JIGSAW GENS
Public Liberators — The Pioneer Microgeneration
As the youngest Liberty Lords and the oldest Goodpublicans, this cusp honed the concept of American exceptionalism to both protect and subjegate
Often in life, we irk our friends, family, and colleagues by focusing too intensely on age differences. This is sometimes done unconsciously. Our differences in age can be as minor and trivial as a couple of years…or as significant as being separated by numerous decades. Either way, this mistreatment and prejudice may become toxic. Such disharmony can alter our behavior in ways that aren’t necessarily reflective of who we are, as individuals.
Or, in other cases, ageism might just be a Freudian mirror into someone’s egomaniacal soul.
The best way to draw lessons applicable to our daily lives is by studying history. As we look at the mistakes of our ancestors or their rivals, that might serve as a crash course in preventing those sorts of conflicts from repeating in the modern day.
That’s what my “Jigsaw Gens” anthology series strives to do. It’s a glimpse into multiple centuries’ worth of American history. Comparing and contrasting the broadly-defined generational cohorts across our nation’s temporal journey — it serves as a primer for how the struggle between old, middle-aged, and young has been timeless.
My starting point was an overview of 27 primary generations that I’d categorized — originating in the 1560s, and stretching forward up through the present. They are…
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
Which factors will determine who falls into one “generation” versus another? It isn’t as simple as just looking at somebody’s birthyear, by itself. Historical events, cultural trends, global tensions, and shifts in American demographics are among the changes witnessed by members of specific generations at very pointed moments throughout their lives.
To fill the voids between main cohorts, “microgenerations” serve as bridges uniting the youngest members of one generation with the eldest members of the next generation. In this respect, there can frequently be grey areas over the question of exactly where along the generational spectrum these “cuspers” might fall.
I’ve been critically exploring which microgenerational “cusps” exist along this theoretical spectrum. Today, I’ll delve into the life experiences of a cohort born in the early- to mid-1740s. For ease of reference, I label these cuspers as Public Liberators.
Who They Are
Public Liberators were born approximately between 1742 to 1746 — give or take a couple of years on either end. Their microgenerational cusp includes the youngest Liberty Lords and the oldest Goodpublicans. They were born and raised during the second half of “The First Great Awakening,” with their adolescence marked by a period of metastasizing mutiny in and around the Allegheny Mountains.
They were children during King George’s War and teenagers during Pontiac’s War. By the time they’d married and had offspring of their own, Public Liberators raised families in the heyday of American Revolutionary activity. Their social positions continued to accumulate greater power for them as the United States officially became a country.
America transitioned between its first and second presidencies as Public Liberators headed straight into old age. They were society’s most visible senior citizens at the turn of the century, mentoring youngsters who had to deal with British retaliation to American independence. Once Great Britain and France had become clear allies to the fledgling U.S. government, Public Liberators spent their final days living through the “Era of Good Feelings” or witnessing the travesty that was the Trail of Tears.
Public Liberators are the cohort whom I call “the Pioneer Microgeneration” because their victory in the American Revolution spurred a new wave of Westward Expansion. As the Eighteenth Century morphed into the Nineteenth Century, America’s original pioneers — Indigenous Tribal Nations — fought their final battles to retain ancestral lands. Future blueprints for journalism, fine arts, and racial emancipation were likewise pioneered by leaders on this cusp.
Their Early Lives
Public Liberators were born into a world where the Thirteen Colonies had all been established. Slave revolts were fresh in the minds of lawmakers. “The First Great Awakening” had been in progress for the past decade, which was roughly the same amount of time during which Poor Richard’s Almanack had been a publication.
As this microgeneration learned to walk, the Franklin Stove and Leyden Jar were slowly integrated into American life. A first wave of Irish immigration had already arrived in the Thirteen Colonies, escaping famine (aka “The Year of Slaughter”). After the Treaty of Lancaster finalized Iroquois land cessions to the colonial government, Benjamin Franklin’s Plain Truth essay advocated for a stronger military to fend off the French.
