Challenges to Colonial America… The New England Colonies
EQ: In what ways were colonial societies challenged and how did it affect life in the colonies?
Decline In The Puritan Church
In the 16th century the Anglican Church was made the official Church of England. Everyone was required to
support it. Persons who attended any other religious services were subject to fines and imprisonment.
Nevertheless, many English people criticized the practices and organization of the Anglican Church. One
group, the Puritans, wished to simplify, or “purify,” the church from within. Other reformers, called Separatists,
broke away completely and set up independent churches that were more in keeping with their beliefs. To escape
persecution and the harsh laws enforced against critics of the Anglican Church led to a “Great Migration” of
Puritans from England.
The Puritan Church became the official church of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. All residents were
compelled to support it. Puritans insisted they, as God's elect, had the duty to direct national affairs according to
God's will as revealed in the Bible. The purpose of government was to enforce God's laws. This was called a
Theocracy. This union of church and state to form a holy commonwealth gave Puritanism direct and exclusive
control over most colonial activity. Commercial and political changes forced them to relinquish it at the end of the
17th century. Only male church members were permitted to vote or hold public office. The clergy (church officials)
wielded great political power as government advisers. They also supervised the daily lives of the people and
demanded that everyone live according to Puritan beliefs.
By the latter half of the 17th century many Puritans were coming to fear that New England was drifting away
from its religious purpose. The children and grandchildren of the first generation Puritans were displaying more
concern for money making and worldly possessions rather than creating a godly society. Puritan populations began
to move out of towns to escape the control of the church.
Issue: You are John Winthrop, Governor of Massachusetts and avid follower of the Puritan faith. You realize that
the current decline in church membership and the lose of power by both the church and government over local
citizens is threatening the existence of the colony you have worked so hard to build…
How do you increase church membership?
______ A. Use the power and control already established by the church and continue to force Massachusetts’
citizens to follow the laws of the Theocracy style government running your colony.
______ B. Offer citizens partial membership into the church by not requiring them to profess saving grace as it was
normally required of official church members. This would keep rolls full and might preserve the
church’s influence in society and government.
______C. Since society seemed to be leaning more towards materialism, loosen church membership requirements
and laws in order to give people more freedom and a break from the demands of your “Model Society.”
______ D. Don’t worry about church membership. Remind those who tend to be straying away why they actually
left England and came to the New World… Religious Purposes! If they are convicted by their actions to
seek money instead of God, they will come back to the church on their own.
Challenges to Colonial America… The New England Colonies
Decline In The Puritan Church
Issue: You are John Winthrop, Governor of Massachusetts and avid follower of the Puritan faith. You realize that the current
decline in church membership and the lose of power by both the church and government over local citizens is threatening the
existence of the colony you have worked so hard to build…
How do you increase church membership?
______ A. Use the power and control already established by the church and continue to force Massachusetts’
citizens to follow the laws of the Theocracy style government running your colony.
______ B. Offer citizens partial membership into the church by not requiring them to profess saving grace as it was
normally required of official church members. This would keep rolls full and might preserve the
church’s influence in society and government.
______C. Since society seemed to be leaning more towards materialism, loosen church membership requirements
and laws in order to give people more freedom and a break from the demands of your “Model Society.”
______ D. Don’t worry about church membership. Remind those who tend to be straying away why they actually
left England and came to the New World… Religious Purposes! If they are convicted by their actions to
seek money instead of God, they will come back to the church on their own.
Based on your Rankings… Give a justification as to why you ranked each choice as such.

We ranked ________ as our 1st option. Give three reasons why your group believes that this would be the
best way to settle this issue
1. _________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
2. _________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
3. _________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________

We ranked ________ as our 2nd option. Give two reasons why your group believes that this would be the
2nd best way to settle this issue
1. _________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
2. _________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________

