English Colonization of New England

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English Colonization of New England
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Puritans

• Reformation of Anglican Church
• Too much like Catholics
• Followed teachings of John Calvin
• People were born sinners
• Predestination

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Plymouth Colony 1620

• Settlement of North America Virginia Co. (Joint
  Stock)
• Landed in Mass. south of modern day Boston
• Pilgrims called Separatists isolation was good
• Mayflower Compact
• Democracy in America
• William Bradford

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Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630)

• Est. a Royal Colony - Boston
• Puritans - non-separatists
• Governor John Winthrop
• Winthrop called the colony a City on the Hill
• Built Fenway Park

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Puritan Work Ethic

• Worship hard work were tenets of Puritanism
• They reserved some time for leisure, but not much

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New England Local Government

• Town Councils
• Church officials not allowed
• Must be church member - high ranking people were
  elected
• Vote male member of the church in good standing
• General Court colonial legislature

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New England Population

• Towns developed throughout New England
• Towns allowed religion and education to take a
  central role
• New Colonies formed like Conn, RI
• Fundamental Orders of Conn.

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New England Education

• Old Deluder Acts grammar school in every town
  Why?
• New England Primer

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Economy in New England

• Subsistence farming
• Lumber, fur, naval stores, fish, shipping
• Did not want for gold
• What was the Puritan philosophy of business?

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Native Relations in New England

• Got along at first
• Indians were pagans/wild
• Puritans leaders feared Indian life would appeal
  to some Puritans
• To prevent this
• They cut down forests
• Created farms
• Built English looking structures
• Some conversion attempts

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Native American Tensions

• N Englanders felt Indians underutilized the land.
• Land transactions were often misunderstandings
• Tensions from cutting down forests to farm,
  graze, build houses
• Led to conflict

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Pequots War

• New Englanders tried to extend territory in Conn
• The Pequots refused and the colonists declared
  war
• The colonists got Native American
• Native American concept of war v. European

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Religion in Mass Bay

• There was almost no tolerance for other religions
  and certainly not for religious dissent
• Roger Williams
• Anne Hutchinson

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Salem Witch Trials (1692)

• Salem, Mass
• Devil is trying to influence (lack of piety)
• Executed 20 people
• Cotton Mather
• Influential preacher
• Bought into hysteria
• Convinced devil was influencing people

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First Great Awakening

• Secular Puritanism
• Occurred in all colonies
• Jonathan Edwards 1730s-1740s
• Fire and brimstone
• Sinners at the Hands of an Angry God
• Works for a while, by 1750s secularization
  continues

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Puritans - Conclusion

• The City on the Hill was a failure because the
  intended audience, the Brits, paid no attention
  to them.
• To most in England, the Puritan experiment seemed
  at best strange and at worst seditious
• The Puritan irrelevance was compounded by the
  restoration of the crown in 1660.
• The Restoration discredited the short lived
  Puritan regime in Britain during the 1640s-50s.
• After this, British Puritans dwindled in numbers.