Chapter 4 Section 1 NotesThe New England

Colonies

Setting the Scene• April and May 1630 were cold

stormy months in the North Atlantic.

• Colonists aboard the ship Arbella were starting to doubt this trip to America.

• John Winthrop-a lawyer and devout Christian had no doubt.

• Winthrop assured them that their new colony would be an example to the world—”A City upon a Hill.”

Setting the Scene• There were 17 ships

and 1000 people who left England in 1630 to settle in North America.

• They set up their colony on Massachusetts Bay (Boston)

• Over the next 100 years, English settlers would build towns and farms throughout New England.

Puritans in Massachusetts

• John Winthrop and his followers were known as Puritans.

• Unlike the Pilgrims, the Puritans did not want to separate from the Anglican Church of England.

• They wanted to reform “purify” the Church.

• The Puritans wanted to do away with many practices that were similar to the Catholic Church.

• Such as organ music, finely decorated churches and special clothing for priests.

Puritans in Massachusetts

Leaving England• Puritans were powerful in England.• New King of England, Charles I became

king in 1625, did not like the Puritans and their ideas.

• He had Puritans jailed and fined.• Puritans felt England was not a good place

for them anymore.

• The Puritans persuaded royal officials to grant them a charter to form the Massachusetts Bay Company.

• The company’s plan was to build a new society in New England.

• Far from the King, the Puritans would run their colony as they pleased.

Leaving England

• Some English came to Massachusetts for financial reasons.

• They were attracted to Massachusetts because of the availability of cheap land or a chance to start a business.

Leaving England

Governing the Colony• John Winthrop was

chosen governor of Massachusetts Bay .

• Winthrop worked hard to build a home, clear land and plant crops.

• He inspired everyone to work hard.

• Under the original charter only stockholders who had invested money in the Massachusetts Bay Company could vote.

• Unfortunately, most people were not stockholders.

• They resented taxes and laws passed by a government in which they had no say.

Governing the Colony

• Winthrop realized that the colony would run more smoothly if more colonists could vote.

• Winthrop granted the right to vote to all men who were Puritan Church members.

• Later, male church members elected representatives to an assembly called the Massachusetts General Court.

Governing the Colony

• Under the leadership of Winthrop, Massachusetts Bay grew and prospered.

• Between 1629 and 1640, 15,000 men, women and children made the journey from England to Massachusetts.

• This movement was known as the Great Migration.• Many newcomers settled in Boston—the colony’s capital.

Governing the Colony

Settling Connecticut• 1636-Puritan minister

Thomas Hooker led 100 settlers west out of Massachusetts.

• They drove their cattle, goats, and pigs along Indian trails that cut through the forests.

• When they reached the Connecticut River, they built a town they called Hartford.

• Hooker left Mass Bay because he felt the governor and other officials had too much power.

• He wanted to set up a colony in Connecticut with strict limits on government.

• 1639-the settlers wrote a plan of government called the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut.

Settling Connecticut

• The government was similar to Massachusetts’.

• There were 2 differences.• 1-The Fundamental Orders

gave the right to vote to ALL men who were property owners (not just church members)

• 2-The Fundamental Orders limited the governor’s power.

• In 1662-Connecticut became a separate colony.

• By then, there were 15 towns thriving along the Connecticut River.

Settling Connecticut

• Another Puritan who challenged the leaders of Mass Bay was Roger Williams.

• Williams was a young minister in Salem, Ma.

• His ideas alarmed Puritan leaders.

• Williams believed that the Puritan church had too much power in Massachusetts.

Settling Rhode Island

• Williams felt the church should stay out of government issues and the government should stay out of church matters.

• Williams said the role of government was to maintain order and peace.

• Williams also believed in religious toleration—a willingness to let others practice their own beliefs.

Settling Rhode Island

• Puritans in Mass viewed Williams as a troublemaker.

• 1635-Mass General Court ordered him to leave Massachusetts.

• Fearing the Court would send him back to England, Williams fled to Narragansett Bay, where he spent the winter with Indians.

• In the spring, the Indians sold him land for a settlement.

• After a few years, it became the colony of Rhode Island.

Settling Rhode Island

• In Rhode Island, Williams allowed freedom of religion for all people.

• He did not force people to attend church

• He gave ALL white men the right to vote.

• People who disliked the government of Massachusetts fled to Providence and other towns in Rhode Island.

Settling Rhode Island

Anne Hutchinson• Among those who went to Rhode

Island was Anne Hutchinson.• A devout Puritan, Hutchinson

regularly attended church services.

• She would discuss the minister’s sermons w/her friends.

• She began to express her own views and criticized the minister’s teachings.

• Puritan leaders were angry at Hutchinson.

