Astrology in Colonial America: An Extended Query

Abstract

IT has become a truism, indeed almost a cliche, that much of colonial America's intellectual endeavor was a reflection of similar developments across the seas in England and, to a lesser extent, on the Continent. If for no other reason than to verify a cliche, or to destroy its validity in at least one area, an examination of a relatively unexplored and fairly narrowly defined field of human activity could be productive of interesting results. Such, I believe, would be the case if one were to investigate the role of astrology in colonial America. This is a particularly good field for comparison of English and colonial activity, because the changes which occurred in the acceptance of astrology in England are quite marked during the American colonial period. As the accompanying table indicates, while the published books on astrology were perhaps not overly numerous, the seventeenth century saw many more of them than did the eighteenth century. Then, in the nineteenth century, astrological publications again increased. While this is only a partial index to the shifts and changes in the acceptance of astrology in England, it does give us a profile against which American interest can be measured. Before suggesting lines of inquiry in America which could determine the extent and seriousness of the use of astrology, a few suggestions about its general background are perhaps in order. Present-day scholarship usually relegates astrology to the history of human error. Yet no one seriously doubts its sociological role in the formation of the present-day world, nor its influence on many human activities, including astronomy, meteorology, medicine, religion, and literature.1 As one of several determinants of a particular cultural matrix, astrology is often touched upon by scholars seeking to weigh its importance relative to larger historical problems. Even modern history must take into account a large number of people who, wittingly or not, glance at their stars in