Description
Book SynopsisThis study examines colonial New England and its place in the wider context of British colonialism in North America. The author uses a series of episodes in the history of Hadley, Massachusetts, to analyze the connections between local, regional, and imperial levels of politics and religious society.
Trade ReviewCarl I. Hammer skillfully integrates three incidents at the frontier town of Hadley, Massachusetts—interesting in themselves, but not obviously of more than local importance—into the larger canvas of the evolution of New England during the latter half of the seventeenth century. He contends that ‘declension’ from the founders’ ideals ought to be understood as ‘secular,’ i.e., political and social as much as religious. Not the least appeal of this engaging book is Hammer's account of the further adventures of the regicide William Goffe, the legendary ‘Angel of Hadley.' -- Baird Tipson, Gettysburg College
A deep dive into the religious debates and political tensions that shaped the founding of this once-influential Massachusetts town, Carl I. Hammer's Pugnacious Puritans tracks the entangled motives of powerful personalities as they navigated imperial, colonial, and local interests. This up-close look at early Hadley is illuminating not only as a case study of town-making in the Connecticut Valley, but also as a window to theology, ambition, interest, and power across seventeenth-century New England. -- Marla R. Miller, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Table of ContentsIntroduction: “Liberty to Inhabit in Any Part of this Jurisdiction Already Planted”: Hadley’s Beginnings Episode 1: “Peeping through the Crevises of my Close Cell”: The Angel of Hadley, William Goffe, in Hadley and Hartford Episode 2: “A Worme at the Roote of Theocraticall Government”: Hadley’s Opposition to the Half-Way Covenant Episode 3: “A Trust Committed to Us by Solemn and Solemnly Ratified Covenant”: Governor Edward Hopkins’ Grammar School at Hadley Postscript: “Declension from the Primitive Foundation Work”
