American Roots

A series published by the Calvin College Press

Titles in the Calvin Shorts Series:

Emerging Adulthood and Faith

The Church and Religious Persecution

Christians and Cultural Difference

American Roots

When Helping Heals

Copyright © 2016 James D. Bratt

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published 2016 by the Calvin College Press

3201 Burton St. SE

Grand Rapids, MI 49546

Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data

Names: Bratt, James D., 1949-, author.

Title: American roots / James D. Bratt.

Series: Calvin Shorts

Description: Grand Rapids, MI: Calvin College Press, 2016.

Identifiers: ISBN 978-1-937555-19-1 (pbk.) | ISBN 978-1-937555-20-7 (ebook) | LCCN 2016936744

Subjects: LCSH United States--History--1600-1775, Colonial period. | United States--History--Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775. | Great Britain--Colonies--America--History--16th century. | America--Colonization. | United States--Politics and government--To 1775. | BISAC HISTORY / United States / Colonial Period (1600-1775) | HISTORY / African American | HISTORY / United States / State & Local / New England (CT, MA, ME, NH, RI, VT) | HISTORY / United States / State & Local / Middle Atlantic (DC, DE, MD, NJ, NY, PA) | HISTORY / United States / State & Local / South (AL, AR, FL, GA, KY, LA, MS, NC, SC, TN, VA,

Classification: LCC E188 .B785 2016 | DDC 973.2—dc23

Cover design: Robert Alderink

Maps created by Peter Bratt, from originals in David Hackett Fischer, Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989), and Alan Taylor, American Colonies: The Settling of North America (New York: Penguin, 2001).

Calvin College Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

Contents

Series Editor’s Foreword

Additional Resources

1  Introduction

2  The Chesapeake

3  The Lower South

4  New England

5  The Middle Colonies

6  The Backcountry

7  Conclusion

Further Reading

To all the students in my Early America course

at Calvin College, 1987–2014

Series Editor’s Foreword

Midway along the journey of our life

I woke to find myself in some dark woods,

For I had wandered off from the straight path.

So begins The Divine Comedy, a classic meditation on the Christian life, written by Dante Alighieri in the fourteenth century.

Dante’s three images—a journey, a dark forest, and a perplexed pilgrim—still feel familiar today, don’t they?

We can readily imagine our own lives as a series of journeys, not just the big journey from birth to death, but also all the little trips from home to school, from school to job, from place to place, from old friends to new. In fact, we often feel we are simultaneously on multiple journeys that tug us in diverse and sometimes opposing directions. We recognize those dark woods from fairy tales and nightmares and the all-too-real conundrums that crowd our everyday lives. No wonder we frequently feel perplexed. We wake up shaking our heads, unsure if we know how to live wisely today or tomorrow or next week.

This series has in mind just such perplexed pilgrims.Each book invites you, the reader, to walk alongside experienced guides who will help you understand the contours of the road as well as the surrounding landscape.They will cut back the underbrush, untangle myths and misconceptions, and suggest ways to move forward.

And they will do it in books intended to be read in an evening or during a flight. Calvin Shorts are designed not just for perplexed pilgrims, but also for busy ones. We live in a complex and changing world. We need nimble ways to acquire knowledge, skills, and wisdom. These books are one way to meet those needs.

John Calvin, after whom this series is named, recognized our pilgrim condition. We are always on the road, he said, and although this road, this life, is full of perplexities, it is also a gift of divine kindness which is not to be refused. Calvin Shorts takes as its starting point this claim that we are called to live well in a world that is both gift and challenge.

In The Divine Comedy, Dante’s guide is Virgil, a wise but not omniscient mentor. So too, the authors in the Calvin Shorts series don’t pretend to know it all. They, like you and me, are pilgrims. And they invite us to walk with them as together we seek to live more faithfully in this world that belongs to God.

Susan M. Felch

Executive Editor

The Calvin