The Northern
Colonies
 Location
 New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine,
Massachusetts, Connecticut, and
Rhode Island
 Terrain
 Hills and low mountains, narrow
plains along coast
 Thin and rocky soil (difficult for
farming)
 Weather and Resources
 Large areas covered by forests
Richest fishing in
the world
off the coastline
The Prostestant
Reformation
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Martin Luther ignited a fierce storm of
religious reform in 1517 that would
divide peoples, topple rulers, and
kindle spiritual fervor in millions of
people.
One of the people influenced was
John Calvin. His interpretation of
Christian beliefs became known as
Calvinism. Calvinism became the
dominant creed of the New England
Puritans.
According to Calvin’s teachings, God
was all powerful, all knowing, and all
good. Humans were weak and
wicked. Since God was all knowing,
he knew who was going to heaven
and who was not from the very
beginning. Man could do nothing to
change their eternal assignment. This
belief is known as predestination.
Those destined for heaven were
known as the “elect.” Only the elect
enjoyed full church membership and
the benefits associated with it.
The Protestant
Reformation
• No one could ever be sure of their eternal fate. Doubts
continually ate at Calvinists and they sought in
themselves and others, “signs of conversion.”(God telling
them that they were saved) After conversion, these
people were to lead “sanctified lives” thereby
demonstrating their conversion.
• After Henry VIII broke with the Catholic Church and
formed the Anglican Church, some in England wanted
the Church of England to be “purified” or to move away
from Catholic traditions.
• Others wanted to make a complete break with all of
the Catholic traditions that were still in the church
practices. This group became known as Separatists.
King James I did not like the Separatists and threatened
to harass them out of England. Fearing this, the
Separatists decided to leave England for a new land.
Plymouth Colony
• The Separatists left England in 1608 bound for
Holland. During the next 12 years, the Separatists
became increasingly worried about the
“Dutchification” of their children and decided to
leave Holland for the New World.
• These Separatists negotiated with the Virginia
Company and secured the right to settle there. In
early 1620, 102 people crowded onboard the
Mayflower and left for the new world. After 65 days
at sea, the Mayflower arrived off the coast of New
England. Fewer than half of these passengers were
Separatists. These Separatists are better known as
the Pilgrims.
Plymouth Colony
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Before leaving the ship, Pilgrim
leaders drew up and signed the
Mayflower Compact. This
document set a valuable
precedent for later written
constitutions. It was a promising
step towards self government.
The Pilgrims first winter of 16201621 was terrible. Only 44 of the
102 survived. The next autumn
brought bountiful harvests and
the first Thanksgiving was
celebrated.
Plymouth proved that the English
could survive in and uninviting
region. Plymouth was never
important numerically or
economically and was
eventually incorporated into the
Massachusetts Bay Colony in
1691.
Massachusetts Bay
Colony
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In 1629, a group of nonSeparatist Puritans secured a
royal charter and formed the
Massachusetts Bay Company.
These Puritans brought their
charter with them and used it as
a kind of constitution for many
years. In 1630, 11 ships carrying
nearly 1000 immigrants set sail for
the New World. Massachusetts
Bay Colony was begun on a
larger scale than any other
English colony.
The leader and governor of the
colony was English lawyer John
Winthrop. Winthrop believed that
he had a calling from God to
lead the new “religious
experiment.” He said that the
colony would be a “city upon a
hill” or an example to the world
of what a God fearing and holy
people could do.
Massachusetts Bay
Colony
• In the colony, religious leaders wielded enormous
influence. Nonbelievers as well as believers paid taxes
for the government supported church. Laws were
passed that regulated all behaviors and practices so
that they fell in line with Puritan teachings. Not everyone
in the colony was a happy camper.
• Anne Hutchinson was one of those who were unhappy.
She was an exceptionally intelligent, strong-willed, and
talkative woman and also the mother of 14 children.
She carried to the logical extreme the doctrine of
predestination. She claimed that a holy life was no sure
sign of conversion and that the truly saved need not
bother to obey the laws of either God or man. This
assertion became known as antinomianism (Greek for
against the law) and was high heresy.
Massachusetts Bay
Colony
• Hutchinson was brought to trial for heresy in 1638. She
confounded her inquisitors for days until she boasted that she
had come by her beliefs through a direct revelation from
God. Puritan leaders banished her from the colony. They had
no choice but to banish her. Hutchinson left for Rhode Island
on foot and pregnant. She eventually moved to New York
were she was killed in an Indian raid.
• More threatening to the Puritan leaders was the popular
minister Roger Williams. Williams was an extreme Separatist
who hounded his fellow clergymen to break completely with
the Church of England. He also challenged the legality of the
Massachusetts Bay colony’s charter, which he said took land
from the Indians without fair compensation. He went on to
deny the authority of the civil government to regulate religious
behavior.
• In 1635, the Bay Colony authorities found Williams guilty of
spreading “new and dangerous opinions” and ordered him
banished.
Island”
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Williams fled to the Rhode Island
area in 1636. At Providence he
established the first Baptist
church in America. As a leader
of Rhode Island, Williams helped
to establish complete freedom of
religion within the colony. He
also helped to establish the
practice of no tax support for a
state church. Through his efforts
the practice of separation of
church and state began.
Puritan leaders back in Boston
began to call Rhode Island “that
sewer” in which the “Lord’s
debris” had collected and
rotted.
