In this Book
- Profits in the Wilderness: Entrepreneurship and the Founding of New England Towns in the Seventeenth Century
- Book
- 2014
- Published by: The University of North Carolina Press
- Series: Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia
summary
In examining the founding of New England towns during the seventeenth century, John Frederick Martin investigates an old subject with fresh insight. Whereas most historians emphasize communalism and absence of commerce in the seventeenth century, Martin demonstrates that colonists sought profits in town-founding, that town founders used business corporations to organize themselves into landholding bodies, and that multiple and absentee landholding was common.
In reviewing some sixty towns and the activities of one hundred town founders, Martin finds that many town residents were excluded from owning common lands and from voting. It was not until the end of the seventeenth century, when proprietors separated from towns, that town institutions emerged as fully public entities for the first time.
Martin's study will challenge historians to rethink not only social history but also the cultural history of early New England. Instead of taking sides in the long-standing debate between Puritan scholars and business historians, Martin identifies strains within Puritanism and the rest of the colonists' culture that both discouraged and encouraged land commerce, both supported and undermined communalism, both hindered and hastened development of the wilderness. Rather than portray colonists one-dimensionally, Martin analyzes how several different and competing ethics coexisted within a single, complex, and vibrant New England culture.
In reviewing some sixty towns and the activities of one hundred town founders, Martin finds that many town residents were excluded from owning common lands and from voting. It was not until the end of the seventeenth century, when proprietors separated from towns, that town institutions emerged as fully public entities for the first time.
Martin's study will challenge historians to rethink not only social history but also the cultural history of early New England. Instead of taking sides in the long-standing debate between Puritan scholars and business historians, Martin identifies strains within Puritanism and the rest of the colonists' culture that both discouraged and encouraged land commerce, both supported and undermined communalism, both hindered and hastened development of the wilderness. Rather than portray colonists one-dimensionally, Martin analyzes how several different and competing ethics coexisted within a single, complex, and vibrant New England culture.
Table of Contents
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- Acknowledgments
- pp. vii-viii
- List of Abbreviations
- pp. xiii-xiv
- Introduction
- pp. 1-6
- Part I: Entrepreneurship
- Chapter 2 The Leading Entrepreneurs
- pp. 46-110
- Chapter 3 Commerce and Culture
- pp. 111-128
- Part II: Towns
- Chapter 5 The Use of Shares
- pp. 149-185
- Chapter 7 The Communal Ideal
- pp. 217-237
- Part III: Towns Transformed
- Appendixes, Part I
- pp. 305-316
- Appendixes, Part II
- pp. 317-334
- Bibliography of Works Cited
- pp. 335-350
Additional Information
ISBN
9781469615776
Related ISBN(s)
9780807820018, 9780807843468, 9781469600031, 9798890886965
MARC Record
OCLC
551524683
Pages
384
Launched on MUSE
2016-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No