American Nation: A History, Vol. 5

A Dusty Tomes Audio BookIn Cooperation with Spoken Realms

Colonial Self-Government, 1652–1689 by Charles McLean Andrews, Ph.D., Professor of History in Bryn Mawr College

Narrated by Joseph Tabler

Volume 5 of 27 in The American Nation: A History published by Harper Brothers (1904–1918). Edited by Albert Bushnell Hart, Professor of History at Harvard University.

Editor’s Introduction to the Series: That a new history of the United States is needed, extending from the discovery down to the present time, hardly needs a statement. No such comprehensive work by a competent writer is now in existence. Individual writers have treated only limited chronological fields. Meantime there is a rapid increase of published sources and of serviceable monographs based on material hitherto unused. On the one side there is a necessity for an intelligent summarizing of the present knowledge of American history by trained specialists; on the other hand there is need of a complete work, written in untechnical style, which shall serve for the instruction and the entertainment of the general reader.

Editor’s Introduction to Volume Five: The importance of the volume in the American Nation series is that it includes colonies of the three types which persisted down to the Revolution—the crown colonies of Virginia and New York and New Hampshire; the proprietary colonies in the Jerseys, Pennsylvania and Delaware, Maryland, and the Carolinas; and the three New England charter colonies, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. On one side the volume emphasizes the variety of conditions and experiments in government. On the other side, it brings out that characteristic that gives the volume its name, the steady determination of the colonists in all three types of colonies to enjoy self-government in internal affairs.

AUTHOR’S PREFACE: In consequence of this attempt to formulate and put in force a system of colonial management, trouble inevitably arose between the people and the royal and proprietary governors in New York and the southern colonies; and between New England and the crown. With a government in England endeavoring to shape a definite program of control, and a king on the throne who had no patience with the colonial demand for English liberties, it is little wonder that the era culminated in a series of exciting and dramatic episodes.

I. Navigation Acts and Colonial Trade (1651–1672)II. English Administration of the Colonies (1660–1689)III. Reorganization of New England (1660–1662)IV. Territorial Adjustment in New England (1662–1668)V. New Amsterdam becomes New York (1652–1672)VI. The Province of New York (1674–1686)VII. Foundation of the Jerseys (1660–1677)VIII. Development of the Jerseys (1674–1689)IX. Foundation of the Carolinas (1663–1671) X. Governmental Problems in the Carolinas (1671–1691)XI. Foundation of Pennsylvania (1680–1691)XII. Governmental Problems in Pennsylvania (1681–1696)XIII. Development of Virginia (1652–1675)XIV. Bacon’s Rebellion and its Results (1675–1689)XV. Development of Maryland (1649–1686)XVI. Difficulties in New England (1675–1686)XVII. The Revolution in America (1687–1691)XVIII. Social and Religious Life in the Colonies (1652–1689)XIX. Commercial and Economic Conditions in the Colonies (1652–1689)