5 - Major Events in the Colonies: Salutary Neglect

Exordium: "When I contemplate these things; when I know that the Colonies in general owe little or nothing to any care of ours, and that they are not squeezed into this happy form by the constraints of watchful and suspicious government, but that, through a wise and salutary neglect, a generous nature has been suffered to take her own way to perfection; when I reflect upon these effects, when I see how profitable they have been to us, I feel all the pride of power sink, and all presumption in the wisdom of human contrivances melt and die away within me. My rigor relents. I pardon something to the spirit of liberty." -Edmond Burke, "On Conciliation With America" as presented to the House of Commons in Parliament, 1775

-Having learned about the establishment and characteristics of each colony, students should consider the major influences and events that shaped colonial history. These include, of course, events that occurred within the colonies themselves, but also certain ideas and events in Europe that had significant influence on
the colonists, too. Special focus should be placed on the events that created in the colonists a sense of independence from Great Britain and of greater dependence on one another, even as they themselves did not fully recognize or articulate these trends.

-In this lesson, help students see what the colonists and colonies had become before they learn about the American founding.

-Discuss:
-What might the colonists have learned from the English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution?
-What is "salutary neglect"? In what ways were the colonists neglected during this eventful period (In England) and how was this neglect actually beneficial to them?
-What did self-government look like in the colonies? Did they realize the need for self-governing? How successful were they during these colonial periods?
-If the students were left alone, without parental oversight, but they had to set up a system of rules to govern themselves, what would that look like?

-Consider with students the English statesman Edmund Burke’s idea that the colonists in British North America enjoyed a relationship of “salutary neglect” with respect to the English government. They were “neglected” in the sense that they were a month away by sea from England, which meant poor communication and the near impossibility of governing directly. The English also largely overlooked their colonies in North America, sometimes viewing the colonists merely as poor tradesmen, former criminals, religious radicals, and commoners of no noble birth. Compared to England’s Caribbean colonies, they were also far less profitable (Sugar, Molasses, Rum, Coffee, Cocoa). England’s preoccupation with rivals Spain and France and her own civil war also left English kings and Parliament with relatively little thought to give the colonies. The mercantilist restrictions on trade, moreover, were seldom fully enforced or even capable of being completely enforced, and the colonies largely traded freely with the world.
-Help students understand why this relationship of neglect was not, in Burke’s view, a
disadvantage but actually healthy for the colonists. Overall, the colonists were still protected, especially on the seas, by the English. At the same time, however, they were not regulated or administratively directed beyond the general forms of governance; e.g., a royal governor and a local legislature. The colonists were largely free to take the enterprising, individualist spirit of common English settlers and, forced by necessity, to innovate and work hard to pursue livelihoods and security within their own spheres. Laws, moreover, could not wait for a two- or three-month lapse in communication. Colonists were both permitted and forced by circumstances to practice the elements of English law they had brought with them, including a recognition of certain rights and the limits of authority. The colonists had ample talent and opportunity to govern themselves: they had education and a group of leading colonists who were learned in classical thought; they had the English rule of law tradition; and they had general Enlightenment ideas. This tradition of self-government would allow for many generations of practice in self-rule as a feature of daily life. The colonists, therefore, were both used to and deeply practiced in locally governing themselves, replete with the ideas and habits that this process cultivated.