The Empire Reformed: English America in the Age of the Glorious Revolution

Chapter 2. Catholics, Indians, and the Politics of Conspiracy

C h a p t e r 2 catholics, indians, and the Politics of conspiracy In the summer of 1688 the governor of the dominion of new England, Sir Edmund andros, faced a political crisis. a group of hostile indians had attacked the colony’s northern and western borders, killing and capturing a number of English settlers and causing frightened townspeople to take refuge in garrison houses. Even more alarming than the violence, however, were the colonists’ reactions. in maine, local officials foolishly imprisoned several abenaki chiefs, while the people of marlborough, massachusetts, assembled in arms without any instruction from the governor. to calm these fears, andros sent his lieutenant, Francis nicholson, on a good will tour of the new England backcountry. He assured the people, both English and indian, that they were safe “under the protection of a greate King, who protects all his Subjects both in their lives and fortunes.” in the eyes of andros and nicholson , new Englanders’ hysterics made little sense. The dominion of new England—a potent union of all the colonies from maine to new Jersey under the command of an experienced officer—provided the best defense against external enemies that the region had ever possessed. The king and his redcoats, not a motley local militia, would keep the plantations safe.1 The crisis in the dominion represented the first major setback in what had been a fairly successful example of imperial state building. The key to the dominion was protection, represented perfectly in the new union’s official seal. The design featured James ii, “robed in His royall Vestments and crowned, with a Scepter in the left hand, the right hand being extended towards an English man and an indian both kneeling, the one presenting the Fruits of the country and other a Scrole.” above them a flying angel held a banner with the dominion’s motto, “nunquam libertas gratior extat,” “never catholics, indians, and the Politics of conspiracy 55 does liberty appear in a more gracious form [than under a pious king].” The monarch received allegiance and tribute and provided protection, which was the key to political stability. andros and his allies knew that the dominion’s programs would excite opposition from new Englanders who defined both “liberty” and “piety” in very different ways from James ii’s allies. However, they believed that they could keep control as long as they upheld their promise to provide protection—and they were mostly right. despite some opposition, the dominion did not fall until subjects began to believe that their leaders were not protecting them at all, and in fact aimed to subvert and destroy the country. The opposition to the dominion grew as a result of its failed indian policy; as native enemies attacked the borders, new Englanders turned against their leaders.2 Figure 4. Seal of the dominion of new England, 1686. William cullen Bryant and Sydney Howard Gay, A Popular History of the United States (new york, 1879), 3: 9. 56 Chapter 2 The wave of fear that threatened the dominion combined several different varieties of popular anxiety. aside from the popish plot alarms that periodically struck both England and its colonies, settlers in north america also obsessively feared indian attacks. Europeans and natives had experienced tensions since the newcomers arrived on the continent, but the violence increased during the 1670s. First, in 1675, a coalition of indians under the Wampanoag sachem metacom (King Philip) attacked English settlements in new England in response to land disputes and religious tensions, dramatically revealing the region’s vulnerability. The following year indian attacks on the frontier of Virginia inspired a massive popular revolt against Governor William Berkeley by subjects, led by the upstart nathaniel Bacon, who believed the governor was not protecting the colony from indian enemies. While peace had returned to both places by 1677, the legacy of this unrest remained. as a result, the fears of popish plots that crossed the atlantic after 1678 arrived in places already primed to expect the worst.3 Popular panics of the 1680s proved particularly powerful because they combined the tropes of antipopery with homegrown racial fears. increasingly, people became apprehensive of a massive plot that combined papists and indians into a gigantic, diabolical coalition that aimed to push English Protestants off the continent. This belief did not come naturally; indeed, during the first period of colonization many English settlers had expected that indians would...