of the English Civil War had forced its North American colonies into a defensive position. The world was suddenly very uncertain, and colonies like Virginia and Maryland found themselves having to assess exactly how they would protect their own ways of life in Read more about ECW 16: The Cambridge Platform[…]
Listen on: iTunesSubscribe on Android, Stitcher and more Transcript So, last episode ended with a race. The signers of the Remonstrance of 1646 rushing to get their petition to England to put it in front of Parliament, and the General Court racing to stop them. At stake was the autonomy of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, whether Parliament Read more about ECW 11: The Remonstrance of 1646, pt. 2[…]
Listen on: iTunesSubscribe on Android, Stitcher and more Transcript It is perhaps ironic that the Parliament that New England had done so much to support, soon after it started to win the war, threatened to interfere in the region in an unprecedented and, at least for Boston leadership, alarming way. Introduction To start today’s episode, I thought Read more about ECW 10: Reform, autonomy and the Remonstrance of 1646[…]
Listen on: iTunesSubscribe on Android, Stitcher and more In 1644, Independents in England started to gain the upper hand at the Westminster Assembly. And in New England, tensions between deputies and magistrates, presbyterians and independents, rose, ultimately causing the region’s most intense political battle since the Antinomian Controversy. Intro In England, by 1644, the war Read more about English Civil War 5: The Hingham Militia Case[…]
Listen on: iTunesSubscribe on Android, Stitcher and more Welcome back, everyone. So, last week, we discussed how the English Civil War finally broke out. And, this week, we’ll look at some debates which emerged among Puritans in the following year. Debates which, essentially, boiled down to the fundamental question of how far the revolution should go. Read more about English Civil War 3: Aristocracy vs. Democracy[…]
Listen on: iTunes Subscribe on Android Stitcher and more Samuel Gorton Samuel Gorton was pretty much an anarchist, and someone who espoused all the most radical religious views of his day. He agitated in every town he went to, until even Roger Williams couldn’t tolerate him. He was getting popular, though, so a group of Rhode Islanders Read more about Massachusetts Bay 17: Samuel Gorton’s heresy[…]