JIGSAW GENS
Rumpus Rebels — The Infidel Microgeneration
As the youngest Kingdomites and the oldest Cavaliers, this cusp of Americans made noticeable strides toward greater religious freedom
Many people have a tendency to lecture others (who are either older or younger than them) about their wisdom and insight based on their life experiences. But have they considered the value of examining how those perspectives might differ in the eyes of those who were born decades before them…or decades after them?
The remedy for this age-old conflict is intergenerational literacy. Such is the goal of my “Jigsaw Gens” series — an anthological collection of biographical histories. Through broad strokes, these articles contextualize the unique situations in which disparate age groups across American history have found themselves.
Initially, I defined 27 main cohorts from U.S. history by which we could broadly categorize them as “generations”…
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
Microgenerations (“cusps”) fill in the grey areas between where one larger generation ends and where the next one begins. Today, I’ll look at the second microgeneration to be born into the Seventeenth Century — specifically, the 1620s.
In general, five years (give or take) is an adequate length for a microgeneration. These kids were the first ones unable to remember a world before slavery became commonplace. I’ve created an epithet for them known as the Rumpus Rebels.
Who They Are
Rumpus Rebels were born approximately between 1623 to 1627 — give or take a couple of years on either end. For people born on this cusp, they paved an avenue through which the youngest Kingdomites segued into the oldest Cavaliers. Conceived in the third decade of the Seventeenth Century, they grew up as Massachusetts Bay Colony was rising to prominence. Their childhoods spanned the Pequot War and the Antinominan Controversy, up through the beginnings of the British Civil Wars and England’s “Long Parliament.” Rumpus Rebel adolescents witnessed the creation of the New England Confederation and nonconformist thought pioneered by the Fifth Monarchists. Those who were male and in their twenties fought in the First Anglo-Dutch War as the initial Navigation Acts were imposed upon the Colonies. By the time Rumpus Rebels entered their thirties, King Charles II had made a comeback amidst the English Restoration.
I devised the moniker of “Rumpus Rebels” because the earliest years of their young adulthood coincided with England’s “Rump Parliament,” as led by Kingdomites including Thomas Fairfax, Henry Ireton, and Thomas Pride. This faction prevented the Treaty of Newport from being signed — thereby resulting in King Charles I being executed for high treason. Competing factions vied for power and/or revolution, which led to clashes with the Cromwell family — and, later, Charles II. These power struggles seeped into the Indigenous/British tensions that escalated across the years leading up to King Philip’s War and King William’s War.
Rumpus Rebels were among society’s primary elders during “The Glorious Revolution” and the Salem Witch Trials. With the Anglo-Dutch Wars mostly in their rearview mirror, they enjoyed turn-of-the-century innovations in their old age — including the paper production revolutionized by William Rittenhouse and cerebral reflections upon the Cambridge Association’s work. As they died out, the last of the Rumpus Rebels watched their grandchildren and great-grandchildren fight in Queen Anne’s War and the Tuscarora War.
I christened Rumpus Rebels as “the Infidel Microgeneration” because religious free thought surged during their adulthood. Pushback against Anglican dominance in the British Isles mirrored a similar dynamic occurring on continental North America. Whether one chose to side with royalists or freethinkers (or remain neutral), shifts in leadership during these decades would reflect a conundrum over what freedom meant. As slavery, genocide, and oligarchy intensified, coalition leaders had to make tough decisions over with whom to align — even if only temporarily.
Their Early Lives
Rumpus Rebels were born into a world in which the Puritans’ “Great Migration” westward across the Atlantic was already underway. Immorally, the chattel slave trade from Africa concurrently normalized kidnapping and torture. Kids on this cusp, however, learned about the recent glorification of the Mayflower’s voyage.
Slavery was treated like a casual afterthought.
They were also born into a society facing Dutch colonization of New Netherland. Upon New Amsterdam’s founding in 1624, this set off four decades’ worth of warfare between the British and the Dutch. 1630’s arrival of the English-based Winthrop Fleet increased this race over commerce and occupation.
By the time they began preparing to raise families of their own, Rumpus Rebel teens found out about the banishment of Roger Williams. That planted the seeds for key members of this cusp who stood up to elite power structures as the century wore on — John Bowne, Canonchet, Mary Fisher, and John Easton among them.
As they moved forward through their own lives, the Rumpus Rebels could draw inspiration from their Kingdomite “big sibs” (the likes of Mary Dyer, James Crewes, Robert Child, James Nayler) or their Cavalier “little sibs” (e.g., Elizabeth Key Grinstead, Wamsutta, Christopher Holder, George Keith).
Decades later, their coping skills in adulthood came to be tested by expansion of the Dutch West India Company (joining its eastern counterpart) and King James II & VII’s incompetence.
When They Came-of-Age
Emerging into adulthood, Rumpus Rebels grew to understand religious disharmony up close. The demonization of Anne Hutchinson was a turning point; it set off a chain reaction which compelled freedom fighters to reject narrow standards for “morality.” Colonists of Portsmouth created a refuge (soon to be expanded as the Providence Plantations) where new ideas could be shared and tested.
