March 14, 2009  New England exceptionalism-the odd one out in
the early Republic  Who was the true "speical" or "unamerican"
region in the history of the early American republic? Southern
exceptoinalism in early US history as we have seen while real
was limited. That is it consisted mostly of direct and
indirectly of slavery .However an alternative candidate a very
credible one was New England- the Six States Vermont,
Massachusetts Rhode Island, Connecticut Maine and New Hampshire-
at the north east corner of the United States then as now.  They
were historically perhaps the most distinctive part of the
United States at that point. Most American states were crown
colonies or states essentially formed out of them (this was even
true of somewhat Quaker Pennsylvania and somewhat Catholic
Maryland-they were closely tied to royal patronage).. The
earlier Massachusetts colonies were the product of religious
dissenters-people who disapproved of early 17th century England
as too Catholic and insufficiently "godly". Th