Revolution and Empire: English Politics and the American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century

313 Pages·1990·5.811 MB·English

by  Robert M. Bliss

REVOLUTION AND EMPIRE
English Politics and the American Colonies
in the Seventeenth Century
EDITED BY ROBERT M. BLISS
General editor John M. MacKenzie
When the ‘Studies in Imperialism’ series was founded by Professor
John M. MacKenzie more than thirty years ago, emphasis was laid upon
the conviction that ‘imperialism as a cultural phenomenon had as
significant an effect on the dominant as on the subordinate societies’.
With well over a hundred titles now published, this remains the prime
concern of the series. Cross-disciplinary work has indeed appeared
covering the full spectrum of cultural phenomena, as well as examining
aspects of gender and sex, frontiers and law, science and the
environment, language and literature, migration and patriotic societies,
and much else. Moreover, the series has always wished to present
comparative work on European and American imperialism, and
particularly welcomes the submission of books in these areas. The
fascination with imperialism, in all its aspects, shows no sign of abating,
and this series will continue to lead the way in encouraging the widest
possible range of studies in the field. Studies in Imperialism is fully
organic in its development, always seeking to be at the cutting edge,
responding to the latest interests of scholars and the needs of this ever-
expanding area of scholarship.
Propaganda and empire
The manipulation of British public opinion,
1880-1960 John M. MacKenzie
Imperialism and popular culture
ed. John M. MacKenzie
Ephemeral vistas
The Expositions Univeiselles, Great Exhibitions
and World’s Fairs, 1851-1939 Paul Greenhalgh
‘At duty’s call’
A study in obsolete patriotism W. J. Reader
Images of the army
The military in British art, 1815-1914
J. W. M. Hichberger
The empire of nature
Hunting, conservation and British imperialism
John M. MacKenzie
‘Benefits bestowed?’
Education and British imperialism ed. J. A. Mangan
Imperial medicine and indigenous societies
ed. David Arnold
Imperialism and juvenile literature
ed. Jeffrey Richards
Asia in western fiction
ed. Robin W. Winks and James R. Rush
Making imperial mentalities
Socialisation and British imperialism ed. J. A. Mangan
Revolution and empire
English Politics and the American Colonies
in the Seventeenth Century
Robert M. Bliss

MANCHESTER
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Manchester
Copyright © Robert M. Bliss 1990
Published by MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY PRESS
ALTRINCHAM STREET, MANCHESTER, M1 7JA, UK
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
British Library cataloguing in publication data
Bliss, Robert M. (Robert McKinley), 1943–
Revolution and empire: English politics and the American
colonies in the seventeenth century. – (Studies in imperialism)
1. United States. Colonisation, 1607-1775 by Great Britain
I. Title II. Series
973.2
Library of Congress cataloging in publication data
Bliss, Robert M. (Robert McKinley), 1943–
Revolution and empire: English politics and the American colonies
in the seventeenth century / Robert M. Bliss.
p. cm. – (Studies in imperialism)
Includes index.
ISBN 0-7190-2383-1
1. United States – History – Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775.
2. Great Britain – Colonies – America – History – 17th century.
3. Great Britain – Politics and government – 1625-1649.
4. Great Britain – Politics and government – 1649-1660.
5. Great Britain – Politics and government – 1660-1688.
I. Title. II. Series: Studies in imperialism (Manchester, England)
E191.657 1990
973.2 – dc20 90-6462

ISBN 0-7190-2383-1 hardback
ISBN 0-7190-4209-7 paperback
Reprinted in paperback 1993

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Typeset in Trump Mediaeval by
by Koinonia Limited, Manchester
CONTENTS
General introduction — page vii
Preface — ix
1 Introduction: a survey of the imperial territory and
the beginnings of political empire page 1
2 The ordered empire of Charles I, 1625-1642 17
3 The English revolution and the empire, 1642-1660 45
4 ‘A time of soe greate uncertaintie’: the colonies
during the interregnum, 1642-1660 73
5 The Restoration in England, 1660-1667 103
6 The Restoration in America 132
7 The politics of management: English government
and the empire, 1667-1679 161
8 Routines of state and visions of the promised land:
English politicians and America, 1660-1683 190
9 Reaction and revolution: The English empire
at the end of the seventeenth century 219
Abbreviations 248
Notes — 249
Index — 291

[ v ]

