The Morphology of New England Society in the Colonial Period

Abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. . The MIT Press and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the editors of The Journal of Interdisciplinary History are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of Interdisciplinary History. , 1970) 329 pp. $7.95For nearly three-quarters of a century the colonial history of New England has been organized around a single dominant theme: the erosion of traditional English institutions, customs, and ideas by the corrosive force of the American wilderness. For the intellectual as much as for the social historian, for Perry Miller no less than for Frederick Jackson Turner, the theme of disintegration, of declension, provided a generalization that was at once elemental in its force, striking in its simplicity, and nationalistic in its impact. The story was simply told: Medieval Englishmen of peasant stock and deep religious beliefs came to the New World intent upon transplanting a traditional communal society to new soil; instead, they were transformed by the American environment. A new type of society was created as the culture of the past was rendered irrelevant by the primitive logic of necessity, and as the constricting social and psychological bonds of the pre-modern world were dissolved by the corrosive forces of nature. This long silent revolution took an explicitly political form in the war for independence, itself the logical culmination of a century and a half of social change. James A. Henretta is the author of Salutary Neglect: Colonial Administration Under the Duke of Newcastle, 1724-1754 (Princeton, forthcoming), and has taught history at the University of Sussex and Princeton University. He wishes to thankJames M. Banner, Jr. for his comments on an earlier draft of this essay. Bernard Bailyn suggested the concept of a "social morphology" but should not be held responsible for the way this theme is developed here. , 1970) 329 pp. $7.95For nearly three-quarters of a century the colonial history of New England has been organized around a single dominant theme: the erosion of traditional English institutions, customs, and ideas by the corrosive force of the American wilderness. For the intellectual as much as for the social historian, for Perry Miller no less than for Frederick Jackson Turner, the theme of disintegration, of declension, provided a generalization that was at once elemental in its force, striking in its simplicity, and nationalistic in its impact. The story was simply told: Medieval Englishmen of peasant stock and deep religious beliefs came to the New World intent upon transplanting a traditional communal society to new soil; instead, they were transformed by the American environment. A new type of society was creat...

American Origins and Regional Institutions: The Seventeenth-Century Chesapeake

“…James Henretta, a social historian, has been concerned with the preindustrial mentalite of early America (Henretta 1978). James Henretta, a social historian, has been concerned with the preindustrial mentalite of early America (Henretta 1978).…”

“…This debate on the locational dimensions of American origins has paralleled a debate over the value orientations of the early colonists. James Henretta, a social historian, has been concerned with the preindustrial mentalite of early America (Henretta 1978). Henretta argued that the concerns of the lineal family (conceived of in generations) as to yearly subsistence and long-run financial security created the framework of the yeoman-centered society that was particularly characteristic of the colonies north of the Chesapeake.…”

“…The concept of the cultural hearth could prove to be more than an abstraction if spatial coincidence can be found between traits and institutions, and if this coincidence continues to hold up over time (Goody, Thirsk, and Thompson, 1976). David Allen's recently published study of early Massachusetts towns demonstrates a continuity between the patterns i n the regions from which early English immigrants came and the patterns they created in the Boston Bay area (Allen 1981; see also Henretta 1971). Local contrasts in occupance and land-use characteristics were paramount because settlers attempted t o reproduce as much as possible of their familiar way of life with its associated institutions from family and church to town and county.…”

“…We have witnessed lively crossdisciplinary exchanges that differ more in emphasis than in kind (Harris 1977;Mitchell, Pollock, and Harris 1979;Henretta 1978;Lemon 1980aLemon , 1980b, while considerable disagreement remains within our own profession as to the objectives of our research into American origins (Meinig, 1978;Lemon 1980a, 11 5-18). We have witnessed lively crossdisciplinary exchanges that differ more in emphasis than in kind (Harris 1977;Mitchell, Pollock, and Harris 1979;Henretta 1978;Lemon 1980aLemon , 1980b, while considerable disagreement remains within our own profession as to the objectives of our research into American origins (Meinig, 1978;Lemon 1980a, 11 5-18).…”

“…T interpretation of early America has produced some unusual twists of intellect in recent years. We have witnessed lively crossdisciplinary exchanges that differ more in emphasis than in kind (Harris 1977;Mitchell, Pollock, and Harris 1979;Henretta 1978;Lemon 1980aLemon , 1980b, while considerable disagreement remains within our own profession as to the objectives of our research into American origins (Meinig, 1978;Lemon 1980a, 11 5-18). Regionalism, recently rediscovered by historians, has been partly replaced in the geographer's vocabulary by "capitalism" as an organizing principle (Lemon 1972(Lemon , 1980Kulikoff 1979;Tate and Ammerman 1979) (Harris 1977;Zelinsky 1973, 13-14;Newton 1974).…”