The first political community explicity based on the ideas of the English political philosopher John Locke was founded in St John's in November 1723. The settlers left in Newfoundland after the fishing fleet sailed away that winter wanted to settle their civil community on firm legal foundations: they turned to Locke's Second Treatise of Government (1689/90) to do so.

 

In this special seminar, Dr. David Armitage (Harvard) will draw on his current research on Locke's own colonial writings across his career, from the 1660s almost to his death in 1704, to see why it may have been no accident the men in St John's turned to Locke for a model of government in North America.