JIGSAW GENS
Long Climbers — The Plymouth Microgeneration
As the youngest Inflectors and the oldest Kingdomites, this cusp of Americans molded primal contours for religious freedom
Whenever I see ageism happening — or experience it, myself — I think back to how it’s been a dynamic existing from time immemorial. That makes it very easy to become jaded and bitter if we desire for people to be brought together…rather than driven apart.
My remedy for this is “Jigsaw Gens” — a long-term anthology series I’ve created. By profiling generational differences across American history, we can keep in mind where we (as a society) have been…as we consider where we’re collectively headed. The building blocks for this exercise have been 27 historically-significant generational cohorts I’ve identified throughout the chronology of the United States:
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
When looking at the “cusps” (microgenerations) between main generations, the first one born into the Seventeenth Century saw the dust forming that portended a great deal of societal tumult. Those from their cohort who lived the longest survived through the very end of that century.
Drawing upon the historical accounts I’ve already depicted, I was able to narrow down an approximate five-year span of birthyears for this cusp whom I have tagged as the Long Climbers.
Who They Are
Long Climbers were born approximately between 1606 to 1610 — give or take a couple of years on either end. Those who fell into this microgeneration created a transitional nexus between the oldest Kingdomites and the youngest Inflectors.
Those on this cusp spent their entire lives aware of Iroquois-driven conquests throughout the Beaver Wars. During their childhoods, Jamestonians perished (with a handful surviving) during the “Starving Time.” As teenagers, they witnessed Puritan and Dutch immigrants along with the African slave trade arriving at North America’s doorstep. The Pequot War and the Antinomian Controversy spanned their twenties. The New England Confederation was founded when they were in their thirties. For those who lived into their forties and fifties, they dealt with the first two Anglo-Dutch Wars and the first three Navigation Acts.
I’ve designated this cohort as “Long Climbers” because their middle age corresponded with England’s Long Parliament that would influence American freedom fighters (including those in the 1775–83 Revolutionary War) for centuries to come. Long Climbers spent their adult years grappling with the power struggle between Charles II and Oliver Cromwell. Against the backdrop of the Thirty Years’ War and the British Civil Wars, the English-based Stuart/Cromwell tug-of-war came on the heels of the four-decades-long Anglo-Powhatan Wars fought over American soil.
Being society’s foremost elders during the 1670s through 1690s, Long Climbers dwindled in numbers as the Third Anglo-Dutch War and King Philip’s War each flared. Most of them declined in health as the fourth, fifth, and sixth Navigation Acts were passed. Soon, the New England Confederation was dissolved and gave way to the Dominion of New England — followed by the Salem Witch Trials and the first French and Indian War.
I dub Long Climbers “the Plymouth Microgeneration” because they’d experienced their earliest years of puberty when the Mayflower Compact was signed. William Bradford (of the Starving Timer microgeneration) inspired more enlightened members of this cusp to pursue religious freedom. However, too many leaders within their cohort advocated for the very same types of oppression from which they themselves hoped to escape. These iron-fisted cycles recurred up through the end of the Seventeenth Century. Propelled forward by the Long Parliament’s spectacle, folks from this cusp led a “long climb” toward the next century that would culminate in the American Revolution.
Their Early Lives
Born as Jamestown was being colonized by Christopher Newport, Long Climbers grew up only knowing Indigenous/European tensions. Kids on this cusp emerged into a world where the Dutch East India Company had normalized exploitation of multiple continents. Much of today’s “colonizer” verbiage emanates from this source of imperialism.
Growing up, Long Climber children learned of Henry Hudson’s “Half-Moon Expedition” up the river that would eventually be named after him. That same year, early British colonists of Jamestown suffered through the “Starving Time” period of famine and cannibalism. It would be a precursor to the Anglo-Powhatan Wars.
By 1614, Pocahontas and John Rolfe were married. This interracial union resulted in a romanticization and fetishization of Indigenous peoples. It also enabled tobacco exportation — which ignited a race between English, French, Spanish, and Dutch merchants to exploit North America’s natural resources.
The diseases and strife brought to our continent by Jamestonians and their immediate successors would set the stage for future settlers who’d populate the Long Climbers’ adolescence: Puritans from the British Isles.
When They Came-of-Age
For Long Climbers, puberty spanned the late-1610s and most of the 1620s. In the aftermath of Jamestown’s “Starving Time,” smallpox outbreaks were carried across the Atlantic by White immigrants. These pandemics had a particularly adverse effect on Indigenous communities due to their lack of prior exposure.
The average life expectancy during this time period rarely exceeded one’s thirties. Such a sobering reality was only reinforced by the brutality of slavery and interracial warfare arising out of Plymouth Colony. The minority of the population who lasted into their forties had to deal with the aftermath of the Mayflower Compact getting overhauled.