Perhaps without very much foresight, British authorities used the Iron and Currency Acts to maintain a tight grip over trade, manufacturing, and banking. Public Liberators were children when colonists adopted the Gregorian Calendar and utilized Franklin’s lightning rod as a primitive form of home insolation.
1748’s Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle may have put a pause on international tensions…but that armistice wouldn’t last. By the mid-1750s, America’s fourth (and final) French and Indian War commenced as part of the global Seven Years’ War. Even as Lieutenant-Colonel George Washington was forced to surrender Fort Necessity to the French, flavors of revolution had been brewing. The Albany Congress met to discuss a united front against the French between the British and their Indigenous allies. Franklin emphasized this call for unity through his “Join, or Die” cartoon.
When They Came-of-Age
During their adolescent years, Public Liberators learned about human exploitation and how to anticipate abuses of power. Since they knew it was likely they’d die while in their twenties, thirties, or forties — they quickly took the perspective that one should make the most out of their life.
On its face, Great Britain appeared to have acquired the upper hand. The Treaty of Easton brought more Tribal Nations onto the side of Englishmen. By the time the 1760s began, British victories over the French were more frequent and decisive — culminating in 1763’s Treaty of Paris. In an attempt to maintain peace with Indigenous tribes, England imposed the Royal Proclamation Line.
But, two years earlier, James Otis Jr. had cautioned Great Britain against overreach with his “Writs of Assistance” speech. Public Liberators went through puberty seeing an escalation of direct taxes by the British on Americans: the Sugar Act, an updated Currency Act, the Stamp Act, and the Townshend Acts. This cohort beheld a watershed moment as their elders reacted with indignation to 1765’s Declaratory Act — in which England’s Parliament asserted its absolute right to control the Thirteen Colonies.
By contrast, this microgeneration also learned how vigilante justice could form its own subcultures. The Paxton Boys whipped up their anti-Indigenous movement amongst Allegheny colonists. James Smith’s “Black Boys” took a page from the Paxtons by rebelling against British prohibitions on Westward Expansion. Loyalists could divide into factions based on pacifism, racism, opportunism, elitism, or fanaticism.
Even amidst the shackles of misogyny, many colonial women opted to reject loyalism and embraced these newer notions of patriotism. The Daughters of Liberty convened to offer support to male vigilantes in resisting British rule.
To summarize: Public Liberators were the feisty adults largely instrumental in exhibiting the Loyalist/Patriot split.
How They Shaped The World
Public Liberators played a key role in the American Revolution. They were in their late-twenties and early- to mid-thirties when the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party led to the Intolerable Acts. They continued into middle age during the First and Second Continental Congresses, the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Declaration of Independence’s signing. For them, Nathan Hale was either a pariah or a martyr.
In the prime of their lives, the Articles of Confederation were drafted. Those Public Liberators who survived pivotal battles (such as Camden and Yorktown) got to witness the sunrise of America’s birth that accompanied 1783’s Treaty of Paris. Throughout subsequent years, several of them would live through the Northwest Indian War, Shays’ Rebellion, the birth of the U.S. Constitution, and George Washington’s presidency.
More than two-dozen Founding Fathers came from this overlapping amalgamation of Liberty Lords and Goodpublicans — including John Jay, Elbridge Gerry, and Benjamin Rush. Future President Thomas Jefferson was also a member of this cohort — as were First Lady Abigail Adams, activist Daniel Shays, and steamboat engineer John Fitch.
Additionally, many Public Liberators played leading roles in battle during the Revolutionary War: Nathanael Greene, William Dawes, Barzillai Lew, John Cadwalader, George Morgan, Edward Hand, John Gunby, Seth Warner, Robert H. Harrison, and John Barry. Men on this cusp were the first American cohort with a sizable number of their ranks fighting American Revolution combat roles.
As they entered the Eighteenth Century’s final decade, the earliest iteration of America’s two-party system began. Becoming fiftysomethings, they navigated yellow fever, the Compromise of 1790, the Whiskey Rebellion, and the late-century Quasi-War against France. Those who approached their sixties learned of former President Washington’s death.
