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Larry Schweikart (FReeper "LS"): America's Socialist Origins (video - 5:38)
Prager University ^ | March 21, 2016 | Larry Schweikart

Posted on 03/21/2016 10:11:48 AM PDT by EveningStar

Was America once socialist? Surprisingly, yes. The early settlers who arrived at Plymouth and Jamestown in the early 1600s experimented with socialist communes. Did it work? History professor Larry Schweikart of the University of Dayton shares the fascinating story.

(Excerpt) Read more at prageru.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: alcohol; beer; godsgravesglyphs; history; jamestown; larryschweikart; ls; plymouth; prageru; prageruniversity; socialism
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Larry Schweikart is FReeper "LS"

In addition to the video, the transcript is also available at the link.

1 posted on 03/21/2016 10:11:48 AM PDT by EveningStar
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To: LS

Nice going, Larry! :)


2 posted on 03/21/2016 10:12:21 AM PDT by EveningStar
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To: EveningStar

Very Good LS!!!


3 posted on 03/21/2016 10:16:20 AM PDT by HarleyLady27 ('THE FORCE AWAKENS!!!' Trump; Trump; Trump; Trump; 100%)
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To: EveningStar

I love the tea being thrown over boad.


4 posted on 03/21/2016 10:17:16 AM PDT by PJBankard (I wouldn't let Obama or Hillary run my Dairy Queen - Wayne Allen Root)
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To: EveningStar

Bookmark.


5 posted on 03/21/2016 10:20:59 AM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear (Trump it is.)
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To: EveningStar; betty boop; marron; Alamo-Girl; Jacquerie; CottShop; metmom; xzins; bray; ...

BEEP!


6 posted on 03/21/2016 10:25:06 AM PDT by YHAOS
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To: EveningStar

Awesome... Thanks for posting... History is a God given tool to not repeat mistakes.


7 posted on 03/21/2016 10:27:27 AM PDT by Just mythoughts (Jesus said Luke 17:32 Remember Lot's wife.)
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To: EveningStar; LS

Bump!


8 posted on 03/21/2016 10:27:57 AM PDT by glock rocks (TTTT !)
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To: EveningStar; Jane Long; BlackFemaleArmyCaptain; Black Agnes; djstex; mkjessup; RoosterRedux; ...

PING!!!


9 posted on 03/21/2016 10:34:25 AM PDT by HarleyLady27 ('THE FORCE AWAKENS!!!' Trump; Trump; Trump; Trump; 100%)
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To: Just mythoughts; BillyBoy; fieldmarshaldj; AuH2ORepublican; GOPsterinMA

Too bad Massachusetts started repeating the mistake in the mid-20th Century.


10 posted on 03/21/2016 10:35:51 AM PDT by Impy (What planet is this?)
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To: EveningStar

Later


11 posted on 03/21/2016 10:38:47 AM PDT by gaijin
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To: EveningStar
This used to be more commonly taught. Funny thing is, not even the leftists point this out because of the outright failures.

The Naked Communist, from whence the list of 45 communist goals for the USA comes, summarizes the problems experienced in Plymouth in Chapter 7.
One of the forgotten lessons of U.S. history is the fact that the American founding fathers tried Communism before they tried capitalistic free enterprise.

In 1620, when the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth, they had already determined to establish a Communist colony. In many ways this communal society was set up under the most favorable circumstances. First of all, they were isolated from outside help and were desperately motivated to make the plan work in order to survive. Secondly, they had a select group of religious men and women who enjoyed a cooperative, fraternal feeling toward one another. The Pilgrims launched their Communist community with the most hopeful expectations.

Governor William Bradford has left us a remarkable account of what happened. The Governor reports:
“This community … was found to breed much confusion and discontent and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. For the young men that were most able and fit for labor and service did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children without any recompense. The strong … had no more in division of victuals and clothes than he that was weak and not able to do a quarter the other could; this was thought an injustice … and for men's wives to be commanded to do service for other men, as dressing their meat, washing their clothes, etc, they deemed it a kind of slavery, neither could many husbands well brook it.”
(Note that even in a Christian brotherhood, Communism cannot be practiced without setting up a dictatorship.)

