Bibliographical Essay

In recommending books and references, the historian is in a happier position than his colleagues in political philosophy or the social sciences. In contrast to these other disciplines, a work of history does not lose the bulk of its value because of errors in ideology or points of view. An historical work can be extremely valuable despite great differences in basic political or even historical points of view, provided that it focuses on the right questions and that its scholarship is sound. For one thing, such a book can supply the factual data which are the vital stuff of history. The following references, then, are not in the least to be construed as endorsements of the basic points of view of the authors.

It is the increasing loss of the stuff of history, in fact, that provided much of the inspiration for the present volume. It is rare these days to find a general work on American history that retains the richness of narrative and the vital factual record. Instead, while historians have written excellent monographs on specific areas, the more comprehensive works have either been brief essays presenting the author’s point of view, or textbooks remarkable for the increasing skimpiness of their material. Perhaps college students these days are expected to know less and less actual history in their courses. The result is a series of unproven, ad hoc dicta by the historian; such a product fails to present the student or the reader with the factual data that support the historian’s conclusions or that allow the reader to make up his own mind about the material.

As a result of these trends, the reader interested in American history is no longer in a position to find those multivolume works so plentiful in the past, works which not only presented the author’s point of view and conclusions, but also brought to the reader the narrative events, the stuff of history itself, that enabled the reader to find a comprehensive viewpoint backed by the data, and to make up his own mind about the American past. The present volume undertakes to begin to fill this gap.

No one can write an overall history of America in a single lifetime out of primary sources; but fortunately there are generally sufficient secondary works available in which the reader can find further references to the primary sources. The unfortunate fact remains that, despite the thousands of academic American historians in this country, there are still great gaps in historical research. When we consider, for example, that there is no modern history of such a vitally important organization as the Sons of Liberty or of the Committees of Correspondence in the American Revolution, we see how much work remains to be done.

The most useful and thorough text on colonial America is David Hawke, The Colonial Experience (1966). Still useful is Oliver P. Chitwood, A History of Colonial America (1st ed., 1931; 3rd ed., 1961). On the explorations and the European background to the American settlements, there is vitally important new material on the influence of the Spanish Empire on England and of the English attitude and policy toward the Irish on their attitudes towards the Indians, to be found in Charles Verlinden, The Beginning of Modern Colonization (trans. from the French, 1970), and in the work of David Beers Quinn, including The Elizabethans and the Irish (1966) and such journal articles as: “Henry VIII and Ireland, 1509-34,” Irish Historical Studies (1961); “Sir Thomas Smith (1513–1577) and the Beginnings of English Colonial Theory,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society (1945); R. Dudley Edwards and Quinn, “Sixteenth Century Ireland,” Irish Historical Studies (1968); Quinn, “Ireland and Sixteenth Century European Expansion,” Historical Studies (1958); see also Quinn, Raleigh and the British Empire (1949). Similar material is presented in the brilliant work of cultural history of colonial America by Howard Mumford Jones, O Strange New World (1964); see also Jones, Ideas in America (1944), and “Origins of the Colonial Idea in England,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society (1945). Also suggestive is Peter N. Carroll, Puritanism and the Wilderness: The Intellectual Significance of the New England Frontier, 1629–1700 (1969). This material, as well as studies of early slavery and racism, has been synthesized in a notable unpublished paper by Leonard P. Liggio, “English Origins of Early American Racism,” delivered at a conference on the origins of racism at the Tuskegee Institute (1973).

Philip W. Powell, Tree of Hate (1971), has exploded the myth (“the Black Legend”) of the unique evil of the Spanish as compared to other European empires, a myth propagated by the English and by emigrés from Spain. Colonialism and slavery in the West Indies are explored by Carl and Roberta Bridenbaugh, No Peace Beyond the Line: The English in the Caribbean, 1624–1690 (1972); and by Richard S. Dunn, Sugar and Slaves (1972). Winthrop D. Jordan’s prize-winning White Over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro, 1550–1812 (1968) is the major history of American racism, although in the light of the above material on the Irish, it is clear that Jordan overemphasizes the importance of skin color in the development of racism. Almon W. Lauber, Indian Slavery in Colonial Times Within the Present Limits of the United States (1913), is still the best book on the subject. Abbot Emerson Smith’s Colonists in Bondage: White Servitude and Convict Labor in America, 1607–1776 (1947) is the major work on indentured servitude in America.

