Bernard Bailyn has recently reinterpreted the early
history of the United States by applying new social
research findings on the experiences of European
migrants. In his reinterpretation, migration becomes the
(5) organizing principle for rewriting the history of prein-
dustrial North America. His approach rests on four
separate propositions.
The first of these asserts that residents of early
modern England moved regularly about their coun-
(10) tryside; migrating to the New World was simply a
“natural spillover.” Although at first the colonies held
little positive attraction for the English---they would
rather have stayed home—by the eighteenth century
people increasingly migrated to America because they
(15) regarded it as the land of opportunity. Secondly, Bailyn
holds that, contrary to the notion that used to flourish in
America history textbooks, there was never a typical
New World community. For example, the economic
and demographic character of early New England towns
(20) varied considerably.
Bailyn’s third proposition suggests two general
patterns prevailing among the many thousands of
migrants: one group came as indentured servants,
another came to acquire land. Surprisingly, Bailyn
(25) suggests that those who recruited indentured servants
were the driving forces of transatlantic migration. These
colonial entrepreneurs helped determine the social char-
acter of people who came to preindustrial North America.
At first, thousands of unskilled laborers were recruited;
(30) by the 1730’s, however, American employers demanded
skilled artisans.
Finally, Bailyn argues that the colonies were a half-
civilized hinterland of the European culture system. He
is undoubtedly correct to insist that the colonies were
(35) part of an Anglo-American empire. But to divide the
empire into English core and colonial periphery, as
Bailyn does, devalues the achievements of colonial
culture. It is true, as Bailyn claims, that high culture in
the colonies never matched that in England. But what
(40) of seventeenth-century New England, where the settlers
created effective laws, built a distinguished university,
and published books? Bailyn might respond that New
England was exceptional. However, the ideas and insti-
tutions developed by New England Puritans had power-
(45) ful effects on North American culture.
Although Bailyn goes on to apply his approach to
some thousands of indentured servants who migrated
just prior to the revolution, he fails to link their experi-
ence with the political development of the United States.
(50) Evidence presented in his work suggests how we might
make such a connection. These indentured servants were
treated as slaves for the period during which they had
sold their time to American employers. It is not surprising
that as soon as they served their time they passed up
(55) good wages in the cities and headed west to ensure their
personal independence by acquiring land. Thus, it is in
the west that a peculiarly American political culture
began, among colonists who were suspicious of
authority and intensely antiaristocratic.