We ranked ________ as our 3rd option. Give one reason why your group believes that this would be the 3rd
best way to settle this issue
1. _________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
Challenges to Colonial America… The New England Colonies
EQ: In what ways were colonial societies challenged and how did it affect life in the colonies?
A Costly and Deadly Friendship
For most colonist, the rapid growth of the English colonies in the 1600’s and 1700’s was a source of both pride and
wonder. For the native peoples of North America, however, the coming of Europeans was a disaster. Disease was the silent
destroyer of native peoples. The Europeans brought with them smallpox, measles, chicken pox, influenza, and other diseases
to which Native Americans had no natural resistance. So deadly were these new illnesses to native peoples that an epidemic of
any one of them could wipe out an entire village or tribe.
Conflict between Native Americans and settlers over land also took a deadly toll. When the first settlers appeared
along the Atlantic Coast, the local Indians were usually friendly. The colonists who founded Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607
would have starved had they not been sent food by the Powhatan tribe. The friendship between the Virginia colonists and the
Powhatan people was further strengthened when the chief gave his daughter Pocahontas in marriage to John Rolfe in 1614.
As colonies grew, the Native Americans came to regret their earlier friendship. In Virginia the Powhatan grew tired of
seeing their villages burned and their hunting areas taken over by tobacco planters. In 1622 they rose up against the
Jamestown settlers and tried to drive them back to the sea… the outcome was tragic. Within two years, the Powhatan had been
reduced to less than 1,000 people.
Now the year in 1675 and the Wampanoag tribe, in the New England area, are worried that they may be soon
faced with the same situation. They have been watching, for the last 20 years, as Bay colonist turn their hunting lands into
fields and push their settlements further westward.
Issue: You are the Wampanoag chief Metacom, better known to the colonists as King Phillip. As chief of the
powerful New England tribe, you are worried about the future security of your people. Word has reached you and your people
about the deadly war between European settlers in Virginia, and the threat of a similar uprising in Massachusetts could be on
the horizon… You must make a decision.
What should King Phillip, Metacom, do about the colonists in the Bay colony in order to prevent a similar fate
to your tribe?
______ A. Call a tribal meeting of the elders, discuss the situation facing your people, and send a “peace
party to the leaders of the Massachusetts Bay colony, hoping that a peaceful resolution can be
agreed upon so that both the Wampanoag and colonists can live and work together.
______B. Pick up your tribe and move. You realize that European weapons are far superior to yours and at
this time it may be better to avoid conflict in order to save your people. You don’t want to meet
the same fate as the Powhatans in Virginia.
______ C. Send word to the surrounding New England tribes, unite them in a desperate struggle for
survival, attacking and burning villages across New England. With this act, you hope that colonist
will become scared, pick up and leave.
______ D. Step down as chief. The decision that has to be made is more than you can bare.
Challenges to Colonial America… The New England Colonies
A Costly and Deadly Friendship
Issue: You are the Wampanoag chief Metacom, better known to the colonists as King Phillip. As chief of the powerful
New England tribe, you are worried about the future security of your people. Word has reached you and your people about the
deadly war between European settlers in Virginia, and the threat of a similar uprising in Massachusetts could be on the horizon…
You must make a decision.
What should King Phillip, Metacom, do about the colonists in the Bay colony in order to prevent a similar fate to
your tribe?
______ A. Call a tribal meeting of the elders, discuss the situation facing your people, and send a “peace
party to the leaders of the Massachusetts Bay colony, hoping that a peaceful resolution can be
agreed upon so that both the Wampanoag and colonists can live and work together.
______B. Pick up your tribe and move. You realize that European weapons are far superior to yours and at
this time it may be better to avoid conflict in order to save your people. You don’t want to meet
the same fate as the Powhatans in Virginia.
______ C. Send word to the surrounding New England tribes, unite them in a desperate struggle for
survival, attacking and burning villages across New England. With this act, you hope that colonist
will become scared, pick up and leave.
______ D. Step down as chief. The decision that has to be made is more than you can bare.
Based on your Rankings… Give a justification as to why you ranked each choice as such.

