Errands into the Metropolis: New England Dissidents in Revolutionary London(Reencounters with Colonialism S.)

This book presents an exploration of the transatlantic character of early-American religious dissent. "Errands Into the Metropolis" offers a dramatic new interpretation of the texts and contexts of early New England literature. Jonathan Beecher Field inverts the familiar paradigm of colonization as an errand into the wilderness to demonstrate, instead, that New England was shaped and reshaped by a series of return trips to a metropolitan London convulsed with political turmoil. Through chapters focusing on John Cotton, Roger Williams, Samuel Gorton, John Clarke, and the Quaker martyrs, Field traces an evolving discourse on the past, present, and future of colonial New England. In accessible and understandable narratives of the New World, these colonial dissidents were able to override the voices of Massachusetts Bay apologists and make their case effectively to Londoners in arguing for colonial autonomy.

About the Author :
JONATHAN BEECHER FIELD is an Assistant Professor of English at Clemson University.

Review :
"Errands has some interesting things to say about authorship, crossoceanic correspondence, absences and presences, and the ability to participate fully in Atlantic religion and/or networks, and how to fashion narratives in London to score victories against over mighty, Bay Colony, Puritan intrusions. . . . This book's real contribution is to show how narrative strategies refined at sea were stage-managed to link suffering and the choking of liberties in New England to old England's own troubles and tense debates."--New England Quarterly "Errands into the Metropolis makes an original and important contribution to the study of early modern transatlantic culture and histories of the book. Field's work offers a powerful new model for understanding the relation between print and cultural authority."--Jim Egan, Department of English, Brown University "Errands into the Metropolis offers a compelling, succinct new vision of the political imagination that shaped New England's settlement. The stories told here about contests over religious tolerance and space--in which Quakers in Barbados, Native sachems, unorthodox dissenters, and English printers and patrons all play key parts--challenge us to revise our understanding of early New English authorship, intellectual life, and politics."--Matt Cohen, Assistant Professor of English, Duke University