Colonies of North America

Primary content source: The AmericansImages and Photographs as cited.

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Henry Hudson

The Middle ColoniesPower point created by Robert Martinez

Henry VIII After Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic

Church (1530s), the Church of England was formed. Although, the new church was free of Catholic control, one religious group, the Puritans, felt that the church had kept too much Catholic rituals.

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Puritans The Puritans wanted to reform or “purify”

the church by eliminating all traces of Catholicism. Some Puritans, called Separatists, wanted to separate from the English church.

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Pilgrims One group of Separatists, known today as

Pilgrims, migrated to America. In 1620, this small group of families founded the Plymouth Colony, the second permanent English colony in North America.

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Mayflower Compact The Pilgrims’ Mayflower Compact, named for

the ship on which they sailed to North America, became an important landmark in development of American democracy.

http://endtimepilgrim.org/puritans11.htm

Massachusetts Bay Colony

Other Puritans who were not Separatists turned their thoughts toward New England (the Massachusetts Bay Colony) - 1620s. They experienced religious persecution, political repression, and poor economic conditions in England.

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Mission from God The Puritans believed they had a special agreement, with God. To fulfill their part, they

were to create a moral society that would serve as an example for others to follow.

City on a Hill Puritan leader John Winthrop

expressed in a sermon, “We [in New England] shall be as a City upon a Hill;

the eyes of all people are on us.”

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The Massachusetts Bay Colony extended the right to vote to all male members of the Puritan church. As

their system of self-government evolved, so did the close relationship

between the government and the Puritan church.

Roger Williams The Puritans were intolerant of people who had

different religious beliefs. For example, Roger Williams, an extreme Separatist, declared that the English settlers had no rightful claim to the land unless they purchased it from Native Americans. Second, he argued that every person should be free to worship according to their conscience.

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The Puritans tried to deport Williams back to England. He fled and negotiated with a Native American group for a plot of land and set up a

new colony, which he called Providence (Rhode Island). Williams guaranteed religious freedom and separation of church and state.

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Anne Hutchinson• Another dissenter, Anne Hutchinson, taught

that worshippers did not need the church or its ministers to interpret the Bible for them. Banned from the colony, Hutchinson fled first to Rhode Island, and later, New Netherland (part of New York.)

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Native AmericansAs Native Americans saw their lands taken over by settlers, they feared an end to their way of life. In addition, Native Americans

resented the Puritans’ efforts to convert them and bristled under Puritan laws such as no

hunting or fishing on Sundays.

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King Philip’s War The Wampanoag chief Metacom, whom

the English called King Philip, organized his tribe and several others into an alliance

to wipe out the Puritan invaders.

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Native Americans attacked and burned outlying settlements throughout New

England. Within months they were striking the outskirts of Boston.

• The angry colonists responded by killing as many Native Americans as they could, even some from friendly tribes. The two

sides waged a war of brutality and destruction for over a year.

• Finally, food shortages, disease, and heavy casualties wore down the Native

American resistance, and they gradually surrendered or fled.

The Middle Colonies• As early as 1609, Henry Hudson, an

Englishman employed by the Dutch, had sailed up the river that now bears his name. The Dutch established a fur trade with the Iroquois and built trading posts on the Hudson River.

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New Amsterdam In 1621, the Dutch government granted the

newly formed Dutch West India Company permission to colonize New Netherland and expand the thriving fur trade. New Amsterdam (New York City) became the capital of the colony in 1625.

To encourage settlers to come and stay, the Dutch colony opened its doors to a variety of ethnic and religious groups. In 1664, the English took over the colony without a fight, naming the area after the Duke of York.

New Amsterdam – New York City

William Penn• After a costly civil war in England, King

Charles II, owed a debt to the father of a young man named William Penn. As payment, Charles gave the younger Penn a large property that the king insisted be called Pennsylvania.

Quakers• William Penn belonged to the Society of Friends,

or Quakers, a Protestant group that held services without formal ministers, allowing any person to

speak as the spirit moved him or her. They dressed plainly, opposed war, and refused to serve in the military. They were scorned and

harassed by Anglicans and puritans.

Penn wanted to establish a good and fair society in keeping with Quaker ideals of

equality, cooperation, and religious toleration. Penn guaranteed every male settler 50 acres of land and the right to vote (both a rarity).

http://americanrevolution.com/ppl_william_penn.html

Penn’s plan for government called for a representative assembly and freedom of

religion. Penn believed that the land belonged to the Native Americans, and he

saw to it that they were paid for it.

Beginning in the 16th century, the nations of Europe competed for wealth and

power through a new economic system called mercantilism, in which the

colonies played a critical role.

According to the theory of mercantilism, a nation could increase its wealth and

power in two ways: by obtaining as much gold and silver as possible, and by

establishing a favorable balance of trade, in which it sold more goods than it

bought.

The key to this process was the establishment of colonies. Colonies

provided products, raw materials, that could not be found in the mother

country.

In 1651, England’s Parliament moved to regain control of colonial trade by

passing a series of measures known as the Navigation Acts.

• These Navigation Acts enforced the following rules:

• No country could trade with the colonies unless the goods were shipped in either colonial or English ships.

• The colonies could export certain products, including tobacco and sugar, rice, molasses, and furs, only to England.

• All goods traded between the colonies and Europe first had to pass through an English port.

Colonial GovernmentIn nearly every colony, a governor appointed by the Crown served as the highest authority. The governor appointed and dismissed judges, and oversaw colonial trade.

The colonial assemblies (House of Burgesses) raised money through taxes, and passed laws. The governor could veto any law but did so at a

risk, because in most colonies, the colonial assemblies, not the Crown, paid the governor’s

salary. Using this power, the colonists influenced the governor.

The colonies were developing a taste for self-government that would

ultimately create the conditions for rebellion.