Liberty Chronicles

It is Reformation Day, and a particularly special one at that. 500 years ago today—as goes the legend—Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral. In Luther’s day, Halloween was All Saint’s Eve—part of Allhallowsmas or Hallowstide, a three-day, ritual-packed observance of Christianity’s early martyrs and first saints dating to the eighth century. The unconverted Romans looked at the first saints and saw a small clique of radical, fanatical, cannibalistic zombie/death-cultists, but by Luther’s time Christians were no longer hiding out in catacombs. They ran some of the world’s most powerful institutions. With power came the ability to transform folk beliefs and theology into political weapons, tools for statecrafting.Further ReadingGodwin’s Lives of the Necromancers [insert PDF link when made available]Marshall, Peter. William Godwin: Philosopher, Novelist, Revolutionary. PM Press. 2017.Miller, Perry. The New England Mind: The Seventeenth Century. Boston: Beacon Press. 1954Trevor

Sheldon Richman can be found on Twitter @Sheldon Richman, readers can find his articles at the Libertarian Institute, and his books at Amazon.Beard, Charles. An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States, 1913.Hyneman & Lutz (eds.) American Political Writing during the Founding Era, 1760-1805, Two Volumes. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund. 1983.Morgan, Edmund. The Birth of the Republic, 1763-1789. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1956.Richman, Sheldon. America’s Counter-Revolution: The Constitution Revisited. Griffin & Lash, 2016.Wood, Gordon. The Idea of America: Reflections on the Birth of the United States. New York: The Penguin Press. 2011.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In 1741, African slaves, Spanish sailors, Irish servants and soldiers, and antinomian Dissenters conspired to burn New York’s Fort George and murder the city’s wealthy and powerful inhabitants. They hatched their plot at John Hughson’s tavern and spread word to the surrounding countryside and down Long Island. At the sight of flames from the city, country slaves and servants should rise up, kill their masters, and move on the city where they would welcome a Spanish flotilla of conquerors and personal freedom.Brown. Major Problems in the Era of the American Revolution, 1760-1791, Second Edition. Houghton-Mifflin.Middlekauf, Robert. The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789, Revised Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2005.Nellis, Eric. The Long Road to Change: America’s Revolution, 1750-1820. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 2012.Paine, “Common Sense”Rediker & Linebaugh. Many-Headed Hydra: The Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic. Boston: Beacon Press. 2000.Wood, Gordon. The

The colonists governed themselves and had little need for imperial management; colonists all over disparaged the idea of monarchy and Tom Paine smashed it to pieces; the world’s most powerful state lost its most vigorous appendages, and the settlers expanded all sorts of civil rights to new cohorts. We remember the triumphant victory of a new nation-state, and the gains made by some toward exercising a greater control over that state; but revolution bred counter-revolution.“The Indictment and Trial of Sir Richard Rum”Bushman, Richard. From Puritan to Yankee: Character and Social Order in Connecticut, 1690-1765. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1967.Rorabaugh, W. J. The Alcoholic Republic: An American Tradition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1979.Smith, Barbara Clark. The Freedoms We Lost: Consent and Resistance in Revolutionary America. New York: The New Press. 2010.Young, Alfred, ed. Beyond the American Revolution: Explorations in the History of American Radicalism. DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois Unive

Mauritius is a rare example of a Creole culture from the start. There really aren’t many of these in world history. The island had no indigenous human beings and the first human visitors to the island were Muslims from East Africa and Arabia in the medieval era. There were no permanent settlements there until the 17th century when the Dutch arrived.Bernardin de St. Pierre, Paul and Virginia, 1788.Gordon, Daniel, ed. Postmodernism and the Enlightenment: New Perspectives in Eighteenth-Century French Intellectual History. New York: Routledge. 2001.Vaughn, Megan. Creating the Creole Island: Slavery in Eighteenth-Century Mauritius. Durham: Duke University Press. 2003.Vink, Markus. “The World’s Oldest Trade: Dutch Slavery and Slave Trade in the Indian Ocean in the Seventeenth Century.” Journal of World History 14, No. 2 (June 2003): 131-177. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

