James Otis and the Glorious Revolution in America

Abstract

In his 1764 tract The Rights of the British Colonies Asserted and Proved James Otis provides an argument for colonial rights that depends in part on his view that the Glorious Revolution constituted a dissolution and reestablishment of the whole imperial constitution, a reestablishment in which all subjects of the British Empire participated. Scholars have long questioned the historical validity of Otis’s claim, arguing that he misunderstood the true nature and scope of the Glorious Revolution. His account, it is asserted, contradicts the abdication story popularized in England and lacks any real historical evidence in support of his notion that the Glorious Revolution involved empire-wide participation. This article argues that an in-depth study of the Glorious Revolution in America validates the historical basis of Otis’s claims about the rights of colonists and the nature of the imperial constitution.