JIGSAW GENS
Aucto-Septennials — The Verbose Microgeneration
As the youngest Septennials and the oldest Liberty Lords, this cusp communicated an assortment of viewpoints on what the American purpose should be
With our nation being as divided as it currently is, the last thing we need is to look for more artificial differences that do nothing other than create discord. Yet, that’s precisely what many of the loud voices and showboaters in the public eye seem hell-bent on doing. Such bigotry carries over into private social (and professional) circles. If “age is just a number,” then that numerical calendar year — in and of itself — shouldn’t be held against a person.
I’m talking, of course, about intergenerational rivalries. The flawed assumptions. The stupid labels. The stereotypical jokes. None of it is good for our society, as a whole. You can claim “It ain’t that deep” all you want…but, clearly, it *is* deep for some people — otherwise, they wouldn’t be going out of their way to bash others based solely on one’s generational identity.
So what should we do about it? For my part, I’ve created “Jigsaw Gens” — this online series functions as a “digital handbook” of how to tell different generations apart from one another…as well as explaining which historical variables link together people from a given generational cohort.
To start out, I’ve defined 27 main generations within the context of American culture. They are as follows…
Parliamentarians | Concentrics | Inflectors
Kingdomites | Cavaliers | Magnas
Glory Warriors | Lumineers | Enlightening Rods
Septennials | Liberty Lords | Goodpublicans
Madisonians | Unimpressionists | Transcendentals
Redeemers | Golden Renegades | Stowegressives
Missionaries | Hemingrebels | GI-Gens
Traditionalists | Baby Boomers | GenXers
Millennials | Zoomers | Alphas
There’s no scientific formula that determines the contours of a generation. These cohorts are broad ranges of birthyears — roughly estimating some of the commonalities shared by Americans born approximately one decade apart from each other. Global events, domestic scandals, and pop culture of an era can play a huge role in these shared experiences.
And then there are “microgenerations.” These shorter time spans of 3–5 years will sandwich every primary generation. Microgenerations give us some leeway to ease the segue where one generation ends and the next one begins. This renders the generational spectrum into more of a historical and sociological tool — rather than an exact science.
As I continue to explore the dynamics of each microgenerational “cusp,” I’m now going to focus on one mini-cohort of Americans who were born in the late-1720s. I’ve dubbed them as the Aucto-Septennials.
Who They Are
Aucto-Septennials were born approximately between 1725 to 1729 — give or take a couple of years on either end. They fall in the center of a Venn diagram shared by the youngest Septennials and the oldest Liberty Lords. These children would have grown up during the very beginning of “The First Great Awakening,” which spanned the first quarter-century of their lives.
Venturing further into adulthood, they knew of the War of Jenkins’ Ear and the War of Austrian Succession playing out across the European theatre. They became society’s prime decision-makers as the French and Indian Wars were concluding and the American Revolution was beginning.
Some of them took up arms on the Allegheny frontier. However, very few of them fought in the Revolutionary War — as most Aucto-Septennials were in their fifties, by that point. Instead, they were amongst the politicians and community leaders advising younger folks who’d aligned with either the Patriots or the Loyalists. Their old age spanned the Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison Administrations.
I’ve designated Aucto-Septennials as “the Verbose Microgeneration” because of their propensity to contribute to a surge of literature and oral speeches permeating the public discourse during this time period. They tapped into the disgruntled nature of the Septennial generation — who were this microgeneration’s “big sibs” or (in some cases) young parents. But they also helped the Liberty Lord generation — their “little sibs” or (in some cases) eldest children — bring that vision to fruition.
Their Early Lives
As they were being born, the Anglo-Spanish War of the late-1720s had arrived. Aucto-Septennials grew up with reverence for libraries and philosophy — which older generations had acquired later in their lifetimes.
Around this period, Georgia and the Carolinas became British Colonies. That trend of territorial expansion would continue with the Walking Purchase of 1737 — broadening the colonial government’s betrayal of the Lenape people.