For two decades, New Orleans was a town with about 400 riotous, irreligious, desperate individuals. Jean-Baptiste, Sieur de Bienville always hoped the French Empire would take more interest in the area—it was the gateway to wider America, the key to the continent’s greatest river, its richest soils, and a highway for the Indian trade. If only it actually had people in it!Further Readings/References:French, Douglas E. Early Speculative Bubbles & Increases in the Supply of Money. Second Edition. Auburn: Ludwig von Mises Institute. 2009.Hall, Gwendolyn Midlo. Slavery and African Ethnicities in the Americas. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. 2005.Ingersoll, Thomas. Mammon and Manon in Early New Orleans: The First Slave Society in the Deep South, 1716-1819. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press. 1999.Code Noir or “Black Code” of Louisiana, 1724 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Spanish Missionaries intended to project power, but the Indians held the balance of power and Spanish authorities proved unable to control either mission culture or powerful native groups across the countryside.Further Readings/References:Barr, Juliana. Peace Came in the Form of a Woman: Indians and Spaniards in the Texas Borderlands. Chapel Hill (NC): University of North Carolina Press. 2007.Historical Documents Relating to New Mexico, Nueva Vizcaya, and Approaches Thereto, to 1773, Charles Wilson Hackett, ed. Washington, DC: Carnegie Institution. 1926.—“Papers of Admiral Mateo de Vesga, 1620-1622,” pp. 119-137.—“Reply of the Fiscal,” pp. 419-463. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Along with Frederick Douglass, the most famous slave in history was probably Olaudah Equiano.  On Equiano’s Middle Passage, he shared space belowdecks with other Africans from possibly dozens of ethnic groups, speaking different languages. Once loaded into the ship’s hold, they were all outsiders.Music by Kai EngelFurther ReadingsRobin Blackburn, The Making of New World Slavery: From the Baroque to the Modern, 1492-1800. London: Verso. 1997.Marcus Rediker, The Slave Ship: A Human History. London: Penguin Books. 2007.Vincent Caretta. Equiano, the African: Biography of a Self-Made Man. London: Penguin Books. 2005.Selections from Snelgrave: “Slavery’s Defenders vs. the First Abolitionists” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Peter Leeson is the Duncan Black Professor of Economics and Law at George Mason University. His work often reads as forays into high weirdness, voyages to strange unknown countries penetrated only by the light of economic reasoning.Leeson, The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates. Princeton University Press. 2011.WTF?! An Economic Tour of the Weird. Stanford University Press. 2017. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Golden Age of Piracy raises the question: Who among you would turn down the opportunity to play Master to a small continent? Would you submit passively to be dominated by the world? Would we respect the lives and liberties of those weaker than ourselves, or would we, too, given the right opportunities, proclaim ourselves King?Rediker, Marcus. Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age. Boston: Beacon Press. 2004.“The Saga of Pirate Captain John Gow”“From Pirate to Tyrant: John Plantain, King of Madagascar” See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In 1716, pirates regularly declared war on all nation-states, they tested the extreme limits of life and death, and quite literally challenged God to dare pass judgment over an angry pirate. If the Lord knew what was good for him, he would mind his own damned business and move along. A true pirate had no home but Hell. Further Readings/References:“The Legend of Libertalia” on Libertarianism.orgCaptain Charles John, A General History of the Pirates, Volume One and Volume TwoRediker, Marcus. Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age. Boston: Beacon Press. 2004. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Each new generation has the ability to dramatically improve upon their world. Neil Howe challenges us to think generationally. Neil Howe wondered why Boomers were so different from their GI elders. In the late 1980s, he developed an intricate yet broad theory of generational change. His model has been very influential, inspiring figures from Al Gore to Glenn Beck and Steve Bannon. Neil Howe joins us on Liberty Chronicles to talk cycles, generations, and the myth-making business of history. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In his 1743 memoir, “The Infortunate,” Moraley detailed his sad circumstances and vague notions of bettering them in the Americas. In what appeared to him a chance encounter, an unknown man encouraged this flight of fancy and signaled that he would join William in Pennsylvania. After plying young Moraley with pints and sweet stories about American abundance, the two prepared and signed William’s indenture contract of five years. Once aboard ship, the recruiter disappeared to lull another fool into the trap.Klepp & Smith, eds. The Infortunate: The Voyage and Adventures of William Moraley, an Indentured Servant. Penn State University Press. 1992.Reid-Maroney, Nina. Philadelphia’s Enlightenment, 1740-1800: Kingdom of Christ, Empire of Reason. Westport, CN: Greenwood Press. 2001.Taylor, Alan. American Colonies: The Settling of North America. New York: Penguin Books. 2001. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Salem trials were largely the result of a combination of personal animus, avarice, and cruelty within a deeply occultist culture. New England courts executed nineteen witches and subjected many repented convicts to purifying torture. One thing only ended the feverish trials: accusers gradually turned on the affluent and influential after using up the easier targets of marginalized and poor women.Further Readings/References:Godwin’s Lives of the Necromancers seriesGodwin’s chapter on SalemMarshall, Peter. William Godwin: Philosopher, Novelist, Revolutionary. PM Press. 2017.Miller, Perry. The New England Mind: The Seventeenth Century. Boston: Beacon Press. 1954.Trevor-Roper, H. R. The European Witch-Craze of the 16th and 17th Centuries. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. 1969. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