• Puritan leaders also said that a woman did not have the right to explain God’s law.

• 1637—Hutchinson was ordered to appear before the Mass General Court.

• At her trial, Winthrop could not prove that she had broken any Puritan laws or disobeyed any religious teachings.

Anne Hutchinson

• After 2 days of questioning, Hutchinson made a serious mistake.

• She told the court that God spoke directly to her.

• Members of the Mass General Court were shocked.

• Puritans believed that God spoke only through the Bible, not through individuals.

Anne Hutchinson

• The court declared that Hutchinson “deluded by the devil” and ordered her out of the colony.

• 1638—Hutchinson and her family and friends went to Rhode Island.

• Hutchinson became an important symbol for the struggle of religious freedom.

Anne Hutchinson

Conflict with Native Americans

• In Massachusetts Bay (Boston), settlers fanned out across New England.

• Some built trading and fishing villages along the coast north of Boston

• Salem, Newburyport, Portsmouth, Ipswich, Kennebunk, Marblehead.

• As more colonists settled in New England, they took over Native American lands.

• Fighting broke out between white settlers and Indian nations of the region.• The largest conflict came in 1675—King Philip’s War.

Conflict with Native Americans

• Wampanoag Indians, led by their chief Metacom, attacked villages throughout New England.

• Metacom was Massasoit’s son.• The colonists called Metacom

King Philip.• The Indians were outfitted w/

rifles and armor.• Soon other tribes, including the

Narragansett, joined the fray and the entire region fell into conflict.

Conflict with Native Americans

• Metacom and his allies destroyed 12 towns and killed more than 600 men, women and child colonists.

• In the end, Metacom was captured and beheaded.

• His corpse was drawn and quartered and his severed head placed on a stake to be paraded through Plymouth Colony.

Conflict with Native Americans

• The English colonists sold Metacom’s family and 1,000 other Indians into slavery to the Caribbean.

• Many Natives died of starvation.• The pattern of English expansion caused

many wars between the colonists and the natives.

• It would continue for many years to come.

Conflict with Native Americans

Life in New England

• Puritans believed that people should worship and tend to local matters as a community.

• As a result, New England became a land of tightly knit towns and villages.

• The center of each village was the common-an open field where cattle grazed.

• Nearby, stood the meetinghouse, where Puritans worshipped and held town meetings.

• Wooden houses with steep roofs lined the town’s narrow streets.

Life in New England

Religion and Family• The Puritans took their

Sabbath, or holy day of rest, very seriously.

• On Sunday’s no one was allowed to play games or visit taverns to joke, talk and drink.

• The law required all citizens to attend church services which lasted all day Sunday.

• During the 1600s, women sat on one side of the church and men on the other.

• Blacks and Indians stood in a balcony at the back.

• Children had separate pews where adults watched over them.

Religion and Family

• The Puritans taught that children were a blessing of God.

• The average family had 7-8 children.

• The New Englanders lived long lives—age 70.

• As a result, children grew up knowing both their parents and their grandparents.

Religion and Family

Government in New England

• At town meetings, settlers discussed and voted on many issues.

• What roads should be built? How much should the town schoolmaster get paid?

• Town meetings gave New Englanders a chance to speak their minds.

• This early experience encouraged the growth of democratic ideas in New England.

• Puritan laws were strict.• 15 crimes carried the death

penalty.• Witchcraft was one.• 1692-Puritans in Salem village

executed 20 men and women as witches.

Government in New England

New England Economy• New England was a difficult

land for colonists.• The Puritans believed that

daily labor honored God as much as prayer

• New England’s rocky soil was poor for farming.

• Settlers did learn to grow many Native American crops—corn, squash, pumpkins and beans.

• Although the soil was poor, the forests were full of riches.

• Settlers hunted wild turkey and deer as well as hogs they let roam free in the woods.

• In the spring, colonists collected sap from sugar maple trees.

New England Economy

• Settlers also cut down trees and floated them to sawmills near ports such as Boston, Newburyport and Portsmouth.

• These cities grew into major shipbuilding centers.

New England Economy

• Other New Englanders fished the coastal waters for cod, haddock and halibut.

• Fishermen worked tirelessly, rarely taking time to eat or sleep.

• Other types of fish were abundant-clams, oysters and lobsters.

New England Economy

• In the 1600s, New Englanders also began to hunt whales.

• Whales supplied oil for lamps as well as ivory and other products.

• Whaling grew into a big business in the 1700s.

New England Economy

Decline of the Puritans• During the 1700s, the Puritan tradition

declined.• Ministers had less influence on the way the

colonies were governed.• The Puritans did stamp New England with

their customs and their dream of a religious society.