Blog

The major colonial land bank experiments seem to be these: 1681: The Fund at Boston, In New England1686: “Blackwell’s Bank” [proposed]1732: Connecticut land bank1714: Boston land bank [proposed]1740: Land Bank, or Manufactory Scheme, Boston The debates surrounding them, beginning with Potter’s Key of Wealth, includes roughly 25-30 major pamphlets, prospectuses, decrees, etc. All of these were published by Andrew McFarland Davis, roughly one hundred years ago. The subject was already obscure by the time William B. Greene was made aware of it, in 1857. Subsequently, radicals and intellectual historians alike seem to have paid relatively little attention to the topic. […]

Foner starts his Story of American Freedom with the claim that “American Freedom was born in revolution,” but then makes it clear that the story really begins in a web of complex conflicts and outright contradictions from which, perhaps, “American freedom” never entirely extricates itself. This is abundantly clear in the thought of New Englanders in the early colonial period. I: Equality before God; Inequality of Station On the one hand, documents such as John Winthrop’s “A Modell of Christian Charity” (1630), present a rather radically egalitarian vision of human beings’ absolute equality before God. For many puritans, even the […]

Here are some links to a small part of Andrew McFarland Davis’ work on the colonial land banks. The first essay, on a Connecticut experiment of 1732, is interesting. The last essay provides a context for Severals relating to the FUND, which I recently posted on The Very Idea! Davis, Andrew McFarland. “A Connecticut Land Bank of the Eighteenth Century.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 13 (October 1898): 70-84. Davis, Andrew McFarland. “Currency Discussions in Massachusetts in the Eighteenth Century.” Part I. Quarterly Journal of Economics 11 (October 1896): 70-91. Davis, Andrew McFarland. “Currency Discussions in Massachusetts in the Eighteenth Century.” […]

While this essay was published in 1836, while William B. Greene was at West Point, similarities between it and the the section on “The Usury Laws” in Greene’s Equality (1849) make it worth at least a look as a potential source. WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANTOn Usury Laws The fact that the usury laws, arbitrary, unjust, and oppressive as they are, and unsupported by a single substantial reason, should have been suffered to exist to the present time can only be accounted for on the ground of the general and singular ignorance which has prevailed as to the true nature and character […]

Here’s a guest post from my peer facilitator and teaching assistant, Jennie Ahlborn, introducing William Manning’s Key of Libberty, along with citations (and links, for some folks, to Manning’s two key texts.) William Manning’s The Key of LibbertySamuel Eliot Morison; William Manning, The William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Ser., Vol. 13, No. 2. (Apr., 1956), pp. 202-254. “Measures So Glareingly unjust”: A Response to Hamilton’s Funding Plan by William ManningRuth Bogin, The William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Ser., Vol. 46, No. 2. (Apr., 1989), pp. 315-331. William ManningHere’s a study guide on Manning, for all those who would like a […]

From Kossuth in New England : a full account of the Hungarian governor’s visit to Massachusetts with his speeches, and the addresses that were made to him, carefully revised and corrected, with an appendix (1852). Soon after entering the hotel, Kossuth was introduced to each member of the legislative committee. Immediately afterwards, and while the committee were yet in the reception-room, General Wilson introduced to Kossuth the Rev. William B. Greene, of Brookfield, who presented him with a purse of one hundred dollars, the subscription of certain inhabitants of Brookfield to the Hungarian fund, and then addressed him as follows: […]