A Misreading of the Puritans: Were the Pilgrims ‘Ethno-Nationalists’?

The Federalist’s John Daniel Davidson recently advanced a provocative theory, one summarized in the headline of his piece: “The Pilgrims Were English Ethno-Nationalists.”

According to Davidson, the popular history you’ve learned about colonial New England is, if not inaccurate, at least “incomplete.” Yes, the early 17th century Puritans who fled from England were escaping religious persecution. But in Holland and America, the Congregationalist diaspora established for themselves a “self-consciously English” — indeed even “hyper-English” — social covenant. Davidson cites in support of this contention Cotton Mather’s trepidation over the prospect of “Criolian degeneracy” descending upon Massachusetts Bay. The colonists never gave up on participation in English politics, even English civil wars, and they embraced and promulgated English customs.

The Federalist’s John Daniel Davidson recently advanced a provocative theory, one summarized in the headline of his piece: “The Pilgrims Were English Ethno-Nationalists.”

According to Davidson, the popular history you’ve learned about colonial New England is, if not inaccurate, at least “incomplete.” Yes, the early 17th century Puritans who fled from England were escaping religious persecution. But in Holland and America, the Congregationalist diaspora established for themselves a “self-consciously English” — indeed even “hyper-English” — social covenant. Davidson cites in support of this contention Cotton Mather’s trepidation over the prospect of “Criolian degeneracy” descending upon Massachusetts Bay. The colonists never gave up on participation in English politics, even English civil wars, and they embraced and promulgated English customs.

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.