Gradually, life expectancy was increasing. For children born in the 1620s, those who avoided famine or infant morality could live into their forties. In places where moderate health was more achievable (such as New England), it wasn’t as rare for some people to live into their seventies.
Navigating parenthood, Rumpus Rebels received conflicting messages about religion and spirituality. On the one hand, Anglican dominance (emblematic of the newfound “Praying Indian” movement) was the default. Conversely, George Fox’s Religious Society of Friends offered a competing narrative to such pious rigidity.
Another unique reality for Rumpus Rebels: they became the first American cusp to spend nearly their entire lifetimes amidst the second global plague pandemic. Seville, London, Vienna, and parts of the Ming Dynasty were some of the hardest-hit areas. Survivors fleeing to other continents were the same age as America’s “Kingdomite” generation (born in the two decades preceding the Rumpus Rebels), which is why I’ve nicknamed them “Deathbeds.”
Numerous Rumpus Rebels acquired roles as young grandparents and community leaders. Their mentalities shifted from basic survival to influencing power structures. The mid-century execution of King Charles I (followed by the Anglo-Scottish War of 1650–52) harkened parallel conflicts for North Americans.
How They Shaped The World
By mid-century, future Americans got word of Oliver Cromwell’s coup back in England. On the North American continent, the Boston Martyrs were turned into public examples. A growing unease rankled the populace, even as many White colonists attempted to christianize Indigenous tribes.
Now entering their forties, Rumpus Rebels felt shockwaves from the English Restoration and Charles II’s Declaration of Breda. The Royal Society fueled scientific endeavors, while the Half-Way Covenant sought to quell blowback from freethinkers. Mary Dyer’s tragic execution, Elizabeth Key Grinstead’s courageous antislavery stance, and Michael Wigglesworth’s fearmongering were examples of events that complicated anyone’s desires for faith-based harmony.
In 1664, the Dutch were initially defeated by the British. With Delfts unwilling to back down, the Second Anglo-Dutch War commenced. Rumpus Rebels were now old enough to segue from infantry to commanders or wartime administrators.
As they moved into their fifties, the Rumpus Rebels found themselves increasingly split between loyalty to the British Crown or thirst for a new American identity. While the Third Anglo-Dutch War (ended by the Treaty of Westminster) united many colonists, it wasn’t enough. Despite William Penn’s diplomatic efforts, discord prevailed. Among the developments that prolonged civil unrest: King Philip’s War, Bacon’s Rebellion, the surrender and death of Metacomet, and the 1672 and 1687 Declarations of Indulgence.
As Rumpus Rebels aged into their sixties, the Dominion of New England reigned. “The Glorious Revolution” signaled the British monarchy’s decline. Anglo/Franco tensions boiled over during King William’s War — creating an ominous tapestry for the new century.
Their Golden Years
The rare Rumpus Rebel who’d reach his or her seventies took part in this new era supervised from afar by William III & Mary II. But they weren’t free from disharmony. Leisler’s Rebellion, the 1689 Boston Revolt, and the 1690 Schenectady Massacre embodied a constant struggle between laborers and their managers. The Toleration Act wouldn’t be enough to placate them.
Some of these Rumpus Rebels also lived through the Salem Witch Trials. As the first French and Indian War ended, anti-Catholic sentiments still plagued the newly-reconfigured Massachusetts Bay Province. William & Mary’s reign was winding down, and elderly Rumpus Rebels had lived to see the conclusion of the Beaver Wars (which had been raging for their entire lives). In the years leading up to the second French and Indian War (Queen Anne’s War), North American expansions included Fort Detroit and Yale College. Accompanying tutelage of William Penn’s Charter of Privileges, the dawn of democracy was upon the American Colonies.
The longest-surviving Rumpus Rebels made it to the turn of the Eighteenth Century. At this point, Virginia Colony formally enacted a “Black Code” within its legal statutes. Enslaved people had been exploited within colonial homes and ports for the past eight decades. But slave revolts soon picked up steam, with the first documented revolt occurring in 1712 within New York City. Six years earlier (the same year Benjamin Franklin was born), enslaved members of the Chitimacha tribe had mounted a similar raid against the French in modern-day Louisiana.
Most of the Rumpus Rebels had died by 1718 — the year when the Alamo was built. In their final years, the eldermost members of this cohort saw hostilities against the Quakers subside. The Treaty of Utrecht ended Queen Anne’s War, and King George I assumed the British throne. Americans from this cusp missed out on seeing San Antonio and New Orleans being founded by Spain and France, respectively.
This microgeneration had taken a page from the mid-Seventeenth Century showdowns over self-agency. Rumpus Rebels forged a template for “taking sides” amidst the dichotomy between obedience and self-determination. Religion may have been the inciting point of contention. In short order, however, they’d whittle templates for gaining independence over one’s bodies and livelihoods.
Here are 10 prominent Americans from the Rumpus Rebel cohort:
Members of the previous microgenerations were named…
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