We ranked ________ as our 1st option. Give three reasons why your group believes that this would be the best way to
settle this issue
1. _______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
2. ________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
3. ________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________

We ranked ________ as our 2nd option. Give two reasons why your group believes that this would be the 2nd best
way to settle this issue
1. ______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
2. ________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________

We ranked ________ as our 3rd option. Give one reason why your group believes that this would be the 3rd best way
to settle this issue
1. _________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
Challenges to Colonial America… The New England Colonies
EQ: In what ways were colonial societies challenged and how did it affect life in the colonies?
Burned At The Stake
In 1692, the colonies located in New England were governed by Theocratic style government, a Puritan state
in which church and government were closely connected. Since Puritanism controlled the politics and economy of most of
New England, any such controversy among churchmen was no small matter.
Salem Village was created in 1672 by a group of rural families who wanted their own church instead of going to
church in the larger towns. Several years of haggling over ministers followed until Samuel Parris was chosen to lead the
church. Parris failed to calm his troubled church, and in two years’ time things went haywire. In January 1692, the minister’s
daughter Betty and his niece Abigail, aged nine and eleven, and a twelve year old friend began to act strangely. A local doctor
diagnosed them as bewitched and under the influence of an “Evil Hand.” Suspicion immediately fell on Tituba, the Parris
family’s West Indian slave, who had been teaching the girls fortune-telling games.
At first, the slave Tituba, was arrested and accused of witchery, and a general court jailed her on suspicion of
witchcraft. Her trail would soon trigger an astonishing wave of accusations, and the three young girls, basking in their sudden
notoriety, ignited a storm of satanic fear throughout the Massachusetts Bay colony. The charge of witchery soon became a
means of settling village feuds. To escape the hangman’s noose, the panic-stricken accused often “confessed” to anything,
including broomstick rides and inappropriate relations with the Devil himself. Professions of innocence or criticism of the
proceedings were considered a sign of guilt and meant immediate death.
Issue: You are Samuel Parris, the new preacher of the Salem Village church. As a hardliner (strict, stick to the law
preacher) you have just realized that your very own daughter has been arrested for practicing witchcraft… accusations of
others have increased and 150 people have been accused within three months.
What should be done about Salem’s “witch” problem?
_____ A. Nothing… Salem does not have a witch problem. If anything should be done, it should be the restructuring
of the relationship between the church and government. Too many people related to both areas have too
much power creating unjust problems for those in Massachusetts.
_____ B. Since Massachusetts is governed by a Theocracy, church and government officials should come together
and begin random testing and questioning of women in Salem. Those found guilty will be burned at the
stake on the spot.
_____ C. An all out witch hunt… pictures of those accused of being witches should be placed in local places of
business. Bounties are to be rewarded for anyone who brings in those most wanted for being a witch.
_____ D. To make sure innocent people are not wrongfully accused, church and government officials should devise
several methods of testing to ensure that people are not simply accusing those who they might consider their
enemies.
Challenges to Colonial America… The New England Colonies
Burned At The Stake
Issue: You are Samuel Parris, the new preacher of the Salem Village church. As a hardliner (strict, stick to the law
preacher) you have just realized that your very own daughter has been arrested for practicing witchcraft… accusations of
others have increased and 150 people have been accused within three months.
What should be done about Salem’s “witch” problem?
_____ A. Nothing… Salem does not have a witch problem. If anything should be done, it should be the
restructuring of the relationship between the church and government. Too many people related to both
areas have too much power creating unjust problems for those in Massachusetts.
_____ B. Since Massachusetts is governed by a Theocracy, church and government officials should come
together and begin random testing and questioning of women in Salem. Those found guilty will be
burned at the stake on the spot.
_____ C. An all out witch hunt… pictures of those accused of being witches should be placed in local places of
business. Bounties are to be rewarded for anyone who brings in those most wanted for being a witch.
_____ D. To make sure innocent people are not wrongfully accused, church and government officials should
devise several methods of testing to ensure that people are not simply accusing those who they might
consider their enemies.
Based on your Rankings… Give a justification as to why you ranked each choice as such.

We ranked ________ as our 1st option. Give three reasons why your group believes that this would be the best way to
settle this issue
1. _______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
2. ________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
3. ________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________

We ranked ________ as our 2nd option. Give two reasons why your group believes that this would be the 2nd best
way to settle this issue
1. _______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
2. ________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________