But the colonists would have continued to endure Communism if it had only been productive. The thing which worried Governor Bradford was the fact that the total amount of production under this communal arrangement was so low that the colonists were faced with starvation. Therefore, he says:
“At length, after much debate … the governor gave way that they should set corn every man for his own purpose, and in that regard trust to themselves … and so assigned to every family a parcel of land according to the proportion of their number.”
Once a family was given land and corn, they had to plant, cultivate and harvest it or suffer the consequences. The Governor wanted the people to continue living together as a society of friends, but communal production was to be replaced by private, free enterprise production. After one year, the Governor was able to say:
“This had very good success; for it made all hands very industrious, so that much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been.… The women now went willing into the fields, and took their little ones with them to set corn, which before would allege weakness and inability; who to have compelled would have been thought great tyranny and oppression.”
The Pilgrim Fathers had discovered the great human secret that a man will compel himself to go ever so much farther than he will permit anyone else to compel him to go. As Governor Bradford thought about their efforts to live in a Communist society, he wrote down this conclusion:
“The experience that was had in this common cause and condition, tried sundry years, and that amongst godly and sober men, may well evince the vanity of that conceit of Plato and other ancients — applauded by some in later times — that the taking away of property, and bringing it into a commonwealth, would make them happy and flourishing; as if they were wiser than God.”
It becomes apparent that Governor Bradford concluded that Communism is not only inefficient but that it is unnatural and in violation of the laws of God.

This may raise a question in the minds of some students who have heard that Communism provides the most ideal means of practicing the basic principles of Christianity. Elsewhere, we have considered the historical background of this problem.

It is interesting that after the pilgrim fathers tried communism they abandoned it in favor of a free enterprise type of capitalism which, over the centuries, has become more highly developed in the united states than in any other nation. In its earliest stages this system was described as a heartless, selfish institution, but economists have pointed out that after a slow and painful evolution, it has finally developed into a social-economic tool which has thus far produced more wealth and distributed it more uniformly among the people of this land than any system modern men have tried. The evolutionary process of further improving and further adapting capitalism to the needs of a highly industrialized society is still going on.

12 posted on 03/21/2016 10:39:02 AM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: Impy
Too bad Massachusetts started repeating the mistake in the mid-20th Century.

I will keep my peace... My response would stir up feathers.

13 posted on 03/21/2016 10:39:27 AM PDT by Just mythoughts (Jesus said Luke 17:32 Remember Lot's wife.)
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To: Olog-hai

Just a bookmark


14 posted on 03/21/2016 10:41:33 AM PDT by Made In The USA (Rap music: Soundtrack of the retarded.)
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To: HarleyLady27; LS

That was excellent!


15 posted on 03/21/2016 10:42:21 AM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: LS

Great stuff LS


16 posted on 03/21/2016 10:44:02 AM PDT by StoneWall Brigade (Vote Tom Hoefling 2016 to restore our God given unalienable rights and Liberty's)
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To: EveningStar

Part of my genetic DNA background comes from a Jamestown survivor and later a Mayflower Pilgrim, Stephen Hopkins.

He was the big guy in the recent tv series Saints and Strangers about the pilgrims. He and Bradford locked horns several times, until Bradford gave up the socialism. Hopkins, also proved that armed citizens were necessary to protect their families, homes, farms and businesses.

One of Stephen Hopkins’s direct descendents, another Stephen Hopkins, was one of the Declaration of Independence signers.

Another down the line descendent of Hopkins, James Cole owned Cole’s Tavern in Boston where discussions, were held of what to do with the Brit Redcoats. I believe the tavern is still there in Boston.


17 posted on 03/21/2016 10:46:26 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (I 'm just another low info/stupid & evil/vile/crazy Trump supporter wanting to select my candidate!!)
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To: EveningStar

Very well done LS.


18 posted on 03/21/2016 10:47:21 AM PDT by paintriot
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To: EveningStar

Excellent. I’ve visited colonial Williamsburg a couple of times, and your video has more value than watching any of their presentations or exhibits.

You can find bits and pieces of the truth there, but it’s mostly a wasteland of non-contextual details. It’s sad that our national heritage, and the value system that made this country such a success isn’t being passed down to our children through every publicly funded heritage site.

In fact the first and foremost impression you come away with after visiting Williamsburg is how much the Indians (oh excuse me, “native Americans”) saved the colonies.


19 posted on 03/21/2016 10:47:27 AM PDT by zipper (In their heart of hearts, all Democrats are communists)
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To: zipper

(I mean LS’s video)


20 posted on 03/21/2016 10:48:56 AM PDT by zipper (In their heart of hearts, all Democrats are communists)
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