The Other States of America: History Podcast

Looking to remove himself from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Thomas Mayhew purchases the right to settle and set up a government on islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket from the Earl of Stirling, and gradually purchases the land from the Wampanoag. Mayhew settles the Vineyard and later sells off Nantucket to a like minded group of friends and extended relations under Tristram Coffin. Both Island co-exist as separate colonies ran by their proprietors as if it were a joint stock company. Eventually they are annexed by a larger colony... and it's not the one you think.

An indentured servant boy with a questionable origin story, supposedly inherits a large piece of Long Island from a Native American leader, selling much of it each new buyer has a vested interest in John Scott's claim being legitimate. What follows is a story of conflict and takeover of the New Netherland Colony, treason against the Connecticut colony as its' Long island settlements pull away, pregnant women smuggling objects into prison, all the while John Scott reinventing himself, often falling upwards in life, and helping to shape the boundaries (and existence) of three US States. Believe as much or as little of this story as you wish...

The New Haven colony, originally created to be the most puritanical of puritan colonies, now faces internal and external threats which will wear away the optimism of God's elect.

While England devolves into Civil War, the four Puritan Colonies of New England form a Confederation, leaning on one another for a little order in a chaotic world. Together the United Colonies will have to contend with Roger William's Rhode Island Colony, Sir Ferdinando Gorges' Maine Colony, and the Dutch in New Netherland, all while navigating Native politics, plots and assassination attempts.

Reverend John Davenport and his childhood friend, businessman

The great Puritan Lords of England buy a readymade colony on the edge of the English world. Rumored to be a last resort refuge for nobles plotting against King Charles I, if everything were to go south, Saybrook was to be a place of peace. Nonetheless, the colony became consumed by the Pequot War. With the outbreak of the English Civil War, Saybrook struggled to find a new purpose as the Puritan Lords sought to remake Old England and abandon their plans to voyage to New England.

In the final episode of our Rhode Island trilogy, Roger Williams seeks a unified colony known as "Providence Plantations in the Narragansett Bay," while William Coddington tries to merge Rhode Island with Massachusetts and later set the Island apart from mainland Providence.

Anne Hutchinson and her allies form a powerful faction in the politics of the early Massachusetts Bay Colony, challenging the old guard. Anne and her Brother-In-Law Reverend John Wheelwright, elevate the conflict into the spiritual realm condemning most of the colonies' clergy to damnation for teaching a "covenant of works." In secret her supporters draft, what we now call, the Portsmouth Compact and plan to settle their own colony with permission from the Narragansett and without any authorization from the King.

Roger Williams, ill and alone, wanders the winter wilderness of New England until finding Ousamequin of the Wampanoag who offers him shelter. Exiled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony Williams plans to make the most radical settlement in the New World.

John Wheelwright leads an Exodus of his flock from Lincolnshire to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, only to then condemn the colony and accuse their clergy of being Anti-Antichrists. Banished, he must now search for a new place to settle during the cold winter of 1637.