The 1680s: The Glorious
Revolution
Early American Social History
Term 2, Week 1
Glorious Revolution in England
• James VII & II (1685-88),
overthrown by William of Orange,
husband of Mary (James’s
daughter)
• Bill of Rights 1689.
limits on royal power
no taxation without
parliamentary consent
no standing army
independence of parliament
ban on ‘cruel and unusual
punishment’
William III (1688-1704) and
Mary II (1688-1694)
constitutional monarchs
Glorious Revolution in
America
• Similarities and
differences with England
• Doesn’t occur
everywhere, only Mass,
NY, Md, and SC.
• Shares English hostility to
James II, the French,
Catholicism and
absolutism
• Yet also has local causes,
specific to each colony
Massachusetts
• Problem of loose control pre 1660
• 1684 Mass charter revoked
• 1686 Dominion of New England
created
Edmund Andros
1637-1714
Dominion of New England
The rebellion
• Indians start to harass settlements in Northern
NEng
• Andros sends troops north, leaving Boston
defenceless, troops mutiny at Saco River, April
1689.
• Popular uprising, led by elite merchants and
puritans, who feared an uprising led by mob
• Andros unable to secure any support, flees to
city fort
The aftermath
• Power vacuum 1689-91
• Charters returned 1691
• Religious toleration
established
• Confirmed end of puritan
experiment.
New York
• Ethnic problems
• 1677 Andros apptd Gov of NY
• NY subsumed into Dom of
NEng 1686
The rebellion and its aftermath
• Andros leaves to become Gov of D of NEng in Boston
1686
• Downfall of Andros in April 1689 encourages revolt in NY
(May) led by Jacob Leisler
• Leisler rules NY 1689-91
• Decline of Dutch culture accelerated
Maryland
• Power of Lord Baltimore
• recession early 1680s
• Underlying frustrations over
lack of political and social
mobility.
The rebellion and its aftermath
• Protestant Associators in assembly overthrew Lord Baltimore after
James II had fled
• 1691 Anglican church established
• Capital moved from St. Mary’s to Annapolis.
• 1692 Maryland became a Royal colony, but it returned to the (now
Anglican) Baltimore family in 1715.
• Gl Rev in Md all about replacement of one elite with another, not
about social mobility per se.
South Carolina
• Mainly clash between proprietors and the Goose Creek
Men.
• GCM believed that as the most experienced they should
be the ones to lead the new colony.
• Proprietors disagreed, had invested £10,000 in SC and
wanted to see a return
South Carolina 2
• Measures to attract new migrants, especially religious
dissidents, early 1680s
• Several Governors of Carolina were dissenters. Eg
Joseph Morton (1682-4, 1685-6) had led a group of
dissenters to SC
• 1680, props sought to regulate Indian slavery, &
outlawed piracy in 1685, ending a profitable sideline for
GCM, (i.e. seizure of Spanish and French ships)
Rebellion and Aftermath
• Key figure: Seth SothelLed
successful rebellion against SC
Governor Colleton in 16901691, with support of GCM;
regulated the trade with the
Indians and enacted measures
favourable to the GCM.
• 1692 Sothel replaced by new
Gov from GB, and GCM were
powerless to prevent increased
migration by dissenters in to
the colony
Commonalities
• Each colony had idiosyncrasies,
– New England ( puritans),
– New York (Dutch),
– Maryland (Catholics)
– South Carolina (Barbadians),
– diff economic, religious, or strategic motives for
rebelling against the established authority
• Common Factor? Tension between old and new settlers
– link with Bacon’s Reb in Va.
Aftermath
• Post 1692 proprietory colonies more likely to come under
Royal control.
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–
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New York 1685,
Massachusetts 1691,
Maryland 1691 - 1715,
Pennsylvania 1692 -1694.
New Jersey 1702,
South Carolina 1719,
North Carolina 1729
Georgia 1752.
• Emergence of ‘salutary neglect’
• Attempts to reassert control would prove problematic