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The Trials of Thomas Morton: An Anglican Lawyer, His Puritan Foes, and the Battle for a New England
A new look at Thomas Morton, his controversial colonial philosophy, and his lengthy feud with the Puritans
“[This] brilliant riposte to scholarly conventions . . . reconstructs an early colonial experience that is troubled and contested, one that provides a powerful counter-narrative to the traditional accounts that have been institutionalized as clichés in the Thanksgiving tradition.”—Crawford Gribben, Wall Street Journal
Adding new depth to our understanding of early New England society, this riveting account of Thomas Morton explores the tensions that arose from competing colonial visions. A lawyer and fur trader, Thomas Morton dreamed of a society where Algonquian peoples and English colonists could coexist. Infamous for dancing around a maypole in defiance of his Pilgrim neighbors, Morton was reviled by the Puritans for selling guns to the Natives. Colonial authorities exiled him three separate times from New England, but Morton kept returning to fight for his beliefs.
This compelling counter-narrative to the familiar story of the Puritans combines a rich understanding of the period with a close reading of early texts to bring the contentious Morton to life. This volume sheds new light on the tumultuous formative decades of the American experience.
“[This] brilliant riposte to scholarly conventions . . . reconstructs an early colonial experience that is troubled and contested, one that provides a powerful counter-narrative to the traditional accounts that have been institutionalized as clichés in the Thanksgiving tradition.”—Crawford Gribben, Wall Street Journal
Adding new depth to our understanding of early New England society, this riveting account of Thomas Morton explores the tensions that arose from competing colonial visions. A lawyer and fur trader, Thomas Morton dreamed of a society where Algonquian peoples and English colonists could coexist. Infamous for dancing around a maypole in defiance of his Pilgrim neighbors, Morton was reviled by the Puritans for selling guns to the Natives. Colonial authorities exiled him three separate times from New England, but Morton kept returning to fight for his beliefs.
This compelling counter-narrative to the familiar story of the Puritans combines a rich understanding of the period with a close reading of early texts to bring the contentious Morton to life. This volume sheds new light on the tumultuous formative decades of the American experience.
288 pages, Hardcover
Published November 26, 2019
27 people are currently reading
188 people want to read
About the author
Peter C. Mancall
31 books16 followersA 1981 graduate of Oberlin college, Peter Mancall attended graduate school at Harvard University, where he received a Ph.D. in history in 1986. Mancall was a visiting Assistant Professor of History at Connecticut College from 1986 to 1987. After teaching as a Lecturer on History and Literature at Harvard for two years, he took a position at the University of Kansas in 1989. In 2001, Mancall took a position at the University of Southern California, where he helped to create the USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute in 2003, becoming its first director. He has served on the editorial board of several journals, and from 2007 to 2009 he was Associate Vice Provost for Research Advancement at the University of Southern California.
Mancall has written five books and edited eight others, and written around forty book reviews in such journals as American Historical Review, Journal of American History, Journal of Economic History, Journal of the Early Republic, and many others. His newest book, Fatal Journey: The Final Expedition of Henry Hudson—A Tale of Mutiny and Murder in the Arctic was published by Basic Books on June 9, 2009. Mancall has accepted an offer to write Volume 1 of the Oxford History of the United States series covering American colonial history to c. 1680.
~from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_C....
Mancall has written five books and edited eight others, and written around forty book reviews in such journals as American Historical Review, Journal of American History, Journal of Economic History, Journal of the Early Republic, and many others. His newest book, Fatal Journey: The Final Expedition of Henry Hudson—A Tale of Mutiny and Murder in the Arctic was published by Basic Books on June 9, 2009. Mancall has accepted an offer to write Volume 1 of the Oxford History of the United States series covering American colonial history to c. 1680.
~from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_C....
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
May 3, 2021
Mancall's book is a history of the author of New English Canaan, Thomas Morton. Because Morton was a thorn in the side of the Puritan leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and because he presented an alternative vision for New England, Mancall shows why his book and the story of his life is an important part. I wish I had the book when I wrote my dissertation so many eons ago, as it would have given me a better understanding of the relationship between Morton and the fledgling colony. It is an important book for anyone interested in the history of contact and colonial New England.