A variety of other events stoked the Aucto-Septennials’ desire for knowledge and freedom. As children, they heard their elders complaining about tariffs on hats and molasses. They learned about John Peter Zenger speaking truth to power as a legal right. Poor Richard’s Almanac became a reading staple for them — the same way Weekly Readers were for Baby Boomers, like Mad and National Lampoon were for GenXers, or how Seventeen or Sassy/Dirt were for Millennials.
This microgeneration was also more open to religious pluralism than past cohorts had been. Catholicism grew in popularity beginning in the 1720s; two decades later, the Methodist faith gained a significant foothold. Likewise, Baptists and Presbyterians picked up steam during “The First Great Awakening.”
When They Came-of-Age
Aucto-Septennials lived in the soon-to-be United States during a period of relative stagnancy when it came to average life expectancy. This meant that the highest percentage of them would die sometime between their mid-thirties through mid-forties. Of course, those who’d died from warfare or untreatable illness had endured a premature end to their lives when they were a lot younger than that.
A major life-expectancy upswing wouldn’t begin until the Missionary generation (including the Aucto-Progressive “cusp”) emerged into the world.
As teenagers, Black Aucto-Septennials increasingly learned how they could revolt against their enslavers. This led to racial profiling and other practices that were some of the earliest statutes prolonging systemic racism.
Still residing mostly within their Tribal Nations during adolescence, Indigenous Aucto-Septennials faced even more imperialism than their elders had, up-close. The violation of treaties (including the Treaty of Lancaster) by White settlers had the result of uniting some tribes against the English-run government.
Amidst continuing Indigenous displacement and enslavement of Black people, their White counterparts had to decide if they would be on the side of emancipation and conciliation. Otherwise, those White Aucto-Septennials who knowingly preserved the status quo helped to build up the bubbles that would burst into future national conflicts.
Many Aucto-Septennials enjoyed modern conveniences pioneered by their middle-aged elder, Benjamin Franklin. They looked up to Franklin — who belonged to the Enlightening Rod generation — as an innovator and mogul. Home heating, electricity production, and infrastructural protection were among the modern marvels he’d spearheaded as Aucto-Septennials prepared to marry and rear children.
Aucto-Septennials’ first exposure to organized warfare was King George’s War — primarily in New England. It inflated the xenophobia between French and British inhabitants of North America. 1748’s Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle merely served as a stopgap measure.
Xenophobia additionally hit Irish immigrants, who flocked to North American shores in the early-1740s hoping to escape famine from their home country. British hegemony worsened over manufacturing and banking, which prompted Franklin to pen his notable Plain Truth essay.
By the time the American Colonies had made the switch to the Gregorian calendar, our American psyche would be ripe for long-term revolution. Aucto-Septennials were about to play a critical role in this transformation.
How They Shaped The World
While in their thirties, Aucto-Septennial men fought in the fourth French and Indian War (aka “the Seven Years’ War”). For this cohort, 1754 was a monumental year: the Albany Congress broached the idea of colonial unity; Ben Franklin popularized his “Join, or Die” symbol; and future President George Washington was forced to surrender to the French as a lieutenant-colonel at Fort Necessity.
Over the next 5–6 years, much of Colonial America celebrated newfound British victories (including the Treaty of Easton, diluting French support in the Ohio Valley). Plans were hatched to create a new colony that would have been known as “Vandalia.” But colonists soon began to turn on the Crown.
Two years before 1763’s Treaty of Paris ended the war, James Otis Jr. delivered his “Writs of Assistance” speech. In the face of Pontiac’s War, the Paxton Boys retaliated after King George III prohibited any White-run settlements west of the Appalachians. Tighter tariffs and banking regulations foreshadowed warfare that would define the late-1770s.
By this juncture, brilliant minds from the Aucto-Septennial cohort proceeded to make their mark on American society.
John Greenwood (the engraver — not to be confused with George Washington’s dentist) painted Sea Captains Carousing in Surinam.
