Privilege and prerogative

From 1710 to 1776, New York's ruling elite was in a constant struggle for political autonomy with the imperial British government. As discontent grew, this powerful group seized control of the revolutionary movement from the lower classes, where unrest had been the strongest. It is this growing political sophistication on the part of the provincial elite that American historian Mary Lou Lustig details in Privilege and Prerogative. As Lustig describes them, the elite were not a unified segment of society as they began to challenge the authority of the royal governors. Efforts to control the assembly by two leading families of the province, the Livingstons and the DeLanceys, had added to the unrest in New York. When either faction took control of the assembly, it took its position as a base from which to whittle away the excessive powers granted to the royal governors. The assembly also took on the role of the British House of Commons by protecting the people's traditional rights, privileges, freedoms, and liberties. When Parliament challenged these rights after 1763, the elite responded quickly and dramatically.