The Colonial Metamorphoses in Rhode Island: A Study of Institutions in ChangeWith meticulous detail, noted colonial historian Sydney V. James relates the story of the way in which Rhode Island's founders created, and then rationalized, the institutions that shaped their lives at both the local and provincial levels. He follows the tortuous and uneven path Rhode Islanders took as they developed town and colony governments, churches and private corporations, and courts and land companies that eventually gave a semblance of form and order to a fractious society. The Colonial Metamorphoses in Rhode Island brings to light new ways of looking at an often neglected period stretching from the founding to the revolutionary era. And as a study of institution building in Rhode Island, it brings a colony always viewed as "exceptional" into the mainstream of colonial history. This, James's final book, left unpublished at the time of his death in 1993, is now brought to publication by Sheila L. Skemp and Bruce C. Daniels, two leading students of the Rhode Island colony. |
Contents
The Generall Having Life in Perticulars | 1 |
Customary Ways and Radical Ideas in the Original Town | 13 |
The Colonial Governments in the Seventeenth Century | 40 |
Disintegration of the Communal Ideal in the Original Towns | 64 |
Land Promotions and New Towns | 82 |
Religious Association Replacing Secular | 101 |
The Rise of the Colonial Government and | 112 |
Subduing the Conflicts over Land | 137 |
Town Ambitions and Town Government | 153 |
Sacred Fellowship in Relation to Time and Space | 170 |
CHAPTER 10 | 221 |
Notes | 257 |
Bibliographical Notes and Key to Short Citations | 313 |
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Common terms and phrases
Anglicans Aquidneck Assembly Assembly's authority Baptists began charter church claims collective colonial government colonial law Colony Records colony's committee congregation Congregationalists Connecticut copy corporation created decisions disputes early East Greenwich East Greenwich TC ecclesiastical eighteenth century elected England England Yearly Meeting English Four Mile Common freemen gave Gorton governmental Governor granted Indians inhabitants institutions Island Records Jamestown John John Comer John Winthrop Journal H jurisdiction King Philip's War lottery magistrates Massachusetts meetinghouse ment Misquamicut monthly meeting Narragansett Bay Narragansett country Narragansett Proprietors Newport TM officers Pawtuxet political Portsmouth TM procedure purchasers Quakers regulations religious Rhode Island RI Laws RI Petitions RICR RIHS Manuscripts Roger Williams royal rules Samuel Samuel Gorton settlers seventeenth century shares society South Kingstown statute territory tion town council town government town meeting traditional vote Warner Papers Warwick Warwick Town Westerly Yearly Meeting