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Early American Studies
A Constitutional Culture: New England and the Struggle Against Arbitrary Rule in the Restoration Empire
In A Constitutional Culture , Adrian Chastain Weimer uncovers the story of how, more than a hundred years before the American Revolution, colonists pledged their lives and livelihoods to the defense of local political institutions against arbitrary rule.
With the return of Charles II to the English throne in 1660, the puritan-led colonies faced enormous pressure to conform to the crown’s priorities. Charles demanded that puritans change voting practices, baptismal policies, and laws, and he also cast an eye on local resources such as forests, a valuable source of masts for the English navy. Moreover, to enforce these demands, the king sent four royal commissioners on warships, ostensibly headed for New Netherland but easily redirected toward Boston. In the face of this threat to local rule, colonists had to decide whether they would submit to the commissioners’ authority, which they viewed as arbitrary because it was not accountable to the people, or whether they would mobilize to defy the crown.
Those resisting the crown included not just freemen (voters) but also people often seen as excluded or marginalized such as non-freemen, indentured servants, and women. Together they crafted a potent regional constitutional culture in defiance of Charles II that was characterized by a skepticism of metropolitan ambition, a defense of civil and religious liberties, and a conviction that self-government was divinely sanctioned. Weimer shows how they expressed this constitutional culture through a set of well-rehearsed practices―including fast days, debates, committee work, and petitions. Equipped with a ready vocabulary for criticizing arbitrary rule, with a providentially informed capacity for risk-taking, and with a set of intellectual frameworks for divided sovereignty, the constitutional culture that New Englanders forged would not easily succumb to an imperial authority intent on consolidating its power.
With the return of Charles II to the English throne in 1660, the puritan-led colonies faced enormous pressure to conform to the crown’s priorities. Charles demanded that puritans change voting practices, baptismal policies, and laws, and he also cast an eye on local resources such as forests, a valuable source of masts for the English navy. Moreover, to enforce these demands, the king sent four royal commissioners on warships, ostensibly headed for New Netherland but easily redirected toward Boston. In the face of this threat to local rule, colonists had to decide whether they would submit to the commissioners’ authority, which they viewed as arbitrary because it was not accountable to the people, or whether they would mobilize to defy the crown.
Those resisting the crown included not just freemen (voters) but also people often seen as excluded or marginalized such as non-freemen, indentured servants, and women. Together they crafted a potent regional constitutional culture in defiance of Charles II that was characterized by a skepticism of metropolitan ambition, a defense of civil and religious liberties, and a conviction that self-government was divinely sanctioned. Weimer shows how they expressed this constitutional culture through a set of well-rehearsed practices―including fast days, debates, committee work, and petitions. Equipped with a ready vocabulary for criticizing arbitrary rule, with a providentially informed capacity for risk-taking, and with a set of intellectual frameworks for divided sovereignty, the constitutional culture that New Englanders forged would not easily succumb to an imperial authority intent on consolidating its power.
- GenresHistory
384 pages, Hardcover
Published April 12, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 13, 2024
Weimer uses a highly significant though relatively obscure episode in colonial history as a window into the tenuous situation of the colonies when, after decades of neglect by the earlier Stewarts and Cromwell, they suddenly found themselves the object of intense interest by Charles II as an untapped source of presumably free timber for navy ships and free land for distribution to court favorites as well as a potentially captive market for British exports. The dutiful cooperation of the colonies was of course in doubt, as evidenced by the ongoing delinquency of tariff payments, the harboring of fugitive regicides of Charles I, and the baltant usurpation of royal privileges such as the coining of money—not to mention the failure of some colonies to swear unquestioned allegiance to the King as head of both Church and State. The constitutional crisis triggered by arrival in the colonies of four royal commissioners, on armed frigates, to obtain compliance to the King's formal demands is the subject of this book.
May 19, 2025
I got this book for a research project and while it is a little ahead of the time period I need it was extremely helpful in explaining the mindset of the colonists leading up to the Boston Revolt of 1689. I also really just enjoyed this book from the standpoint of reading the history of my ancestors and my home. Some of the solutions the colonists had to the many charter crisises were very serious and yet funny or strange in their form of responses. I found that to add an unintended comical relief to the book. Either way, this book is anything but dull. The writer is very clear and easy to read. I found the subject matter very gripping and interesting, and again, while the book is actually a couple decades ahead of where I needed to be, it did explain the origins and formation of the ideas important to the topic and time period I am currently working on. I highly recommend this read.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews