Advanced Placement Advanced Placement Chapter 3:Chapter 3:

Settling the Northern Settling the Northern ColoniesColoniesBy Neil Hammond

Millbrook High School

The Protestant Reformation The Protestant Reformation Produces PuritanismProduces Puritanism

• The Southern colonies were primarily founded for economic reasons, but the Northern ones were founded for religious freedom

• Martin Luther ignited the Protestant Reformation in 1519

• But it was John Calvin’s theological ideas that affectedmany of North America’s Europeanimmigrants

Calvinism and EnglandCalvinism and England• Calvin believed that God, all-

powerful and all-knowing, knew who was going to heaven and who wasn’t before they were born (predestination)

• Calvin’s ideas swept into England in the 1530s

Remember that Henry VIII broke with the Catholic church because he wanted a divorce NOT over religion. The English church that emerged in the 1560s under Elizabeth I was not that different from the Catholic church.

Separatists and PuritansSeparatists and Puritans• Some Englishmen were not happy with the

extent of English church reform…they wanted to make it less Catholic…they wanted to “purify” it

• By the early 1600s, Puritans were unhappy with the pace (or lack of it!) of reform

• The most devout Puritans believedthat only the “visible saints” (those who felt touched by God’s grace ANDcould prove it) should be church members, but the Church of Englandadmitted everyone

King James I and PuritansKing James I and Puritans• England’s new king, James I,

saw Puritans as a troublesome group and sought to harass them

• Some radical Puritans wanted to separate from the Church of England…they were known as Separatists.

The Separatists left England for Holland in 1608, but became concerned that their children were becoming too “dutchified”. In 1620, a group of Separatists agreed to settle in North America under the jurisdiction of the Virginia Company

The Mayflower CompactThe Mayflower Compact• The Mayflower was supposed to land in Virginia,

but it ended up in Plymouth Bay, outside of the Virginia Company’s domain

• 102 people sailed on the Mayflower; fewer than half of them were Separatists.

Before landing, the Pilgrim leaders drew up and signed the Mayflower Compact

The Mayflower CompactThe Mayflower Compact• Read the Mayflower Compact

• 1. Why would the Separatists sign this?• 2. Is this a constitution?

PlymouthPlymouth• The first winter tested the Pilgrims. Like the

early settlers in Jamestown, the pilgrims faced hunger and disease. Only half of the 102 settlers survived the initial winter, but then Plymouth became a healthy and thriving community

• The cold climate inhibited the spread of mosquito-borne diseases, and the Pilgrims’ religious discipline established a strong work ethic.

• Also, a smallpox epidemic had killed off most of the local Native Americans. By 1640 there were 3000 settlers in Plymouth

William BradfordWilliam Bradford• The Pilgrims had good leaders.

Prominent among them was William Bradford, who was chosen governor thirty times

• To ensure political stability, the Pilgrims issued a written legal code that provided for representative government, broad political rights and religious freedom

William Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation is the source of much of our knowledge of the colony.

The Massachusetts Bay ColonyThe Massachusetts Bay Colony• The Separatists who came in 1620 were radicals.

Most Puritans stayed in England and hoped to reform the church, but the Church of England became more CATHOLIC under Charles I, so the 1630s saw a mass exodus of Puritans from England.

The numbers are small on the map…but show that about 20,000 Puritans went to New England while about 25,000 went to the West Indies and the Chesapeake during the 1630s

The Massachusetts Bay ColonyThe Massachusetts Bay Colony• 1629 a group of Puritans secured a royal charter to form the Massachusetts Bay Company.

• In 1630 a well-equipped expedition of eleven ships and nearly 1000 immigrants started the colony off on a larger scale than any other English colony

• Many fairly prosperous, educated people migrated to the colony, people such as John Winthrop (a successful attorney and manor lord in England, who accepted an offer to become the Massachusetts governor). Under the leadership of men like Winthrop, Massachusetts prospered as fur trading, fishing and ship building became important industries.

