Research as a focus

TL;DR -- Lots and lots of things to look at with respect to 400 years plus or minus a century or two or more. And, an important one, the 250th, comes up which is now associated with a dancing Hamilton. Tsk. 

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One of our common interests will be history from several perspectives; examples abound of how the cloud/web is enabling new looks at history that were not possible in the prior years. So, yes, some history can be informal, such as we find with the family looks that are so prevalent. There will be the academic looks that take another look at some area, from time to time. Then, we will have our own production which will come from sponsored work. To date, there have been a few recurrent themes; however, we expect to be adding more to the list, especially with regard to technology wherein the absence of ethical concerns might point to a lack of appreciation of history. 

And, in terms of the U.S., we are coming up on the 250 anniversary, almost concurrently with the upcoming 400th of the Cape Ann endeavor related to the arrival of Thomas Gardner and others. 

The following is a brief summary of some of the work to date with pointers to earlier posts, as well as to additional information. One thing that we will bring to fore is awareness of the generational aspects of the cloud/web which provides a more proper basis with which to do the necessary analysis. 

These are categorized, loosely, by themes. 

• Quarrels - Some of these seem interminable, such as those of late with regard to elections. We can bring in a look at the Pamphlet War of 1707, between Rev. Cotton Mather and Gov. Joseph Dudley (see image). Joseph was a Royally appointed governor and American-born Tory.  
• Whence issues - For instance, we had a couple of posts in 2020 about this subject which is a recurring theme: Origins and motivations; Reasons ... for New England. We have the 'Origins' issue since little has been discovered about Thomas' past. On the other hand, we might have identified his wife, Margaret Fryer. 
• Comparative views - There is a quote from Benjamin Franklin that he had never heard anyone, whether sober or drunk, say that they would like to split from England. Yet, it happened. One area really needing attention is a more cohesive view of life before and after, including economic issues, daily life, and such. For instance, a book from 1995 gave an estimate of population for England and 'National income' for three periods (count, English pounds): 1086 (2.25m, 0.4m); 1300 (6m, 4.66m); 1470 (2.3m, 3.5m). Yes, the black plague had a devastating impact.   
• New England view - We will look at this further, but let's use the History of New England (Wikipedia) to look at population growth. This page fits with our view of northern and southern New England. Here is a look at the population of Massachusetts Bay: By 1629 - 506; by 1640 - 8,932; by 1650 - 14,307; by 1670 - 30, 000. We stopped there at Thomas died in 1674.  
• Family events - An example is the ordeal of 1692 and following. Example: Trials of the Wilson family. 

Of course, New England's early activity is considered reconnaissance (see Albion's Seed). So, we need to look at the whole picture before the Revolution. We know that coming this way has even more interesting material to cover. 

Mather vs Dudley

Remarks: Modified: 01/30/2021

01/30/2021 -- Oh yes, we need to thank Queen Anne for the Georges.