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New London Society: Connecticut Land Bank, 1732

April 7, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur
Awhile back, I noted Andrew McFarland Davis’ “A Connecticut Land Bank of the Eighteenth Century” as another important piece in the land bank puzzle. This particular project was chartered as the New London Society United for Trade and Commerce in 1732, and the original grant describes it as an organization for “the promoting and carrying on Trade and Commerce to Great Britain and his Majesties Islands and Plantations in America, and other of his Majesties Dominions, and for encouraging the Fishery, &c., as well for the common good of their own private interests. . .” (See digitized colonial records here: […]
From the Archives

Edward Kellogg, “Remarks Upon Usury” (1841)

April 6, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur
Here is the text of Edward Kellogg’s Remarks Upon Usury and its Effects: A National Bank a Remedy (1841), originally published as by “Whitehook,” which is the earliest statement of his banking and currency ideas. The Knickerbocker for September 1841 briefly noted the publication as follows: The author writes in a style of great terseness and perspicuity, and is evidently a person of sound practical views; and if one half of what he states be true, Wall-street should be closed, with an investigating committee at once convened ‘in bank,’ to examine his charges, ‘with power to send for persons and […]
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Edward Kellogg again (and a money-crank treasure trove)

April 4, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur
The pieces of the puzzle are coming together, slowly but surely, in the case of the Edward Kellogg bibliography. After some microform-related comedy of errors, I have now had a chance to look at the 4-page Usury, the Evil and the Remedy (1843), which was the last of the major editions I had yet to see. And, yes, it appears that all of Kellogg’s writings ought to be considered drafts of the same argument, though they range from 4 pages to over 300 pages in length. With the William B. Greene collation work still in progress—and now ranging into the […]
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Edward Carpenter: “Non-Governmental Society” and “Exfoliation”

April 3, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur
I’ve been putting together pdf files of some of the texts I used to sell in pamphlet form, as I slowly but surely rearrange the new Libertarian Labyrinth site. Today, for your reading pleasure, the new additions are two essay by Edward Carpenter. “Non-Governmental Society” is a fine exposition of anarchism, though its author didn’t use the label. “Exfoliation” is an interesting period piece of evolutionary thought, for those who don’t mind a little Lamarck (or even Whitman) with their Darwin. Carpenter was a truly fine writer, and these are among my favorites from him. Enjoy!
From the Archives

Oscar C. McColloch, The Tribe of Ishmael (1888)

March 30, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur
Fans of James Fenimore Cooper’s The Prairie or Ron Sakolsky and James Koehnline’s Gone to Croatan: Origins of North American Dropout Culture will be familiar with the story of the Tribe of Ben Ishmael, a nomadic, mixed-race group that may have had Muslim origins and were eventually the target of a 1907 “eugenic” program of forced sterilization in Indiana. In 1923, Arthur H. Estabrook published an account of the family. The Eugenics Archive also has online a number of pictures of Ishmaelite homes and such. None of this material is uncontroversial. On the genealogy sites, members of the Ishmael family […]
anarchist mutualism

What Mutualism Was – I: Prehistories

March 21, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur
[ezcol_1third] Contr’un Revisited: [/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_2third_end] [This post seems to have been lost at some point, but there was a draft preserved in my Blogger account.] This is the first of a series of explorations of the mutualist tradition—or, perhaps more appropriately, traditions. The particular perspective they present is, I’m afraid, somewhat revisionist in a variety of ways. It is also a work in progress, so if anyone out there thinks they can set me straight, I would welcome the attempt. Anyway, to begin… As anyone who has explored the matter—or perhaps fought about it on the Wikipedia talk pages—knows, the […]
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Josiah Warren, The First American Anarchist

March 13, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur
William Bailie’s Josiah Warren: The First American Anarchist remains the best single source we have on Warren’s career, but it’s a bit hard to get your hands on. I was fortunate enough to pick up an original copy awhile back, and I’ve finally got around to preparing an electronic version. I think there’s still a typo or two in this version, and I’ll have to find some time to mark up a good scholarly version with original page numbers, but for all of you who have yet to get a look at the work, here it is. Enjoy!
Contr'un

How I Spent My Spring Vacation

March 13, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur
I celebrated a birthday, had my main email account compromised (so if you’ve tried to contact me, I’m not ignoring you, but it may be another day or so before I see you mail), reread What Is Mutualism? and a lot of Proudhon, edited a Wikipedia entry or three, tried to organize my mounting collection of land bank references, started a William B. Greene timeline and miscellany (coming soon), did a lot of class prep, met another of Greene’s great-great-grandchildren online, and started the web-site redesign I need to finish before the Libertarian Labyrinth is really up and available at […]
Contr'un

The Founding Fathers

February 21, 2006 Shawn P. Wilbur
Some days I’m content to treat the “founding fathers” as Real American Heroes, guys who did a pretty amazing job of forging a country out of the colonies, despite active opposition from England and internal divisions at home. You have to admire Jefferson as a writer and observer. Franklin the practical rationalist and experimental scientists is charming, if kind of weird, with his charts and his rationales for everything. Federalists and Jeffersonians alike clearly took the business of forming an American government seriously. And there are few writers in the canon who can touch Tom Paine for flair, or for […]