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[…]
While New England’s comfort generally increased in the Cromwell years, Rhode Island suffered from a lagging economy, political divisions and even issues with religious dissidents who worked to destabilize the already unstable colony. Plymouth’s prosperity also waned as trade came to dominate the New England economy. And in the United Colonies, the issue of infant Read more about ECW 31: Frustrations in Rhode Island[…]
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[…]
In 1648, Virginia banished two more puritan preachers, and not only is this event a good glimpse into issues Virginia faced following Parliamentary victory, it became an event that affected the course of both Virginia and Maryland history. Introduction I had meant to talk about Maryland this week, and the story I’m telling was originally Read more about ECW 14: Common Prayer[…]
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: iTunesSubscribe on Android, Stitcher and more Transcript Welcome back! Last week, we saw the second Spanish attack on Providence Island, and the final reorganization of the venture into a potentially successful enterprise. It was the colony’s last hope. They adopted vital reforms, sold most of their slaves, and removed colony’s most belligerent citizens, and a Read more about Providence Island 9: End of an era[…]
Listen on: iTunesSubscribe on Android, Stitcher and more Transcript Welcome back, last episode, we discussed the final descent of the Providence Island project into irrecoverable failure, and this week, we’ll discuss the last couple years of the colony’s existence. I’d intended to finish this in just one episode, but there’s just so much that happens that I Read more about Providence Island 8: The second Spanish attack[…]