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TYRANNy vs LIBERTY: POLITICAL CHOICES IN 17TH CENTURY NEW ENGLAND

2024 is a year of elections, in 76 countries worldwide. What choice of political leadership - and therefore societies - will voters make? Four hundred years ago, English colonists faced a choice when they arrived in the Eastern Woodlands and called it New England: how “democraticall” or “tyrannical” would they become?

This six-part lecture series, Tyranny vs Liberty: Politics in 17th Century New England, takes up this challenge to explore the choices the Puritans made, their consequences, and the political context into which they moved. Would they choose a (relatively) democratic system or a company with few elected leaders? Land distribution to the many or land acquisition by the few? Arbitrary rule or a written bill of rights? How would they relate to Indigenous sovereign nations - and how did they justify the tyranny of colonization? What was the centuries-long practice of governance that they ignored?

Join us this fall in investigating political choices then and their consequences now. We have a brilliant line-up:

• David Hall, emeritus professor of divinity, Harvard, on the politics of the Puritan polity and their radical English origins

• Francis J. Bremer, emeritus professor of history, Millersville University, on the Puritan commonwealth which underpinned modern American democracy, for good and for bad

• Margaret Newell, Ohio State University, on the resistance to tyranny as runaway enslaved people claimed their freedom, with Egypt Lloyd of the Slave Legacy History Coalition

• Linda Coombs, Acquinnah Wampanoag, on the Indigenous governance and sovereignty long preceding the arrival of Puritan colonists. Could the Puritans have learned from these nations?

• Mack Scott, Narragansett and Brown University historian, on the sanctuary and self-determination in Narragansett Country where diverse people made their choices

• Chernoh Sesay, DePaul University, on the 18th century eloquent and powerful petitions for freedom and equality by Black Masons in Boston - using the same language of rights as the Puritans in the 1630s but denied to people of color.

Together, these speakers take us from the 16th to the 18th century in a crash course on politics, from Indigenous government to the start of government by consent to Black Masonic demands for liberty.

Imagine a world in which political leaders step down after electoral defeat, where voting is expanded, not restricted, and where the idea of consent is the founding principle of government. Where slavery begins and there is genocidal violence. Is the choice tyranny or liberty - and for whom? Welcome to 17th century New England. Sign up here!

ENSLAVEMENT & RESISTANCE: NEW ENGLAND 1620-1760

Slavery: the very word catapults us into today’s fierce history battles. Did slavery teach enslaved people new skills, as Florida’s new school curriculum asserts? Or is the story both far more brutal and more nuanced, with enslaved people at its center? How should history be taught, remembered, investigated and thought about? What is the truth about our history, and whose truth is it? This year’s fall series, Enslavement & Resistance: New England 1620-1760, set out to take a rigorous, nuanced and accurate look at a part of the past that, in New England, that has been largely denied or minimised.

Nearly 3,000 people registered for our six events, with thousands attending in person, online, and through recordings. Over 90% of you said the presentations were eye-opening and very good. Many of you said what they liked the most was learning something they’d never known, and that they wanted more of the “unvarnished” history that we’re presenting.

“This is a fantastic program,” wrote one member of our audience. “I am learning so much.” “You hit it out of the park with this lecture,” said another. “Have signed up for them all.” “Was I the only one who did not know the extent of slavery?” wrote another. “Important, revealing and mind-opening,” an audience member told us.

We owe a tremendous thanks to the superb presenters - Indigenous Tribal members, independent scholars, and historians - who so generously contributed their time and energy to making this series happen. We thank (in order of their appearance in the series): the Rev. Stephanie May, Jared Hardesty, Kyera Singleton, Margaret Newell, Michael Thomas, Rashad Young, Linford Fisher, Alexis Moreis, Cheryll Toney Holley, Loren Spears, Richard Boles, Aabid Allibhai, the Rev. Mary Margaret Earl, and Byron Rushing. We are also grateful to the Boston Public Library for hosting us so kindly and expertly, the Winthrop Society for its general support, and Mass Humanities for making our live-streaming possible.

If you missed Enslavement & Resistance, watch the recordings here.

the power of place: land, place and belonging from an indigenous perspective

In our 2022 fall series, The Power of Place, six renowned academics and Native scholars and educators explored the meaning of place – as understood by both Native people and English colonists – and its consequences today.

Five events, from September 14-October 18, in person and online, offered a unique chance to understand issues at the heart of New England in both the 17th and 21st centuries.

We saw how, in the mercantile world of 17th century England, land was something to be bought, sold, alienated, acquired, and accumulated - offering power, money, status, and freedom. For New England’s Native people, land was home - so much so that they took their tribal names from the places to which they belonged. Land was not owned in the way that the English understood it; instead, land was family.

Land also lay at the heart of the conflict between English colonists and the Native people of New England: acquiring, exploiting, and controlling it versus developing and maintaining a relationship. Unlike colonists elsewhere, the Puritans were not motivated by money - many left more comfortable, wealthier lives at home in England. But the underlying difference in ideas of land and ownership, what was valued and what was “wasteland,” and what a title deed might mean, led to a cumulative process in which Native people were virtually disenfranchised and stripped of their land.

Understanding the power of place from an Indigenous point of view illuminates the key turning points in New England’s early history, including its violent wars. As our presenters showed us, there is also the story of harmony, respect and honor for the land and its people.

the common good: Whose good, whose common?

Would the Puritans have worn covid masks?

 Across the world, but especially in the United States, we’re struggling with the question of community vs the individual.  How do we balance the rights of the individual against what’s best for everyone?  Can we have shared values?  And is the question of the individual vs the collective truly a conflict?  For the Puritans, keenly aware of individual liberties, fulfillment also came from the common good – the building of a community “knitt together,” as John Winthrop put it, in work, prayer, sickness, and health. The wellbeing of one meant the flourishing of all.

Our 2021 fall lecture series, The Common Good, explored this founding principle of Massachusetts’ Puritans and how they created a society knit together, even as the faultlines began to appear. The cost of that tightly knit community were those who were excluded: heretics, the Black people viewed as rightly enslaved, the Native peoples regarded as enemies, and the English rebels who were banished. We also asked: what would New England society look like today if the colonists had respected a Native way of living?

Our six fascinating presentations can be viewed here.