Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode
Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire
 http://www.history.com/topics/plymouth
 How
will geography impact the development
of the New England colonies? How will this
differ from the development of the Southern
Colonies?
 Pilgrims
and Puritans made their way over to
New England – but what is the difference
between these two groups?
 http://www.history.com/topics/plymouth/vi
deos/puritans-vs-pilgrims
 Puritans
– want to purify the Church of
England
 Pilgrims – Separatists – want to completely
separate themselves from the Church of
England
 Pilgrims
 Wanted
to build Christian commonwealth
 In 1620 – led by William Bradford – crammed
into the Mayflower for the New World – 102
men, women, and children
 ½ - Pilgrim “saints” – Christians recognized
as being elected for salvation
 ½ non Pilgrim “strangers” – ordinary settlers,
hired hands, and indentured servants
 http://www.history.com/topics/plymouth/vi
deos/pilgrims-in-america
 41
of the Pilgrims entered into a formal
agreement to abide by the laws made by the
leaders of their own choosing
 Used later as a model for New England
settlers; helped establish American tradition
of consensual government
 Civil govt came out of Church govt
 (Pass out Mayflower Compact)
 Nearly
½ died of exposure and disease
 1621 – met Squanto
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Showed them how to grow maize
By fall – had corn, flourishing fur trade, and a
supply of lumber for shipment
To celebrate – they had feast with Wampanoags –
(What holiday commemorates this today?)
Population never rose above 7000
 Intended
to be holy commonwealth
 King Charles I granted Massachusetts Bay
Company an area north of Plymouth – 1629
 First this was a business venture
 Majority faction led by John Winthrop
resolved to use colony for persecuted
Puritans
 Took
advantage of omission of charter for
Massachusetts Bay – usually the company had
to maintain its home office in England
 Winthrop took the charter with him and
thereby transferred govt authority to
Massachusetts Bay, where they hoped to
ensure Puritan control
 17
ships of 1,000 colonists came to
Massachusetts
 Boston became chief city and capital
 Power
rested with Massachusetts General
Court
 Elected the governor and his assistants and
consisted of shareholders, called freemen;
few had this status
 118 additional freemen in 1631
2
house legislature developed
 Over 14 year period – membership in Puritan
church replaced the purchase of stock as
means of coming a freemen (voter)
 General Court
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Representative body of 2 houses
House of Assistants
House of Deputies
 Founded
by Roger Williams
 Purest of Puritans
 True Church could have no relations with
English government; Anglican establishment
 No church was possible, unless perhaps one
consisting of his wife and himself
 Purity
of church required complete
separation of church and state
 1635 – banished to England
 Aided by Narragansett Native Americans
 Bought land from NA and established
Providence

First town in America to legislate freedom of
religion
 Refuge
for dissenters who believed state had
no right to coerce religious beliefs
 1640 – formed confederation
 1643 – secured first charter of incorporation
as Providence Plantations
 Govt based on consent of the people
 Believed
ministers were hypocrites
 This went against Puritan beliefs
 Had meetings in her home to discuss sermons
 Went before general court in 1637

Gen Winthrop – “We do not mean to discourse
with those of your sex”
 Claimed
divine inspiration and was convicted
 Sought refuge in Portsmouth, south of
Providence
 Moved to New York in 1642
 Formed
by groups of Massachusetts Puritans
seeking better land and access to fur trade
 Thomas Hooker
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Organized self-governing colony in 1637 as
response to the danger of attack from Pequot
Indians
1639 – CT adopted Fundamental Orders, series of
laws providing for a govt
Voting not limited to church members
 Region
had 100,000 NA
 Settlers saw NA as an alien race and an
impediment to spiritual and economic goals
 NA saw them as magical monsters
 Settlers goal was subordination of NA
 Initially – NA helped white settlers –
developed flourishing trade (fur)
 1610-1675
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Abenakis declined from 12,000 to 3,000
Southern NE tribes 65,000 to 10,000
 1636
– settlers in MA accused a Pequot of murdering
a colonist
 Burned Pequot huts and killed them
 Pequot chief attacked settlers
 1637
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Colonists and Narragansett allied killed 100s of Pequots
Sold surviving Pequots to slavery in Bermuda
Treaty of Hartford (1638) – Pequot Nation dissolved
 NA
had to live under English laws (like not
hunting on Sabbath)
 Metacom – Wampanoag chief – Eng called him
King Philip
 1675
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Burned and attacked settlements in NE
Over a year of brutality
Metacom died
Displayed Metacom’s head for 20 years
1/10 of colonial men died
 1692
 Started
when teenage girls entranced by
African tales told by Tituba
 Salem jail overflowed with accused
 Hysteria ran course 10 months later
 19 people hanged; 100 jailed
 Almost all accused were women
 Most had defied traditional gender roles or
had no husbands or brothers or sons
 http://www.history.com/topics/salem-witchtrials