At this juncture, Public Liberators were surpassing their elders in mobilizing against slavery. Elizabeth Freeman became one of the first Black slaves to win legal freedom in court. Absalom Jones founded the Free African Society and the African Methodist Episcopal Church. White ally Manasseh Cutler lobbied hard to ban slavery in the Northwest Territory.
For the Public Liberators who made it to the turn of the Nineteenth Century, they’d see the U.S. Capitol relocated to Washington D.C. against the shadow of 1800’s contentious presidential election between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Once inaugurated, Jefferson would preside over some of that era’s most monumental developments: the Louisiana Purchase, the First Barbary War, passage of the Twelfth Amendment, Lewis & Clark’s expedition, and Robert Fulton advancing steam power by christening The Clermont.
Outside of these formal wars themselves, it should be noted that Public Liberators were conditioned by their elders to believe in new ideals related to chivalry, faith, and white supremacy.
Plans to populate the proposed “Vandalia” colony were abandoned, reaffirming a sense of unity amongst the Thirteen Colonies.
A diverse array of Protestant denominations (Methodists, Baptists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians) became normalized alongside of Catholics and Quakers.
The Continental and United States Navies had arisen to give Americans a sense of national security.
Ohio’s “Black Laws” further entrenched slavery and brutality against Black people.
Ideals of honor became more highly valued after Americans found themselves appalled by Alexander Hamilton losing his life at the hands of Aaron Burr in their infamous duel.
At the turn of the century, Public Liberators had made their mark as some of the most robust contributors to the emerging American music culture: opera singer Jeanne-Marie Marsan, publisher John Aitken, and composers Newport Gardner, Amos Bull, Oliver Brownson, Johann Friedrich Peter, and William Billings.
This cohort had also put American portrait painters on the map, with Henry Benbridge and Abraham Delanoy creating noteworthy visual art. Two of their microgenerational peers — Francis Bailey and John Carter — gifted America with the printing of newspapers and books.
By and large, Public Liberators ended the American subservience to British dominance. On the other hand, only a paucity of them sought to liberate marginalized groups from misogyny, systemic racism, poverty, and monotheistic theocracy.
Their Golden Years
For the chunk of Public Liberators who made it to the second decade of the Nineteenth Century, racial oppression moved front and center. The U.S. Supreme Court’s Fletcher v. Peck ruling began to judicially undermine Indigenous ownership over tribal lands. Soonafter, the Creek War and the First Seminole War followed. Amidst the “cotton boom,” Charles Deslondes led an 1811 slave revolt.
That same year, future President William Henry Harrison played a key role in the Battle of Tippecanoe’s anti-Indigenous victory. At the same time, construction began on the National Road. The War of 1812 and the Battle of New Orleans came and went.
Around the time Harvard Law School was founded, the “Era of Good Feelings” commenced. President James Monroe presided over its Great Goodwill Tour as well as the Jackson Purchase and governmental response to the Panic of 1819. British/American boundaries were finalized by the Treaty of Ghent, while the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819 did the same for Spanish/American borders.
As the “Era of Good Feelings” continued, the Missouri Compromise and the Monroe Doctrine were implemented to keep America from breaking apart. Two toxic presidential elections in 1824 and 1828 resulted in Andrew Jackson coming to power. Indigenous removal escalated in full force.
The last of the Public Liberators died in the leadup to the Panic of 1837. Significant events included the Nat Turner Rebellion and creation of the Whig Party. This cohort’s final members perished at the beginning of the Second Seminole War while Westward Expansion via the Oregon Trail was picking up steam.
Thus, Public Liberators could see the forthcoming mid-century struggles faced by Black and Brown people in the United States.
Here are 10 prominent Americans from the Public Liberator cohort:
Members of the previous microgenerations were named…
Colonial Zygotes | Turnip Squeezers | Starving Timers
Long Climbers | Rumpus Rebels | Emerald Knights
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