The Wordy Shipmates

Long before the founding of the US, English colonists in New England established the idea that they were exceptional and superior—that they were God’s chosen people and their community would serve “as a beacon of righteousness that all others are to admire” (24).

Symbolic representations of this idea recurred in objects like the seal of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which featured an illustration of a loin-clothed Indigenous saying, “Come over and help us.” As Vowell points out, the seal was emblematic of a perverse and ideologically biased reconfiguring of the situation: “The worldview behind that motto—we’re here to help, whether you want our help or not—is the Massachusetts Puritans’ most enduring bequest to the future United States” (25). In reality, a diverse array of Native groups had maintained sophisticated societies and social systems for thousands of years before European encroachment. Contrary to the statement in the seal, when English colonists and Native groups met in North America, it was the English who desperately needed help adapting to a new climate and unfamiliar resources.

John Winthrop’s “A Model of Christian Charity” sermon also articulated this worldview for posterity. American politicians in ensuing centuries continued to refer to Winthrop’s ideal “city upon a hill.