The Essential Rothbard - Ludwig von Mises Institute

56 The Essential Rothbard
The noted historian Carl Becker once raised the question
about the extent to which the American Revolution was a battle
for “home rule” of the colonies vis-à-vis England, as
opposed to a battle of “who should rule at home,” within the
colonies. . . . We are now able to frame a judgment about this
issue for the earlier revolutions of the late seventeenth century
and for their aftermath. We have seen how revolution, in
the 1670s and especially after 1688, swept almost every
colony in America: from Bacon’s Rebellion in Virginia to
Leisler’s in New York to the continuing state of revolution in
the two New Jerseys. All of these revolutions may be classified
as “liberal” and popular; in short, as essentially mass
movements in behalf of libertarian objectives and in opposition
to the tyranny, high taxes, monopolies, and restrictions
imposed by the various governments. 136
Because the revolts were directed against state oppression, the
antithesis of internal versus external revolution posed by Becker
must be rejected:
[W]hen these colonies rebelled, they did so not against England
per se, but against the oppressions of the state, dominated
by the English government. And the fact that the sudden
weakening of English authority during the Glorious Revolution
touched off these revolts in no sense negates this conclusion.
137
The Colonial Era, in Rothbard’s view, was not entirely a battle
for liberty. He had little use for New England Puritanism:
One basic influence on colonial American thought was the
fact that two contrasting traditions emerged from its Protestant
and Puritan heritage. One was the fanatical theocratic
persecuting tradition, which reached its apogee in Massachusetts
Bay and the Dutch Orange Party. 138
136 Conceived in Liberty, vol. I, p. 510.
137 Ibid.
138 Ibid., vol. II, p. 188.