Research On Thomas Hutchinson’s Historiography

Thomas Hutchinson, the last viceroy of the British colony of Massachusetts, is one of the most distinguished historians that the early Colonial America has ever witnessed. He is, in Bernard Bailyn’s words, “the most crucial Anglophile historian of the Colonial America”. In his three-volume masterpiece The History of the Colony of Massachusetts-Bay, Hutchinson did a great job in systematically analyzing the primary sources and pursuing the objectivity of historical writing. As a result, The History of the Colony of Massachusetts-Bay is regarded as a milestone of early Colonial America history. Judging by the lack of research on Thomas Hutchinson, I tend to shed some light on him by means of analyzing his works and, hence,understanding his distinctive historical thoughts and methods.In addition to introduction, this thesis is composed of four chapters:Chapter one would be mainly about the historical and political background of the era that Thomas Hutchinson was in.Chapter two focuses on the analysis of the three-volume The History of the Colony of Massachusetts-Bay and, in particular, his racial concept of Egalitarianism,religious concept of Progressivism and political concept of Conservatism.Chapter three mainly talks about the origins of Hutchinson’s sources and the principles he followed in his historical writings.Chapter four is primarily about the benefits and drawbacks of Thomas Hutchinson’s historical thoughts.