GENERAL INTRODUCTION
This book marks a new and welcome departure for this series. Previous volumes
have concentrated on nineteenth- and twentieth-century imperialism. But this
study casts our attention back to a century when the word imperialism had not
even been coined, let alone acquired the wealth of meanings it has now. Even the
term ‘empire’, which was in circulation, had a limited use and meaning. It
implied rule or power, but was not usually employed to describe territory held
under that power. Yet it has long been obvious that early modern England’s
expansion into the wider world did create a territorial empire, call it what we
will, and Dr Bliss’s study of the politics of that empire indicates that imperialism
was also alive and well, thought of if not yet spoken, in England and its
American colonies.
From 1625, when Charles I announced his intention to make the infant
settlements part of his royal empire, to 1689, when a colonial clergyman told
William III that he might, if he pleased, be emperor of America, metropolitan
power and colonial dependence shaped the politics of empire. As in more modern
imperialisms, colonial elites responded ambiguously to their situation, resenting
imperial interference and rule while profiting from their closer ties with the
centre, acting as leaders of local resistance while emulating metropolitan
standards and styles. This was, to be sure, an empire of settlement rather than
subjugation. Colonial populations were largely English or Creole, and the only
true indigenes, the native Americans, were generally pushed aside or
exterminated rather than incorporated and exploited. Yet, as in later times,
England’s seventeenth-century empire embodied a chain of exploitative relations
which reflected metropolitan and colonial political and social structures, and
linked the centre of power and wealth, the crown, to its furthest extremity in the
indentured servants and African slaves of English America. Partly in order to
ensure that this chain had no weak link, partly in response to the needs of
economic growth and change, governments waxed in power and function. This
dynamic relationship between empire and power also has a modern ring to it, not
least because it was shaped by and helped to shape a century of revolution.
Robert Bliss explores the interaction of English and colonial politics in a notably
original way. His book is emphatically not an essay on the origins of modern
imperialism, but it is a study of imperial forces and forms influencing societies
on both sides of the Atlantic. As such it not only fits the specification of the
series, but may stimulate debates among historians of empire in different periods
and continents.
J. M. M.

[ vii ]
For my father, Robert,
and my mother, Clara May

[ viii ]
PREFACE
England produced two dramatic revolutions during the seventeenth century, the
Puritan upheaval of the 1640s and 1650s and the Glorious Revolution of 1688.
These crises did much to shape the empire and colonies, often by provoking
colonial reaction, as with the ‘royalist’ rebellions of 1649-51 and the mimetic
uprisings of 1689, but also indirectly by bringing forth new ideas about
government. But there was another revolution which profoundly affected
England, the colonies, and therefore the imperial nexus which bound them
together. The colonies’ very existence was a manifestation of this revolution, a
testament to accumulated capital and population and to a widespread desire to
employ both for high and mundane ends. The growth of population and
production, the rise of new and the decline of old trades, these were cardinal
features of seventeenth-century American and English history, and they created
a new world which was not a place on a geographer’s map to which one could go
or from which one could return. There was a choice, however, made thousands
of times on both sides of the ocean; Englishmen who experienced this new world
might react against it or embrace it. This tension, fundamentally political,
between the old and the new shaped the empire and its constituent parts.
Colonists, mainly English in background and attachment, met their new world
in a wilderness environment, but they were not necessarily readier to change
their ways on that account. The institutions of empire, including colonial
governments themselves, grew from a shared experience as well as from a shared
political culture.
This study covers the North American and West Indian colonies as well as
England. Research on America has concentrated on the main settlements of
Massachusetts, Virginia, Barbados, and Jamaica. Reference to lesser colonies, for
instance New York, Carolina, and the fringe settlements of New England, arises
less from a desire to be comprehensive than from the fact that the more fragile
settlements have their own tales to tell about the processes of adjustment.
Research on England has emphasized sources conventionally used by imperial
and colonial historians, but attention has been paid to political writing and the
‘non-colonial’ activities of governments and politicians, among the latter
concentrating on the Restoration figures of Clarendon, Shaftesbury, and Danby.
It is not possible to deal fully with politics in England and the colonies in
one volume. Chapter 1 explains some of the limitations and also serves to
introduce my argument and to sketch the historical background to 1625. One of
the principal difficulties has been to keep my eye, and the reader’s, on both
England and the main American settlements, different places where similar
developments often went at a different pace. Chapters 2 through 7 solve this
[ ix ]