Leisler's Rebellion - Significance

Significance

As Waterman (1991) shows, many historians see the rebellion as a Dutch revolt against English control. However, Leisler failed to win the backing of the Dutch Reformed Church. Leisler, the son of a German Reformed minister, exploited popular anti-Catholicism and was supported by artisans and small traders who opposed the rich merchants. His followers saw themselves as people who had resisted anglicization and were the true heirs of Dutch religion. Others make the point, however, that when taken in context with other rebellions in the same period—Bacon's Rebellion in 1676, the 1689 Boston revolt that deposed Andros, Culpeper's Rebellion in North Carolina in 1677, and the Protestant Rebellion against the Catholic-dominated government in Maryland in 1689—Leisler's Rebellion follows a pattern. In all of these rebellions a group of middling planters, merchants, or tradesmen rebelled against a group of well-entrenched elites who held a monopoly on power. In none of these cases did participants rebel against British rule. Rather, their struggle was with local authorities who they saw as preventing access to greater wealth or power within the British system.

At the same time, the presence of British soldiers on colonial soil and the reinvigorated enforcement of the heretofore neglected Navigation Acts led to increased tension between colonists and British forces. And in that sense in hindsight Leisler's Rebellion, like the others, can be seen as precursors to the American Revolution that began in the 1760s.