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A re-founding of the history of independence and future of freedom through the eyes of ordinary men and women in the Puritan Revolution

Does human freedom stand a chance in the future? Drawing on fresh sources, Polly Ha shows how ordinary men and women in Independent congregations in early modern England and New England introduced new foundational layers for liberty. They informed prominent spokesmen such as John Milton and Roger Williams. In doing so, they expanded the moral, political, and temporal conditions for securing the future of freedom before Enlightenment assumptions reconfigured those terms. Such sources include:

* Hidden manuscripts documenting the earliest debates over independence
* Self-narratives by women, youths, and other unfamiliar authors
* Popular print, sermons, and commentaries

Challenging a series of myths surrounding the origins of the liberal West, Ha offers an alternative account of this pivotal moment in the history of liberty. In contrast to elites, these Independents began to apply freedom more universally, conscripting a broader range of participants across gender, age, race, and social hierarchies. They developed a deep historical consciousness and drew from sources that extended beyond the Latinate world. Spelling out exactly what was at stake in these debates, they shed further light on basic questions about what it meant to be human in the face of an uncertain future.