A Factious People: Politics and Society in Colonial New York

by Patricia U. Bonomi

Overview

First published in 1971 and long out of print, this classic account of Colonial-era New York chronicles how the state was buffeted by political and sectional rivalries and by conflict arising from a wide diversity of ethnic and religious identities. New York’s highly volatile and contentious political life, Patricia U. Bonomi shows, gave rise to several interest groups for whose support political leaders had to compete, resulting in new levels of democratic participation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801455339
Publisher:	Cornell University Press
Publication date:	06/04/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	360
File size:	3 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Patricia U. Bonomi is Professor Emerita of History at New York University. She is the author of Under the Cope of Heaven: Religion, Society, and Politics in Colonial America and The Lord Cornbury Scandal: The Politics of Reputation in British America.

Table of Contents

I. Some Problems in Colonial New York History
1. Carl Becker's View of Colonial New York
2. The New York "Aristocracy": A Problem of Definition
3. Political Factionalism: A "Divided" and "Contentious" People
4. "As the twig is bent..."
5. "Who should rule at home?"II. Settlement and Expansion
1. "A mixture of Nations"
2. Local Government: A Random Growth
3. The "City-State" of Albany
4. The "Albany Spirit"III. Economic Interests and Political Contentions
1. The Merchant Interest
2. The Landed Interest
3. The Backdrop: The Leislerian Upheaval—Fiscal Policies
4. Politics and Governor Hunter: 1710–1719
5. Politics and Governor Burnet: 1720–1727
6. Shifting Patterns: 1728–1731IV. The Morris-Cosby Dispute: A Political and Constitutional Crisis
1. The Resurgence of Parties: Governor Cosby and the Van Dam Affair
2. A Twofold Strategy: The Founding of Zenger's New-York Weekly Journal; the Westchester
Election of 1733
3. A Flanking Maneuver: Lewis Morris in London; Petitions in New York
4. A Crisis of Identity in the MakingV. James DeLancey, Anglo-American: The Politics of New York at Mid-Century
1. Building an Anglo-American "Interest"
2. James DeLancey versus Governor George Clinton
3. Governor Clinton Builds a Party: 1748–1752
4. Henry Beekman and the Politics of Dutchess County
5. James DeLancey Becomes Acting Governor of New YorkVI. New York's Land System: Problems and Opportunities
1. Problems of Interpretation and Definition
2. Legal and Economic Aspects of the Great Patents
3. A Favorable View of Tenancy
4. The Causes of Agrarian Unrest
5. A "Drove of Banditt Rovers"
6. The Riots of 1766
7. Some ConsiderationsVII. Politics, The "Universal Topick": 1765–1770
I. The Parties Take Shape
2. On Party Labels
3. The Election of 1768
4. Party Conflicts in the Assembly: 1768
5. The Election of 1769
6. Assembly Maneuvers: 1769
7. Alexander McDougall and "the grand Cause of America"VIII. Ideology and Politics: A Concluding NoteAppendix A: Genealogies
Appendix B: English Governors of New York
Appendix C: Representatives in the Colonial Assembly
Appendix D: Council of the Colony of New YorkBibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

Brendan McConville

After forty-five years, Patricia U. Bonomi's A Factious People remains one of the best studies of the politics of colonial New York, and one of the best studies of colonial politics generally. Ably researched, judiciously and clearly argued, its value to students of the period remains undiminished.

Stanley N. Katz

Patricia U. Bonomi's wonderful book reads just as well now as when it was originally published. A Factious People is the liveliest and most accurate account of mid-eighteenth-century New York politics. Careful research, profound historical judgment, and graceful prose are in evidence on every page.

Editorial Reviews

Patricia U. Bonomi's book is not merely good. It is remarkable. Displaying a rare gift for compression as well as mastery of both original and secondary sources, Bonomi surveys the politics of colonial New York.

William and Mary Quarterly

Patricia U. Bonomi's excursion into our eighteenth-century past gives us a good look at what we were like then and knocks off a few tightly held ideas along the way. If some of her people—the Morrises, the Livingstons, the Coldens—were living today, they would feel right at home in the shifty quagmires of contemporary politics.

New York Times

A Factious People traces the gradual emergence of a highly developed political culture in colonial New York. Patricia U. Bonomi contends that the centrifugal nature of the colony's early development—the dispersion of settlement along the Hudson, the successive waves of culturally distinct migrants, the absence of a representative assembly until 1691—inhibited the creation of a stable polity.

American Historical Review

A Factious People traces the gradual emergence of a highly developed political culture in colonial New York. Patricia U. Bonomi contends that the centrifugal nature of the colony's early development--the dispersion of settlement along the Hudson, the successive waves of culturally distinct migrants, the absence of a representative assembly until 1691--inhibited the creation of a stable polity.

-- "American Historical Review"

Patricia U. Bonomi's book is not merely good. It is remarkable. Displaying a rare gift for compression as well as mastery of both original and secondary sources, Bonomi surveys the politics of colonial New York.

-- "William and Mary Quarterly"

Patricia U. Bonomi's excursion into our eighteenth-century past gives us a good look at what we were like then and knocks off a few tightly held ideas along the way. If some of her people--the Morrises, the Livingstons, the Coldens--were living today, they would feel right at home in the shifty quagmires of contemporary politics.

-- "New York Times"

From the Publisher

"Patricia U. Bonomi's wonderful book reads just as well now as when it was originally published. A Factious People is the liveliest and most accurate account of mid-eighteenth-century New York politics. Careful research, profound historical judgment, and graceful prose are in evidence on every page."

Stanley N. Katz

"After forty-five years, Patricia U. Bonomi's A Factious People remains one of the best studies of the politics of colonial New York, and one of the best studies of colonial politics generally. Ably researched, judiciously and clearly argued, its value to students of the period remains undiminished."

Brendan McConville