Reformulating englishness: cultural adaptation and provinciality in the construction of corporate identity in Colonial British America

Abstract

Using the experience of the British colonies in the Americas as an example, this essay explores the process by which portions of indigenous America were transformed into European Americas during the early modern era. It emphasizes the agency of settlers and the centrality of law and institutions in this process. Tracing the ways in which "Englishness" was reformulated in the Americas, whereby settlers created many distinct provinces that were, despite their differences from the parent state, manifestly English, the essay argues that this phenomenon can best be studied through the analysis of emerging corporate identity. It draws upon the author's extensive work on the construction of identity in Virginia, Barbados, Jamaica, and South Carolina, Britain's economically most valuable colonies.