"In the months that followed, the two aging former presidents used Morton's New English Canaan as a tool to debate the origins of Native Americans." 6
"By the latter decades of the twentieth century, Morton had become an anti-hero-a back-to-nature idealist and a role model of political resistance in an age of anti-authoritarian rage." 15
"New English Canaan, the centrepiece of Morton's enduring fame but only one stage of his life's journey, suggested a different program for English colonization. Unlike expansionary plans predicated on the Christianizing pacification of Native Americans, Morton imagined a world based on indigenous values as well as English norms." 16
"Morton failed to create a new promised land. Still, the record of his life opens a view to a very different history of New England than the familiar narrative rehearsed regularly over the last four hundred years. The trials he endured-including some in actual courtrooms-speak to the intimate nature of the early colonial period." 17
"By the time the English arrived on their shores, the Ninnimissinuok had created topographical maps of the region. Unlike the Europeans, they did not draw their maps on paper. Instead, they could be found in place-names." 21
"The list of failed English colonies was long-Baffin Island, Newfoundland, Roanoke, and Sagadahoc had all gone under, and the events along the Chesapeake in 1622 hardly built confidence." 97
"Before 1628, as Bradford recalled, the English of Plymouth knew little about those shells. Wampum consisted of strings of polished quahog shells, which could be found only in Narragansett Bay and Long Island Sound." 101
"In many ways, Morton's book followed the rules of the genre of travel account. Ever since the appearance in 1493 in Barcelona of Christopher Columbus's first report of his transatlantic voyage, European printers had produced an ever-greater number of accounts of journeys to the Western Hemisphere. In the mid-1550s the Venetian geographer Giovanni Battista Ramusio gathered together a large collection of European travel writings, including one volume devoted to reports about the Western Hemisphere...The first collection of such writings in English appeared in London in 1555." 131
"In the months that followed, the two aging former presidents used Morton's New English Canaan as a tool to debate the origins of Native Americans." 6
"By the latter decades of the twentieth century, Morton had become an anti-hero-a back-to-nature idealist and a role model of political resistance in an age of anti-authoritarian rage." 15
"New English Canaan, the centrepiece of Morton's enduring fame but only one stage of his life's journey, suggested a different program for English colonization. Unlike expansionary plans predicated on the Christianizing pacification of Native Americans, Morton imagined a world based on indigenous values as well as English norms." 16
"Morton failed to create a new promised land. Still, the record of his life opens a view to a very different history of New England than the familiar narrative rehearsed regularly over the last four hundred years. The trials he endured-including some in actual courtrooms-speak to the intimate nature of the early colonial period." 17
"By the time the English arrived on their shores, the Ninnimissinuok had created topographical maps of the region. Unlike the Europeans, they did not draw their maps on paper. Instead, they could be found in place-names." 21
"The list of failed English colonies was long-Baffin Island, Newfoundland, Roanoke, and Sagadahoc had all gone under, and the events along the Chesapeake in 1622 hardly built confidence." 97
"Before 1628, as Bradford recalled, the English of Plymouth knew little about those shells. Wampum consisted of strings of polished quahog shells, which could be found only in Narragansett Bay and Long Island Sound." 101
"In many ways, Morton's book followed the rules of the genre of travel account. Ever since the appearance in 1493 in Barcelona of Christopher Columbus's first report of his transatlantic voyage, European printers had produced an ever-greater number of accounts of journeys to the Western Hemisphere. In the mid-1550s the Venetian geographer Giovanni Battista Ramusio gathered together a large collection of European travel writings, including one volume devoted to reports about the Western Hemisphere...The first collection of such writings in English appeared in London in 1555." 131
November 12, 2023
Could have been a much shorter book, but I liked the story of a colonist who supported the Native Americans, took on the Puritans and generally made a nuisance of himself.
May 10, 2024
An extremely well-researched work of scholarship, which resurrects a figure from one of the most important episodes from William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation, Thomas Morton of Merry-Mount, who waltzed into American history with a small colony in Massachusetts, erected a may-pole, and angered all of the Pilgrims and Puritans in the process. Mancall traces Morton's life from England--where he was part of a scandalous trial--to his arrival in New England, the three(!) banishments from Massachusetts, and his enduring legacy (inspiring a story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, references by Robert Lowell and Philip Roth, etc.). Mancall's biography, however, advances an argument that I find notably less convincing than I find the sheer gall of his historical subject. Morton, according to Mancall, was dangerous to the Puritans not because of his set-up in Wollaston, Massachusetts, but because of his skillful practice as a rhetorician and a writer.