We ranked ________ as our 3rd option. Give one reason why your group believes that this would be the 3rd best way
to settle this issue
1. _________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
Challenges to Colonial America… The New England Colonies
EQ: In what ways were colonial societies challenged and how did it affect life in the colonies?
Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God
In the 16th century the Anglican Church was made the official Church of England. Everyone was required to
support it. Persons who attended any other religious services were subject to fines and imprisonment.
Nevertheless, many English people criticized the practices and organization of the Anglican Church. One
group, the Puritans, wished to simplify, or “purify,” the church from within. Other reformers, called Separatists,
broke away completely and set up independent churches that were more in keeping with their beliefs. To escape
persecution and the harsh laws enforced against critics of the Anglican Church led to a “Great Migration” of
Puritans from England.
As time passes in the colonies, teachings of Enlightenment sweep through New England like a wild fire out of control.
These new ideas and teachings left many people confused and inquisitive about the part that God and religion was to play in
their daily lives. Many people seemed to be drifting away from the old moorings of piety. If the Lord had allowed great
Puritan and Quaker merchants of Boston and Philadelphia to prosper and become wealthy, the haunting fear arose that the
devil had lured them into the vain pursuit of worldly gain. As the colonies prospered, attention had turned from observing the
Sabbath to such earthly pursuits as real estate, slave trading, the rum business, and other profitable worldly enterprises. The
educated classes of people were falling out of church and placed less important of God’s law and worried more about
materialistic gains. Along the fringes of settlements there grew a large amount of people who were un-churched, people had
no minister to preach or administer marriages, they fell, according to some, deeper and deeper into a sinful life, little
difference from that of heathens who lurked in the woods. Preachers themselves were regarded as “ignorant wretches, who
cannot write.”
As a result of this new way of life, church membership went down, salvation took a back seat to selfishness, and the
once proud, religious, “City on a Hill” became today’s “Sin City.”
Issue: You are Jonathan Edwards, pastor in Massachusetts, who becomes famous for your fire-and-brimstone, pit-ofhell sermons, which provoked hysteria in your listeners. You, along with other pastors and men of faith are wrestling with the
following question…
How do you restore the fundamental reason for founding the great colonies back to a world of faith and rid the
colonies of a focus on worldly gains?
____ A. Discredit the ideas of the Enlightenment period. For it is the teachings of people like Ben Franklin and
Enlightenment philosophers that have created a shift in the way of thinking for most colonist, causing them t
question the church.
____ B. Accept the fact the ideas and beliefs have shifted from religion to that of person interest. Save the ones you
can, those that continue to be regular members of your church. Allow God to handle the rest on Judgment Day
____ C. Travel the colonies, New England, Middle, and Southern, creating a huge “Revival” of religious faith among
the colonist. Get back to the roots of your founding faith and if at all necessary, scare them (colonist back to
Christ).
____ D. Change the rigor of the church. Since coming to the New World, pastor have made it difficult to live in and
create that perfect, Godly society… release the general public from some of the pressures of not being able
to live up to God’s standards.
Challenges to Colonial America… The New England Colonies
Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God
Issue: You are Jonathan Edwards, pastor in Massachusetts, who becomes famous for your fire-and-brimstone, pit-of-hell sermons,
which provoked hysteria in your listeners. You, along with other pastors and men of faith are wrestling with the following question…
How do you restore the fundamental reason for founding the great colonies back to a world of faith and rid the colonies of
a focus on worldly gains?
____ A. Discredit the ideas of the Enlightenment period. For it is the teachings of people like Ben Franklin
and Enlightenment philosophers that have created a shift in the way of thinking for most colonist,
causing them to question the church.
____ B. Accept the fact the ideas and beliefs have shifted from religion to that of person interest. Save the
ones you can, those that continue to be regular members of your church. Allow God to handle the rest
on Judgment Day
____ C. Travel the colonies, New England, Middle, and Southern, creating a huge “Revival” of religious faith
among the colonist. Get back to the roots of your founding faith and if at all necessary, scare them
(colonist back to Christ).
____ D. Change the rigor of the church. Since coming to the New World, pastor have made it difficult to live
in and create that perfect, Godly society… release the general public from some of the pressures of
not being able to live up to God’s standards.
Based on your Rankings… Give a justification as to why you ranked each choice as such.

We ranked ________ as our 1st option. Give three reasons why your group believes that this would be the
best way to settle this issue
1. _________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
2. _________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
3. _________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________

We ranked ________ as our 2nd option. Give two reasons why your group believes that this would be the
2nd best way to settle this issue
1. _________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
2. _________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________

We ranked ________ as our 3rd option. Give one reason why your group believes that this would be the 3rd
best way to settle this issue
1. _________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________