The Mayflower Compact to the Town Meeting: How Colonial New England Governed Itself. “Self-Government Before Theory”
Oct 17, 2026 · 47 min · 10 segments
The Mayflower Compact to the Town Meeting: How Colonial New England Governed Itself In November 1620, the Mayflower dropped anchor far outside the only patent its passengers held. Before anyone went…
The Mayflower Compact to the Town Meeting: How Colonial New England Governed Itself In November 1620, the Mayflower dropped anchor far outside the only patent its passengers held. Before anyone went ashore, forty-one men promised to make just and equal laws and to obey them. The paper named no office and stated no right. The habit it began lasted a century and a half. New Englanders elected their officers, voted their own taxes, wrote down their laws, and ran their own churches long before one of their ministers explained the practice in the language of natural law. The record runs from the Massachusetts Bay charter through the May 1631 court that widened the vote and narrowed it in one sitting, the Body of Liberties of 1641, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, and Rhode Island's "lively experiment" of 1663. When the Dominion of New England laid a tax without an assembly, the Ipswich town meeting refused it in 1687, and its leaders pleaded Magna Carta at trial. Thirty years later their minister, John Wise, recast the practice through Pufendorf in his Vindication of 1717. Jonathan Mayhew's 1750 sermon on Romans 13 and Edmund Burke's 1775 "salutary neglect" complete the record. The Honest Reckoning counts who stood how far from the meetinghouse door: women and non-members, the banished, the Quakers hanged in Boston, the people Liberty 91 let the colony hold as property, and the Pequot and Narragansett. Samuel Appleton, jailed for his town's right of consent in 1687, had commanded Massachusetts troops at the Great Swamp in 1675. Companion to Article 17, published Sunday, October 11. On Tuesday, Episode 17B carries the question into the present day. Did it leave people more free, or more governed? ⏱️ CHAPTERS 0:00 — A ship outside its patent, 1620 1:27 — The Mayflower Compact 3:02 — Introduction: Self-Government Before Theory 4:30 — Jamestown, 1619, and the short answer 6:48 — The Massachusetts Bay charter 8:08 — Winthrop on civil liberty 8:48 — May 1631: the vote widened and narrowed 10:09 — 1634: the freemen read the charter 10:53 — The Body of Liberties, 1641 12:06 — Magna Carta and Coke's books 12:41 — The town: Dedham and the selectmen 13:48 — Liberty 12: the right to speak 14:19 — 1647: non-freemen in town affairs 15:25 — The church covenant and the meetinghouse 16:36 — Hooker and the Fundamental Orders 17:25 — Rhode Island's "lively experiment" 18:18 — The Dominion of New England 19:12 — Ipswich refuses the tax, 1687 20:39 — Samuel Appleton's winter 21:09 — 1689: Boston rises 21:49 — John Wise and Pufendorf 23:44 — Adams, Gridley, and the 1772 reprint 24:40 — The Great Awakening and its name 25:53 — Mayhew's sermon of 1750 27:53 — Burke and "salutary neglect" 28:57 — What distance did and did not do 29:47 — The Honest Reckoning: inside the room 30:16 — The disfranchised and the banished 31:04 — The Quaker executions 31:49 — Liberty 91 32:53 — Mystic, 1637 34:41 — What London did not stop 35:20 — King Philip's War and Samuel Appleton 36:33 — Skeptic's Case: only neglect? 38:18 — Skeptic's Case: a standard it never held? 39:57 — The Liberty Test 41:19 — Incorporation, and two interviews 43:34 — The answer 44:56 — 1763, and the road ahead 📚 Article 17, with full endnotes: https://www.consequentialactions.com/post/self-government-before-theory-a-hundred-and-fifty-years-of-practice 🎙️ The John Thomas (Week 6) and Jared McClain (Week 14) interviews: https://www.consequentialactions.com/posts/categories/podcast--the-interviews Consequential Actions Podcast · Self-Evident: The Road to 1776 · Episode 17: "Self-Government Before Theory" — Consequential Actions is a libertarian, non-interventionist analysis of American constitutional and foreign policy. New episodes weekly. 🌐 https://www.consequentialactions.com #selfevident #consequentialactions #mayflowercompact #townmeeting #colonialamerica #puritans #selfgovernment #americanhistory #libertarian #johnwise
The Mayflower Compact to the Town Meeting: How Colonial New England Governed Itself In November 1620, the Mayflower dropped anchor far outside the only patent its passengers held. Before anyone went…
