Morton's Maypole and the Indians: Publishing in Early New England

Abstract

of New England (London: Charles Green, 1632 [1637])—which is reprinted in facsimile in Force, Tracts and Other Papers, vol. 2. 9. I draw heavily here on Michael Zuckerman’s summary in “Pilgrims in the Wilderness: Community, Modernity, and the Maypole at Merry Mount,” New England Quarterly 50, no. 2 (1977): 255–77. Dempsey’s biography in NEC gives a good sense of the topography of scholarship on Morton. See also Minor Wallace Major, “William Bradford Versus Thomas Morton,” Early American Literature 5, no. 2 (1970): 1–13; and “Thomas Morton and His New English Canaan” (Ph.D. diss., University of Colorado, 1957). John D’Emilio and Estelle Freedman begin their history of sexuality in America with this story; Morton is a prime example of the way that sexuality, race, and information culture are mutually constitutive from the beginnings of English colonization (Intimate Matters: A History of Sexuality in America [New York: Harper & Row, 1988]). 10. For the story of Morton’s unfortunate marital career prior to emigrating, see NEC, 73–81; and Philip Ranlet, “The Lord of Misrule: Thomas Morton of Merry Mount,” New England Historical and Genealogical Register 134 (October 1980): 282–90. 11. Ma-re Mount had Wve names within about a year: Passonagessit, Mount Wollaston, Morton’s Maypole and the Indians 15 01chap1.qxd 10/1/02 10:14 AM Page 15