Still useful on the European background is Edward P. Cheyney, European Background of American History, 1300–1600(1904), as are J. H. Parry, The Age of Reconnaissance (1963), and Wallace Notestein, England on the Eve of Colonization, 1603–1630 (1951). Also see the newer work by Carl Bridenbaugh, Vexed and Troubled Englishmen, 1500–1642 (1968). The literature on English Puritanism and the Civil War is enormous; perhaps the most useful for insights into the New England scene are the pro-Puritan The Century of Revolution, 1603–1714 (1961) by Christopher Hill, and Hill’s God’s Englishman: Oliver Cromwell and the English Revolution (1970); and the pro-Leveller book by H. N. Brailsford, The Levellers and the English Revolution (1961). Critical of Puritan migration to New England is James Truslow Adams, Founding of New England (1921). A neglected part of the story is told in William L. Sachse, “The Migration of New Englanders to England, 1640–1660,” American Historical Review (1948). An overall history of the migration is presented in Marcus L. Hansen, The Atlantic Migration, 1607–1860 (1940).

On the American colonies themselves, overall surveys can be found in two volumes in the always useful New American Nation Series of Harper and Row: John E. Pomfret, Founding the American Colonies, 1583–1660 (1970), and Wesley Frank Craven, The Colonies in Transition, 1660–1713 (1968).

On economic affairs, Richard B. Morris’s Government and Labor in Early America (1946) is a thorough and magisterial work. Also useful is Marcus Jernegan, The Laboring and Dependent Classes in Colonial America (1931). The classic work on the vital topic of land tenure is Marshall D. Harris, Origin of the Land Tenure System in the United States (1953). Aaron M. Sakolski’s The Great American Land Bubble (1932) is lively, but needs to be used with caution; it also suffers from a Henry Georgist bias. Beverly W. Bond’s The Quitrent System in the American Colonies (1919) is still the definitive book on the quitrent problem.

The classic works on agriculture in the colonies are P. W. Bidwell and J. I. Falconer, History of Agriculture in Northern United States, 1620–1860 (1925); and Lewis C. Grey, History of Agriculture in the Southern United States (1933), vol 1. Manufactures are covered in Victor S. Clark, History of Manufactures in the United States (1929), vol. 1, and Rolla M. Tryon, Household Manufactures in the United States, 1640–1860 (1917). Carl Bridenbaugh’s Cities in the Wilderness (1938) and The Colonial Craftsman (1950) deal with special aspects of seventeenth-century society and economy. Joseph Dorfman’s Economic Mind in American Civilization, 1606–1865 (1946), vol. 1, is indispensable for economic opinion in the colonial period. It should be supplemented by Harry E. Miller, Banking Theories in the United States Before 1860 (1927).

The most thorough work on colonial culture is Louis B. Wright, The Cultural Life of the American Colonies, 1607–1763 (1957), in the New American Nation Series. Bernard Bailyn’s Education in the Forming of American Society (1960) is already a little classic on colonial education. William W. Sweet’s Religion in Colonial America (1942) is a thorough survey. Rufus M. Jones’s The Quakers in the American Colonies (1911) is a definitive study; it should be supplemented by Sydney V. James, A People Among Peoples (1963).

On the earliest colonial settlements, the older multivolume histories are still useful; in particular: Charles M. Andrews, The Colonial Period of American History (4 vols., 1934–38), and Herbert L. Osgood, The American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century (3 vols., 1904–07). Style and narrative power are distinctive in the various works of John Fiske; in particular: The Discovery of America (2 vols., 1892); The Beginnings of New England (1889); The Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America (2 vols., 1899); New France and New England (1902); and Old Virginia and Her Neighbors (2 vols., 1897).

