The Northern Colonies
The Main Idea
The pilgrims founded colonies in Massachusetts based on
Puritan religious ideals, while dissent led to the founding
of other New England colonies.
Reading Focus
• Why did the Puritans flee England?
• How did dissent among the Puritans threaten the New England
colonies?
• What was life like in New England?
Puritans Flee to Freedom

Church of England was the official church of the land
 People had to attend church and pay taxes to support the
church
 Dissenters were fined and put in prison

Puritans wanted to “purify” the Church of England.
 Wanted simpler church service
 Objected to the wealth and power of bishops

Separatists were more strict Puritans.
 Wanted to remove all traces of Catholicism
 Wanted total separation from the Church of England
Plymouth Colony
Separatists
moved to the Netherlands in 1608
Wars
in Europe, wanted to move somewhere to
start their own society
Led
by William Bradford, 35 Separatists joined 66
others on the Mayflower in 1620.
They
were supposed to land in an established
colony….accident that they did not?
Mayflower
Founded
Colony
Compact
Plymouth Colony near present-day Boston
never grew very large
Massachusetts Bay Colony
Puritan
merchants formed Massachusetts Bay
Company.
In 1630 John Winthrop set out with 11 ships
and 700 people for New England.
This colony grew faster than Plymouth.
 Success of Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay
colonies inspired the Great Migration.
Over 20,000 English men and women came to
settle in New England.
Dissent among the Puritans

Dissenters (people who disagreed) left
Massachusetts Bay Colony, settled new towns.

Thomas Hooker settled in Connecticut gave
voting rights to all free men

Roger Williams, believed in tolerance and
separation of church and government
 Said settlers should BUY land from natives
 1636 gov. ordered him arrested & returned to England
 He fled, founded Providence (Rhode Island) with land he
bought from natives in 1636
Dissent among the Puritans

Anne Hutchinson
 Believed that people did not need a minister to be
spiritual.
 Banished from Mass. Bay, went to Providence with her
followers
Ironically….
Although founded on the principal of “religious freedom”, the
Puritan colonies did not necessarily allow freedom of
religious expression amongst their citizens….
Life in New England
Education
•
Believe in educating boys and girls, but boys had more
opportunity
•
Started colleges like Harvard and Yale
•
Most were royal colonies (ruled by king). In town
meetings church members and land owners voted on
local matters.
•
No longer needed natives for survival; natives now had
guns.
•
Some Puritans felt it was their duty to drive the Native
Americans out or kill them.
•
Land conflicts caused Pequot War and King Philip’s War.
Both nearly wiped out the Native Americans involved.
Government
Native
Americans
Massachusetts Trivia





Pilgrims called themselves “saints”
Nearly half of settlers died the first year
Squanto – native who helped Pilgrims had
been to Europe serving as a slave; when he
returned, his people were dead
Mass Bay referred to as “City on a Hill” – a
model society
Mass Bay started: free education, 2 house
government, printing books, trial by jury,
modern corporation system
Relations with Natives

Pequot War – 1637 in CT, Pequots nearly
wiped out by colonists and native allies
 Colonists set fire to the fort, shot those trying to
escape, natives allies were upset.

King Philip’s War – 1675 – Metacom (King
Philip) organized alliance of natives,
 starvation, disease and casualties wore them down
 Metacom killed by a native ally of colonists, his head
was on display for 20 years