ABSTRACT
Bostonians wanted to shape the larger Atlantic community without being shaped by it—to prosper within it without catching its contagions. In 1630, when Boston was founded, England’s imperial ambition, its interest in pursuing Atlantic expansion, was at low ebb. Boston’s location placed it roughly midway between the Dutch outpost at New Amsterdam and France’s expansive but thinly settled colony along the St. Lawrence. Early Boston’s attitude toward imperial and military affairs in the Atlantic world could swing suddenly and dramatically from remote isolation to active participation, but tended to remain stable at one pole or the other for long stretches of time. Bostonians’ persistent and vehement opposition to the otherwise commonplace feature of early modern urban life has long been a puzzle to historians, and has usually been described, unconvincingly, as an odd product of local politics and religious custom. By Atlantic standards, Boston’s ostensible involvement in slavery and the slave trade seemed relatively light.