This spin on Morton-the-Lawyer is an interesting angle to view Morton, which can be compared to Morton-the-Entrepreneur, or Morton-the-Environmentalist, or even Morton-the-Libertine, but the evidence that Mancall provides (basically, that the New English Canaan, Morton's account of New England and the episode with the may-pole, was, once published, dangerous to Puritanical New Englanders) isn't really supported by the account he gives. Early in the book, he traces the interest in Morton as a writer to John Adams, and his family, which had one of two books that otherwise didn't circulate in the North American colonies. Arguments for: these books were suppressed, meaning Morton's polemic is dangerous. Arguments against: the book was not marketed to colonists, but to investors, to buy into a settler-colonial project similar to Virginia, which didn't happen exactly as Morton might have envisioned Hence, only two books--floating about in the 18th century exist in North America, and it just happens that one is owned by the second President, who's amateur history scholarship would be a passion passed down for three generations.
I find the argumentative thrust of the book to be unconvincing not because its improbable that Morton was an outstanding rhetorician, but rather because Mancall doesn't really seem interested in depicting Morton as a serious intellect, speaker, or writer. And, let it be known, other writers have made that case: Michael Colacurcio argues that Morton's book shines as a piece of satire, meant to ruffle the feathers of Puritans and Pilgrims. Michelle Burnham thinks of Morton as sophisticated salesman, using the pastoral mode to appeal to an aristocratic audience in England, to sway the court of public opinion in the metropole in his favor (and, against his fuddy-duddy enemies). The material for Morton-as-Elle Woods, however, just isn't as compelling as Morton-the-Ne'er-do-Well. Thomas Morton, the "lord of misrule" (according to Bradford) is a wonderful historical subject not because he's an embattled lawyer, but a knight errant and a Bacchic leader. Mancall compares Morton to Quixote--that's exactly the Morton he delivers, but he, perhaps for the sake of argument, turns to a Morton who questions Puritan legitimacy and rights to land. I much prefer the former--lawyers are boring--and, I think, Mancall agrees.
This spin on Morton-the-Lawyer is an interesting angle to view Morton, which can be compared to Morton-the-Entrepreneur, or Morton-the-Environmentalist, or even Morton-the-Libertine, but the evidence that Mancall provides (basically, that the New English Canaan, Morton's account of New England and the episode with the may-pole, was, once published, dangerous to Puritanical New Englanders) isn't really supported by the account he gives. Early in the book, he traces the interest in Morton as a writer to John Adams, and his family, which had one of two books that otherwise didn't circulate in the North American colonies. Arguments for: these books were suppressed, meaning Morton's polemic is dangerous. Arguments against: the book was not marketed to colonists, but to investors, to buy into a settler-colonial project similar to Virginia, which didn't happen exactly as Morton might have envisioned Hence, only two books--floating about in the 18th century exist in North America, and it just happens that one is owned by the second President, who's amateur history scholarship would be a passion passed down for three generations.
I find the argumentative thrust of the book to be unconvincing not because its improbable that Morton was an outstanding rhetorician, but rather because Mancall doesn't really seem interested in depicting Morton as a serious intellect, speaker, or writer. And, let it be known, other writers have made that case: Michael Colacurcio argues that Morton's book shines as a piece of satire, meant to ruffle the feathers of Puritans and Pilgrims. Michelle Burnham thinks of Morton as sophisticated salesman, using the pastoral mode to appeal to an aristocratic audience in England, to sway the court of public opinion in the metropole in his favor (and, against his fuddy-duddy enemies). The material for Morton-as-Elle Woods, however, just isn't as compelling as Morton-the-Ne'er-do-Well. Thomas Morton, the "lord of misrule" (according to Bradford) is a wonderful historical subject not because he's an embattled lawyer, but a knight errant and a Bacchic leader. Mancall compares Morton to Quixote--that's exactly the Morton he delivers, but he, perhaps for the sake of argument, turns to a Morton who questions Puritan legitimacy and rights to land. I much prefer the former--lawyers are boring--and, I think, Mancall agrees.
August 13, 2025
It was interesting to learn about Thomas Morton, who challenged the Puritans in Massachusetts several times using legal means and publication of a manuscript for their treatment of the Native Americans and their overly restrictive lifestyle. He did not agree this was the best way to develop the new colony and he did everything he could to undermine the Puritans, who ended up exiling him twice back to Europe. The book was repetitive at times and jumped around, so it was hard to follow and keep interest at times. I liked that the author was clear on what information was available and what needed to be speculated about.
December 27, 2019
I couldn’t stay focused in this book. It seemed to skip around.
December 30, 2023
The backstory about the first banned book in America and the writer, who could be considered the first troll (but he was trolling the folks who were killing Natives for their land so...).
March 4, 2024
Loved it. I’m a history buff and learned some new information. Writing was excellent, very readable.
September 14, 2024
A little dry but an important read about intellectual freedom and an early banned book
September 30, 2024
Revealing.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews