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| George I of Hanover - "Really, I'm a nice guy! I just don't speak your language, but I can still rule over you!" |
With all the anti-immigrant rhetoric today, we get the feeling that Americans are somewhat xenophobic... well, a lot xenophobic. This truly ironic characteristic may be an historically conservative trend...
Here's why: imagine this was 1 August 1714 and a new king had been crowned as ruler of the British Empire!! Only, he was NOT born in England and he did NOT even speak English!!!
He didn't even come from Scotland like the Stuarts - who founded Carolina by the way...
No, George I was previously ruler of the Duchy and Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover) in the Holy Roman Empire from 1698. He was German. He spoke ONLY German. But... he was Protestant! That was the only plus, of course. Parliament had wholly unseated those Catholic-loving Stuarts, casting James III (or the "Pretender," a not-so-nice derogatory reference chosen undoubtedly by friends of Parliament) to France. Conservatives absolutely demanded that James III be restored to his rightful throne and the Whigs (liberals) run out of office! Jacobite (James III) Rebellions (like the one in 1715 - at the high point of pirate activity in America) were always a strong possibility...
For wholly conservative and xenophobic pirates in America, George I was an unthinkable abomination! He was the 18th-century English version of a black American president! Popish plots were everywhere! Conservatives' blood boiled, like Edward "Blackbeard" Thache for one... who named his flagship Queen Anne's Revenge to honor the last Stuart monarch that he had served in the Royal Navy to defend...
Edward "Blackbeard" Thache wanted to fight back... even if only a little... he was just a half-century too early. That's all!
America developed fundamentally from this ideology and fear of change - but, then, it also changed in significant ways after it had decided to part from the British Empire. Yes, we have a split personality problem. Still, a great many of us remained conservative to the core... and xenophobia naturally goes with that. It's our ancestry!
America was founded by conservative pirates!
Read their history in Pirates & Slaves: Making America
#Blackbeard #BaylusBrooks #pirates #jamaica #ncdncr
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