17th Century New England and Virginia

A City on a Hill• Gospel of Matthew: “You are the

light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.”

• Religious idealism to create new moral society

• Based on family unit for permanent settlement

• New England Way: religion and profit would jump together

– Congregationalism– Elders to run church– Church attendance mandatory– Tithes to support church– Required soul-baring testimony

to join the “saints” of the churchJohn Winthrop, first governor of MBC

Pequot Wars

• Late 1630s: New England settlement began to extend inland, meeting Indian resistance

• 1616-18: 90% of coastal Indians killed by disease

• Coastal Indians moved to “praying towns” to become Christian

• Puritans ruthlessly put down Pequot inland resistance, crushing it by 1637

Dissent in New England: Roger Williams

• Roger Williams, a Puritan, opposed– Connection between

Church and State

– Any government enforcement of religious practice

– Government interference with religious beliefs

• 1635: Banished from MBC; moved south to Providence– Purchased Rhode Island

land from Indians

– Practiced religious toleration

San Miguel is the oldest church in the US (1610)

Dissent in New England: Anne Hutchinson

• Attacked Puritan notion that the elect could be recognized by external signs, like good works

• Individuals must look inward to recognize salvation

• Accused clergy of not being saved

• Labeled “Antinomian” or opposed to law

• Split MBC community; appealed to women and anti-gov’t shopkeepers

• At trial, claimed to have been converted through direct revelation from God: MBC banished her

• Women’s rights in MBC decreased after Hutchinson episode

Popular 19th Century drawing of Hutchinson

The Halfway Covenant• 1662: 30 years after original

colonization

• Grandchildren of original settlers often could not enter church: parents had not entered

• Half-way Covenant allowed grandchildren to join church

• Evidence of declining belief in strict Puritan interpretation of Christianity

• Still a devoutly Christian time, but with decreasing influence of Puritanism

Salem Witchcraft Trials• Witchcraft accusations and

persecution were common in Europe during 1500 and 1600s

• 1692-3: 150 persons arrested and imprisoned; 20 executed

• Young girls fell into strange fits, complained of pains, and then accused women

• Reasons remain unclear: – victims were primarily women– Land disputes may have caused

accusations

• 1693: colony legislature outlawed use of “spectral evidence” and trials ceased, for fear of convicting an innocent person

Examination of a Witch, Matterson, 1853

Virginia: Tobacco• By 1619: tobacco prices had

skyrocketed in Europe

• 1629: prices fell by 97%, and stabilized at 10% of highest price

• Low prices led to plantations– near river for transportation– Based on cheap labor:

indentured servants and slaves– Sharply divided by rich and poor,

with tiny exploitive landed class and huge poor landless class

– Landowners who supplemented income with rent, lending for interest, and other crops

– In flat “Tidewater” area east of mountains

– Both controllers of imports and exports on riverside private docks, forestalling growth of cities

Bacon’s Rebellion• Most Virginia landowners

struggled to avoid poverty; freedmen despaired at inability to prosper

• Nathaniel Bacon: young, wealthy recent immigrant landowner

• Frontier farmers feared and resented small Indian presence to west: skirmishes led to open war

• Governor Berkeley proposed string of forts; farmers wanted to exterminate Indians

• Assembly approved land seizure and enslavement of Indians, but Berkeley ordered attacks to cease

• Bacon turned his forces against Berkeley, but Bacon died of dysentery, ending the rebellion

Virginian Slavery• Need for cheap labor created

market for slavery from 1619

• Phase 1: 1619-40 Enslaved Africans could earn freedom, but were seen as different from whites; children were not always enslaved

• Phase 2: 1640-1660 Black slavery became inherited, passing to children

• Phase 3: 1660 onward official recognition and legislation of inherited lifelong, racial slavery

• Slavery increasingly ended class animosity between whites