Nicholas Hasselbach mastered the printing press to benefit Baltimoreans.
Henry William Stiegel dominated glassmaking, for which a specific enamel variety of painted glass was attributed to him.
Josiah Hornblower built upon his father’s launch of steam power.
As fortysomethings, Aucto-Septennials reacted to the chain-of-events leading up to the American Revolutionary War: the Stamp Act, the Declaratory Act, the Townshend Acts, the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, the Intolerable Acts, and the convening of the First Continental Congress. Some of them became young grandparents while weighing whether to align with the Tories or the Patriots.
By the time they reached their fifties, the Battle of Bunker Hill showed this cohort that the Loyalist/Patriot feud wasn’t going away anytime soon. The Second Continental Congress paved the way for the Declaration of Independence to be signed. Nathan Hale’s execution would epitomize Patriot sacrifice — making way for the Articles of Confederation to be ratified. Six more years of battles (including at Camden and Yorktown) resulted in the Patriot victory.
Ranging from controversial to beloved, Aucto-Septennial men were among well-known Revolutionary War heroes: Artemas Ward, Horatio Gates, William Prescott, and Hugh Mercer.
This microgeneration also elevated the role of women in national affairs. The Daughters of Liberty boosted the Patriot cause. Mercy Otis Warren represented her cohort as a pamphleteer and playwright. Hannah Griffitts joined Warren in synthesizing powerful poetry to reflect the revolutionary hunger within their microgeneration.
Rounding out the Aucto-Septennials’ sixties, the Northwest Indian War persisted for a decade. Shays’ Rebellion proved how the Articles of Confederation needed refining, so the Founders began drafting the U.S. Constitution. George Washington became the first American president as Federalists kept pushing for a strong central government whereas the Democratic-Republicans went to bat for the concept of states’ rights. The Compromise of 1790 moved the U.S. Capitol Building from New York City to Washington D.C. — previewing tensions that would linger between the North and the South.
Several of the eldest Founding Fathers were part of this Aucto-Septennial cohort, including men who’d signed the Declaration of Independence: Oliver Wolcott Sr., Josiah Bartlett, William Ellery, Charles Thomson, and George Wythe.
Their Golden Years
By the beginning of the 1790s, Aucto-Septennials’ lifespans dwindled. Some bore witness to the Whiskey Rebellion or contracted yellow fever. Others survived long enough to learn of George Washington’s death right before the turn of the Nineteenth Century.
During the previous two decades, Nicholas Brown Sr. had given greater visibility to Baptists through his work as a Rhode Island civic leader. Samuel Seabury brought respectability to Episcopalians as a prominent New England bishop. Their fellow Aucto-Septennials helped to normalize such pluralism on behalf of their offspring and distant progeny.
The final octogenarians from this cohort observed the new U.S. Capitol Building opening in D.C. or the Louisiana Purchase being finalized. Systemic racism became more deeply entrenched via Ohio’s “Black Laws.” To rectify the electoral disaster arising from the 1800 U.S. Presidential Election between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the Twelfth Amendment was passed.
Other notorious duos from younger generations included Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton facing off in their epic duel, or Meriwether Lewis and William Clark exploring 8,000 miles of uncolonized frontier lands.
Most of the rest of the Aucto-Septennials died out in the years leading up to the War of 1812: watching the steamboat improved by Robert Fulton, seeing Fletcher v. Peck begin the judicial undermining of Indigenous ownership over tribal land, getting a glimpse of William Henry Harrison’s acclaim from the Battle of Tippecanoe, and staring in awe at construction of the National Road.
Therefore, a vast majority of them never got to witness British retribution for the American Revolution.
Here are 10 prominent Americans from the Aucto-Septennial cohort:
Members of the previous microgenerations were named…
Colonial Zygotes | Turnip Squeezers | Starving Timers
Long Climbers | Rumpus Rebels | Emerald Knights
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