On New England, Roy H. Akagi, The Town Proprietors of the New England Colonies (1924), is a classic on town government that has not been superseded. Bernard Bailyn’s New England Merchants in the Seventeenth Century (1955) is indispensable for the economic history of the period. Douglas E. Leach’s Flintlock and Tomahawk (1958) is the story of King Philip’s War. The classic work on the Dominion of New England is Viola F. Barnes, The Dominion of New England (1928), which may be supplemented by the broader work of Harry M. Ward, The United Colonies of New England: 1643–1690 (1961). An excellent study on the American career of Edward Randolph is Michael Garibaldi Hall, Edward Randolph and the American Colonies, 1676–1703 (1960). Richard S. Dunn, Puritans and Yankees: The Winthrop Dynasty of New England, 1630–1717 (1962), masterfully interweaves the life and times of three generations of Winthrops. George L. Kittredge’s Witchcraft in Old and New England (1929) is the best background work on the subject.

The best account of communism in Plymouth Colony is in the memoir by William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation (Morison ed., 1952). George F. Willison, Saints and Strangers (1945), is a history of the Plymouth Colony. More scholarly and up to date is George D. Langdon, Jr.’s Pilgrim Colony: A History of New Plymouth, 1620–1691 (1966). Harry M. Ward’s Statism in Plymouth Colony (1973) is a recent attempt to cast the political history of the colony in a rosy glow.

The literature on Massachusetts Bay is legion. Brilliant and deeply critical is Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker, The Puritan Oligarchy (1947), which can be supplemented by James Truslow Adams’s The Founding of New England (1921). Darrett B. Rutman has a realistic view of Massachusetts; see his Winthrop’s Boston: Portrait of a Puritan Town, 1630–1649 (1965), and his “The Mirror of Puritan Authority,” in G. A. Billias, ed., Law and Authority in Colonial America (1965). Apologias for Massachusetts Bay Puritanism are legion; probably the best are such works of Edmund S. Morgan as Visible Saints (1963) and The Puritan Dilemma (1958). Marion L. Starkey, The Devil in Massachusetts (1949), is the best account of the Salem witch-hunt, but it considerably overemphasizes psychological factors.

Roger Williams has given rise to many biographies, none of which is outstanding. The best is Ola Elizabeth Winslow, Master Roger Williams (1957). Also worth looking at are Perry Miller, Roger Williams (1963); Edmund S. Morgan’s Roger Williams (1967); and James E. Ernst, The Political Thought of Roger Williams (1929). Samuel H. Brockunier’s The Irrepressible Democrat: Roger Williams (1952) is far overdrawn in trying to make of Williams a twentieth-century democrat.

There is no satisfactory biography of Anne Hutchinson or history of the Hutchinsonian movement. Best are Winifred K. Rugg, Unafraid: A Life of Anne Hutchinson (1930), and Edith Curtis, Anne Hutchinson (1930). Emery Battis’s Saints and Sectaries: Anne Hutchinson and the Antinomian Controversy in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (1962) is a totally reprehensible work that tries to smear Mrs. Hutchinson and antinomianism by reducing them to personal neuroses and by implying she had menopausal difficulties. The best account of Samuell Gorton is Kenneth W. Porter, “Samuell Gorton,” New England Quarterly (1934).

The best work on the history of early Rhode Island is still Irving B. Richman, Rhode Island: Its Making and Its Meaning (2 vols., 1902). See also Edward Field, ed., The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (3 vols., 1902). The Narragansett country is discussed in Edward Channing, The Narragansett Planters (1886), and more recently in William D. Miller, “The Narragansett Planters,” American Antiquarian Society Proceedings (1953).

There is no satisfactory comprehensive study of New Netherland or New York during the seventeenth centruy. Dixon Ryan Fox, Yankees and Yorkers (1940), is well written; Samuel G. Nissenson, The Patroon’s Domain (1937), is the best work on Dutch patroonship. The best single work on New York politics in the seventeenth century is Lawrence H. Leder, Robert Livingston, 1654–1728, and the Politics of Colonial New York (1961). Jerome R. Reich, Leisler’s Rebellion: A Study of Democracy in New York, 1664–1720 (1953), is the only full-scale account of that rebellion, but it suffers from trying to place Leisler’s rebellion in the “democratic,” class-struggle mold of poor vs. rich. David S. Lovejoy in his recent The Glorious Revolution in America (1972) tries to tie together Leisler’s rebellion with all the other colonial responses to the Glorious Revolution against James II.