Building the Bay ColonyBuilding the Bay Colony• Read “A Model of Christian Charity”

• Start reading on page 38 at “Thus stands the cause….”

• 1) What will happen if the Puritans break their covenant?

• 2) How must the Puritans act to avoid this?

• 3) What does Winthrop mean when he says that “wee must consider that shall be as a city upon a Hill…” (read on to get it!)

John Winthrop and the John Winthrop and the Massachusetts Bay ColonyMassachusetts Bay Colony

• Winthrop and his associates established the government of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the town of Boston

• They created a General Court of shareholders with a governor, council and assembly

– Voting and office holding was limited to male church members

– Congregationalism was established as the state supported church (Puritan churches were run by Congregations)

– The Bible was used as a legal guide

Roger Williams and Rhode Roger Williams and Rhode IslandIsland• To maintain God’s favor, the Puritan

magistrates of Massachusetts Bay purged their society of religious dissidents such as Roger Williams

• Williams, the minister of a Puritan church in Salem, condemned the legal establishment of Congregationalism in MA Bay. He taught that political magistrates had authority over only the “bodies, goods and outward estates of men, not their spiritual lives”.

• Williams also questioned the Puritans’ seizure of Native American lands

Rhode IslandRhode Island• In 1635, Bay colonial authorities banished Williams

from the colony, intending on exiling him to England

• But, helped by friendly Indians, Williams fled to what is now Rhode Island in the midst of a bitter winter.

• Williams built a Baptists church at providence (probably the first in America) and established complete freedom of religion (even for Jews and Catholics Williams endorsement of religious

toleration made Rhode Island more liberal than other English settlements, and more advanced than most Old World communities, too

The Expansion of New EnglandThe Expansion of New England

• All earlier colonies grew INTO Massachusetts

• All later colonies grew OUT of Massachusetts

Trouble in the Bible ColonyTrouble in the Bible Colony• Another Puritan who ended up in Rhode

Island was Anne Hutchinson.

• Read “Anne Hutchinson” is banished.

• Why were Hutchinson’s beliefs so unacceptable to Puritan leaders?

Rhode Island established complete freedom of religion for its settlers and attracted a variety of outcasts from Massachusetts Bay. It became a colony of mavericks.

ConnecticutConnecticut• These coercive policies in

Massachusetts, along with a desire for better farmland, prompted some Puritans to migrate to the Connecticut River Valley. In 1636 Thomas Hooker founded Hartford, Ct. Other Puritans settled Weatherfield and Windsor. In 1662 Charles II granted them a charter. Like Massachusetts it established the Congregational church, a governor and an assembly, BUT most property owning men could vote

Puritan “Liberty”Puritan “Liberty”

• Read John Winthrop’s “Concept of Liberty”

• Does our concept of liberty today resemble Winthrop’s?

• Are there any groups today that share similar views to Winthrop’s?

A Yeoman SocietyA Yeoman Society• In building their communities, Puritans

consciously rejected the practices of traditional feudal society.

• The General Courts of MA and CT bestowed the title to each township on a group of settlers (proprietors) who then distributed the land among the male heads of families

• Not everyone received an equal plot of land, but all families received some land, and most adult men had a vote in the town meeting

A Yeoman SocietyA Yeoman Society• In this society of independent

households and self-governing communities, ordinary farmers had much more power than Chesapeake yeoman (owners of small farms) and European peasants did.

• Each year, voting members of the churches voted at town meetings:– Levied taxes, enacted ordinances governing

fence fencing and road building, regulated the use of common fields for grazing livestock, and chose the selectmen who managed town affairs

• Initially most Puritan towns were compact regardless of the local terrain

• How does this compare to Southern plantations?

Salem Witch TrialsSalem Witch Trials

• Watch the Video Clip• Using what you know from the video,

explain the map