Long Climbers were just barely broaching adulthood as the Dutch founded New Amsterdam — which these architects of New Netherlands would occupy for the next forty years. Along with Fort Orange, other significant European settlements included Boston, Salem, and Odiorne’s Point. The Dutch West India Company joined its eastern counterpart as a driver of intensified trade wars.
As Long Climbers prepared to transition into their roles as thirtysomethings, they passed along these burdens to their own children (of the Cavalier generation). The Winthrop Fleet brought more Puritans to North American shores. Walter Neale explored the White Mountains, and 1636’s Town Act formalized early New World criminal codes. Even as Harvard was erected in the name of scholarly enlightenment — White Long Climbers (and their elders), paradoxically, detonated a war against critical thought by banishing Roger Williams.
How They Shaped The World
Only a few years after mainstream society made an example of Roger Williams, Long Climbers watched the same thing happen to Anne Hutchinson and Peter Minuit. Yet, as leaders of these Colonies chased away dissenters, they expanded colonial reach into places such as modern-day Rhode Island and New Hampshire.
Long Climbers of Lenape or Dutch descent were amongst the oldest combatants in Kieft’s War. Across the Province of Maryland, the “Plundering Time” pitted Catholics against Protestants. George Fox led the way for Quakers to begin demanding equality, while the Long Parliament itself promoted Christian conversion of Indigenous North Americans. As the 1640s closed out, King Charles I was beheaded for treason, and passage of the Maryland Toleration Act made strides toward respecting the denominational diversity amongst Christians themselves.
By the century’s midpoint, European immigration across the Atlantic was in full swing. The Wars of the Three Kingdoms were concluding, and plagues (such as the 1647–52 outbreak in Seville, Spain) became more commonplace. After Oliver Cromwell achieved the status of Lord Protector, Europeans felt compelled to disperse more of their kin into North America. Ironically, the continent’s Christian missionaries had succeeded in their decade-long quest to convert Indigenous tribes with the christening of Harvard Indian College in 1656.
And so Long Climbers found themselves in the thick of newfound waves of immigration. While in their mid-fifties, they weighed in on the future of faith-based liberty once Dutch residents of New Netherland submitted the Flushing Remonstrance on behalf of Quaker allies. Religious superiority was further challenged in the midst of the Boston Martyrs being arrested, dismembered, and/or executed. Lord Baltimore put down Fendall’s Rebellion, dampening the strength of Cromwell-style challenges to Anglican dominance.
Thus, Long Climbers slinked toward geriatric status as the English Restoration gave Charles II a reprieve while relaxing some elements of Puritan culture. The Royal Society embraced reverence of science. Peter Stuyvesant faltered, causing British forces in New Netherland to finally defeat the Dutch. London was ravaged by its Great Plague, nudging more Europeans to flee their continent.
With the founding of Charleston in 1670, Charles II pushed his fellow Cavaliers to expand these Colonies. Amidst William Berkeley’s doctrine of allowing only White male landowners the right to vote, Long Climbers helped to usher Cavaliers, Magnas, Glory Warriors, Lumineers, and Enlightening Rods into a smoldering hotbox. As a counterforce, William Penn’s leadership exalting the Quaker lifestyle punctuated calls for nonviolence and abolition of slavery throughout the next two centuries.
Their Golden Years
Now a paucity of the American population as senior citizens, Long Climbers sat back and watched new conflicts brew in this century’s final three decades. They lived through the establishment of copyright law in 1672 by John Usher. The Treaty of Westminster ended the Third Anglo-Dutch War. King Philip’s War and Bacon’s Rebellion inflamed tensions between colonial powers and marginalized communities.
These elders could glimpse the new blood who’d drive the Colonies’ future…
Kingdomites, such as Robert Treat and Peregrine White.
Cavaliers, such as Metacomet and Increase Mather.
Magnas, such as Nathaniel Bacon and Samuel Sewall.
Emerging young leaders and their peers would steer the future United States through Tamanend’s alliance with William Penn, “The Glorious Revolution,” and the chartering of Massachusetts Bay Province (upon the dissolution of Massachusetts Bay Colony, a mainstay of the Long Climbers’ lives).
Black Long Climbers had mostly died before slavery was officially made legal in the Southeastern Colonies. It would be another few decades before their descendants carried out antislavery rebellions.
The longest-surviving Long Climbers lived through the Salem Witch Trials and much of the first French and Indian War (“King William’s War”). However, their cohort had largely perished by the beginning of the Eighteenth Century as Queen Anne’s War commenced.
Consequently, a majority of these eldest Long Climbers were in geriatric health or retired from power positions as religious clashes and warfare congealed during the final quarter of the Seventeenth Century.
They’d absolutely been through a “long climb” — from surviving in brutal conditions to wrestling for power as North America’s population slowly ballooned.
Here are 10 prominent Americans from the Long Climber cohort:
Members of the previous microgenerations were named…
Click here to subscribe to my stories.