Those interested in the New Jerseys are fortunate to have two comprehensive works by John E. Pomfret, The Province of West New Jersey, 1609–1702 (1954), and The Province of East New Jersey, 1609–1702 (1962). New Sweden is covered in Amandus Johnson, The Swedish Settlements on the Delaware (2 vols., 1911); Christopher Ward, The Dutch and Swedes on the Delaware, 1609–1664 (1930); and John H. Wuorinen, The Finns on the Delaware 1638–1653 (1938).

Wesley Frank Craven’s The Southern Colonies in the Seventeenth Century, 1607–1689 (1949) is a thorough account, and part of the distinguished series, A History of the South. Verner W. Crane’s The Southern Frontier, 1670–1732 (1928) is outstanding on the Southern frontier and relations with the Indians during this period.

The best history of old Virginia is Richard L. Morton, Colonial Virginia (2 vols., 1960), vol 1., The Tidewater Period, 1607-1710. Morton is the most judicious on Bacon’s Rebellion. The classic account of that rebellion is Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker, Torchbearer of the Revolution (1940), which overdraws Bacon as democratic hero and precursor of the American Revolution; but Wilcomb E. Washburn’s revisionist The Governor and the Rebel (1957) errs far more in the opposite direction by dismissing the libertarian and democratic elements in Bacon’s Rebellion and in trying to make Governor Berkeley the hero of the story. See also the always trenchant Bernard Bailyn’s discussion of Bacon’s Rebellion and its aftermath in “Politics and Social Structure in Virginia,” in James M. Smith, ed., Seventeenth-Century America (1959). A cultural study of the Virginia aristocracy is Louis B. Wright’s The First Gentlemen of Virginia (1940).

Recent literature on Maryland is sparse. But Matthew P. Andrews, The Founding of Maryland (1933), and the first volume of James T. Scharf, History of Maryland (3 vols., 1879), are useful. Michael G. Kammen, “The Causes of the Maryland Revolution of 1689,” Maryland Historical Magazine (1960), deals with Coode’s Rebellion.

The major history of North Carolina for many years was R. D. W. Connor, History of North Carolina (4 vols., 1919), of which volume one is on the colonial period. A later overall history is Hugh T. Lefler and Albert R. Newsome, The History of a Southern State: North Carolina (1954). Also of use is Samuel A. Ashe, The History of North Carolina (2 vols., 1908). The classic history of South Carolina is still Edward McCrady’s The History of South Carolina Under the Proprietary Government, 1670–1719 (1897). This should be supplemented by the broader History of South Carolina (4 vols., 1934) by David D. Wallace, which is summarized in Wallace’s South Carolina: A Short History, 1520–1948 (1951). A more recent history of the early colony is M. Eugene Sirmans, Colonial South Carolina: A Political History, 1663–1763 (1966).

Edwin B. Bronner, William Perm’s “Holy Experiment”: The Founding of Pennsylvania, 1681–1701 (1962), is a superb work on the early days of the last colony to be founded in the seventeenth century. The early chapters of Frederick B. Tolles, Meeting House and Counting House: The Quaker Merchants of Colonial Philadelphia, 1682-1763 (1960), are important on the Quaker merchants of early Pennsylvania. On culture in Pennsylvania, also see Tolles, James Logan and the Culture of Provincial America (1957). Rufus Jones, The Quakers in the American Colonies (1911), is the classic study on the Quakers. The best biography of William Penn is Catherine O. Peare, William Penn: A Biography (1957). Roy Lokken, David Lloyd, Colonial Lawmaker (1959), is a study of one of the major opposition leaders of the early colony.

The tightening of the English imperial system by the end of the century is covered in such classic works as Leonard W. Labaree, Royal Government in America: A Study of the British Colonial System Before 1783 (1930); Lawrence A. Harper’s The English Navigation Laws (1939); and Oliver M. Dickerson’s work on the Board of Trade, American Colonial Government, 1696-1765—A Study of the Board of Trade... (1912). The best work on the new vice admiralty court system is Carl Ubbelohde, The Vice-Admiralty Courts and the American Revolution (1960). The growing influence of the British Treasury in American colonial affairs is studied in Dora M. Clark, The Rise of the British Treasury (1960). The new breed of Tory royal bureaucrat is brilliantly studied in Michael Garibaldi Hall, Edward Randolph and the American Colonies, 1676-1703 (1960); see also Gertrude A. Jacobsen, William Blathwayt: A Late Seventeenth-Century English Administrator (1932).