Rhode Island, like North Carolina,
became stubbornly independent
and individualistic.
Seeds of Colonial Unity
• In 1643, four colonies banded together to form the
New England Confederation. The primary purpose
of the confederation was defense against the
Indians, the French and the Dutch. Each member
colony, regardless of size, had two votes. The
confederation was an exclusive Puritan club that
consisted of the Bay Colony, Plymouth, New Haven,
and Hartford (Connecticut). Confederation leaders
blackballed Rhode Island’s attempt to join.
• The confederation was the first milestone on the
road to colonial unity. Colonists gained experience
in delegating their votes to representatives.
Seeds of Colonial Unity
• Back in England the king had paid little attention to
the colonies during their planting. They were
allowed to become semiautonomous
commonwealths. This neglect was prolonged when
the king became involved during the 1640s in civil
wars with the parliamentarians. When Charles II
was restored to the throne in 1660, he was
determined to take an active and aggressive role in
managing the colonies. Nowhere did the colonists
hate this new management than in Massachusetts.
The crown broke the colony’s stubborn streak when
it revoked the Bay Colony’s charter in 1684 and
made it a royal colony.
The Dominion of New
England
• In 1686, the Dominion of New England was created
by the Crown. The dominion was aimed at
bolstering colonial defense and enforcing the
English Navigation Laws (Acts).
• These laws were passed in 1651 and strengthened
in 1660 and 1663. These laws stated that only
English ships could trade with English colonies. Any
trade open to mariners of the mother country was
open to the colonists since they were English
subjects.
The Dominion of New
England
• Secondly, the laws specified that a few
“enumerated commodities” produced in the
colonies could only be shipped to the mother
country. Tobacco and sugar fell into this category
due to the high profit those products provided.
• Thirdly, the laws said that all European goods
traveling to the colonies had to pass through an
English port where they paid customs duties.
Violators risked the confiscation of their ships.
• American colonists hated these restrictions and
smuggling became a common and honorable
pastime.
The Dominion of New
England
• The leader of the dominion was Sir Edmond Andros. He
was an able military man but was tactless. He
established his headquarters in Boston and the colonists
there were soon outraged by his noisy Sabbathprofaning soldiers, who were accused of teaching the
people to “drink, blaspheme, curse, and damn.”
• Andros curbed town meetings, heavily restricted the
courts, the press and schools and revoked all land titles.
He taxed the people without the consent of their
elected representatives.
• Luckily for the colonists, the people back in England rose
up and dethroned the unpopular James II and
enthroned Dutch-born William III and his English wife
Mary. When news of this glorious revolution reached
America the Dominion of New England collapsed and
Andros attempted to flee America disguised in a
woman’s dress. His boots gave him away.
The Dominion of New
England
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Even though Andros was gone,
Massachusetts’ situation did
not improve. In 1694 it was
made a royal colony and the
crown expanded voting rights
to all qualified male property
owners.
One positive outcome of the
revolution in England was that
the new rulers relaxed their grip
on colonial trade and began a
period of “salutary neglect.”
This neglect allowed the
colonies once again to make
their own decisions again for
many years.
New Netherland Colony
• In 1623-1624 the Dutch colony of New Netherland
was established along the banks of the Hudson
River by the Dutch West India Company. This
colony was never more than a secondary interest
to its founders.
• The colonial capital of New Amsterdam was a
company town. Investors in the company had no
enthusiasm for religious toleration, free speech, or
democratic practices.
• The colonial governors were often harsh and
despotic. This colony was strongly aristocratic.
New Netherland Colony
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New England was hostile to the
growth of its Dutch neighbor.
Sweden attempted to plant a
colony on the Delaware River
from 1638-1655. The Dutch
leaders of the colony sent Peter
Stuyvesant to eject the Swedes.
The main fort of the Swedish
settlement fell after a bloodless
siege and the Swedish colonists
were absorbed into the Dutch
colony.
In 1664, Charles II granted the
area of New Netherland to his
brother the Duke of York. A
squadron of English ships
appeared off the coast of New
Amsterdam and Stuyvesant was
forced to surrender the colony
without firing a shot. New
Amsterdam was renamed New
York soon after the takeover.
Pennsylvania
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The religious group known as
the Quakers arose in England
during the mid-1600s. The
refused to support the Church
of England with taxes, take
oaths, and serve in the
military. They were
advocates of passive
resistance.
William Penn, a wellborn
Englishman was attracted to
the Quakers when he was 16.
When he told his father of his
interest in the faith, his father
promptly flogged him. After
Penn’s father died and he
was an adult, he secured
(1684) an immense grant of
land from the king in
repayment of a debt owed
to his father. The king called
the area Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania
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Pennsylvania was the best
advertised of any of the 13
colonies. Penn bought land from
the local Indian tribes as well.
Pennsylvania had a
representative assembly, no taxsupported church, and freedom
of worship. This colony attracted
a rich mix of ethnic groups.
Within two years, Philadelphia
had 2500 residents. Within 19
years – by 1700 – the colony was
third in population behind
Virginia and Massachusetts.
Other Quaker settlements
appeared in what became the
colony of New Jersey in 1664.
• Question 1:
Why were the New England
Colonies founded?
oA. Religious freedom
oB. Sandy soil that was ideal for
growing tobacco
• Question 2:
How did most New England
colonists make their living?
oA. Wheat farming
oB. Fishing and shipbuilding