By the mid-1630s, the English and Native populations were roughly equal in number and power. Parity meant all sides had a practical interest in peaceful coexistence, at least in the real experiences of daily life. The first generation of settlers could show little more force than occasional raids on Indian villages, burning the cornfield here and there, and other small-scale acts of violence. Waves of new settlers throughout the 1630s tipped the frontier balance of power toward the Puritans. John Oldham, a wealthy local fur merchant, patiently traded while the New English settled the frontier and hedged in the natives. He did not share the Puritan missionary mentality, but his death helped inaugurate the Pequot War and consolidate Puritan control of the coast.Further Readings/References:Bourne, Russell. The Red King’s Rebellion: Racial Politics in New England, 1675-1678. New York: Oxford University Press. 1990.John Easton, A Narrative of the Causes Which Led to Philip’s Indian War, Albany: J. Munsell. 1858. O

Few contemporary or historical accounts of Bacon’s rebellion agree in every particular about the movement’s motivations and outcomes. For the Jacksonian Democrat, George Bancroft, Virginians had enjoyed free government for three generations on the edge of the wilderness. For Bancroft and nationalist historians, this was the prelude to the American Revolution—it was the people seizing their government, its policy-making apparatus, and its legitimacy so that the popular interest might once again govern Virginia. However, Twentieth-century historians with a more global perspective on British imperial activity recognized Bacon’s Rebellion as a racialized conflict against the Indians which transformed into a vehicle for the expression of popular discontent. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Antinomians did not just push for religious and political freedoms in the American colonies. Their ideas traversed the Atlantic and influenced groups in Britain, as well. During the upheaval of the English Civil War, the British Antinomians seized the opportunity to shape their world, creating a slew of new religious denominations and fighting for their liberty.Rediker & Linebaugh. Many-Headed Hydra: The Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic. Boston: Beacon Press. 2000.Woodhouse, ed. Puritanism and Liberty, being the Army Debates (1647-9), University of Chicago Press. 1938. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

True radicals who would actually live and let live have been in short supply since Bradford destroyed Morton’s maypole and the Puritan divines banished Anne Hutchinson.The Trial of Anne Hutchinson (1637), TranscriptThomas Morton’s Observations of the Puritans See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Peter Linebaugh received a PhD in Early Modern British history from the University of Warwick in 1974, where he studied under EP Thompson, one of the most important and influential historians of the 20th century.Linebaugh is the author of a good many hugely important articles and books, among which are The London Hanged, Magna Carta Manifesto, and Stop Thief! Linebaugh is also the co-author of The Many-Headed Hydra.Further Readings/References:Thomas Morton’s MaydayMorton’s “New World Bacchanal”Peter Linebaugh’s latest May Day article, “Omnia Sunt Communia: May Day 2017”Peter’s author page at PM Press See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On July 25, 1609, aboard the Virginia Company’s slowing sinking ship the Sea Venture, a company of colonial gentlemen-adventurers, indentured servants, and sailors, all struggled for their lives. The crew plugged holes and splits with every available means and everyone —even the genteel and lordly—took turns carrying water for a time. Aboard the Sea Venture, circumstances forced rich and poor alike to join their labors in common cause and solidarity. The aqueous environment—agitated by catastrophe—dissolved class boundaries.Richard’s Frethorne’s Letters to Mother and FatherSir Thomas Dale, “Articles, Law, and orders, Divine, Politic and Martial for the Colony in Virginia” (22 June 1611) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.