Study Questions: Lockridge, A New England Town, Chapters 5 through 9

1. What values did the Dedham community share in 1636? In 1736?

2. How did demographic change and geographical dispersion strain Dedham’s definition of community during the second half century of its existence?

3. How did political decision-making change from 1636 to 1736? What changes in ideology lay behind the new politics? How was liberty defined in 1636? In 1736?

4. Between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, what changes occurred in Dedham’s religious community? How did this reflect a change in religion ideology?

5. How did changes in the political and religious systems affect social relations?

6. What social and economic changes did the eighteenth century bring? What reasons does Lockridge give for these changes?

7. Did Dedham residents in 1736 share the optimism of the community’s founders about the future?

8. According to Lockridge, it would be “anachronistic. . .to look for anything resembling modern democracy in early Dedham.” (p. 37) Would this statement hold true for 1736?

9. Were the residents of Dedham revolutionaries by 1736?

10. How successful had the old utopian community ideal been?

11. What does Lockridge mean when he states “The American national character evolved indirectly, very slowly, and retrained within itself much of its past.” (p. 180)