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The New England Colonies

Chapter 2, Section 3

Massachusetts

Separatists: group of Puritans that broke away from the Anglican Church

Pilgrims: separatists that fled religious persecution in England and traveled to Holland

Pilgrims and other separatist congregations decided to leave Europe and seek a religious utopia in America

In 1620, 102 Pilgrims/Separatists set sail aboard the Mayflower and landed at Plymouth Rock (Massachusetts Bay) after a 2 month voyage

Order, Survival, and Thanks

William Bradford and other leaders drafted the Mayflower Compact: first self-government plan ever put into effect in the American colonies

Plague and cold winter took the lives of many settlers and only 50 remained

Squanto (Native American) taught the Pilgrims how to set corn and the best way to fish; he also negotiated a peace between them and the local Wampanoag tribe

Thanksgiving: Pilgrim survivors and the Wampanoag joined a three day festival the following autumn (1621) to celebrate the harvest and give thanks to God for their good fortune

“A City on a Hill”

John Winthrop: Puritan that owned stock in the Massachusetts Bay Company: company of Puritan stockholders that received a royal charter to colonize in New England; first governor of the New England colony

Winthrop led 900 settlers to New England in 1630 hoping to find religious refuge

Winthrop predicted the colony would be a “city on a hill” for all the world to look up to and model their civilizations after

Great Migration: large immigration of 20,000 British settlers to New England between 1620 and 1646

Life centered around the town and social events of which church was the main focal point

New towns were granted to new church congregations

Local government decisions were decided at town meetings in which all townspeople were allowed to express their opinion

Selectmen: men chosen to manage the town’s affairs

Significance: set the stage for early democratic government and the American Revolution

New England Town Life

Church congregations dominated community life Puritans had to live close to the meetinghouse (Puritan church)

because church attendance was required Theocracy: government based on religious principles General Court: assembly of freemen (those owning shares in the MB

Company) made the laws and selected the colony’s governor Laws included:

Church attendance required Only Church members can vote No gambling No adultery No dancing No blasphemy No drunkenness

Punishment: prison, flogging, and/or public humiliation Salem Witch Trials: panic-stricken witch hunts that occurred in 1692

and 1693 resulting in the public execution of 19 people, 5 related deaths, and 200 arrests Unjust murder/persecution of the innocent because of the paranoia of

the fearful

A Puritanical Society

Religious Dissent: Roger Williams

Heretics: people whose religious beliefs differ from those accepted by the majority

Roger Williams: minister in Salem that condemned Puritans for not breaking from the Anglican Church and claimed that Plymouth rightly belonged to the Native Americans and not the King of England

Williams was banished from the colony for being a heretic

Williams bought land from local Indians and established the town of Providence: a religious haven where different beliefs were tolerated

Anne Hutchinson was a very devout and charismatic Puritan that held meetings in her home to discuss sermons

Claimed to receive revelation from God as to which ministers were saved and which were not

Banished for being a heretic Founded the town of Portsmouth Providence, Portsmouth, and other local

communities for religious dissenters united to create colony of Rhode Island

Rhode Island: blueprint for religious tolerance and the separation of church and state

Religious Dissent: Anne Hutchinson

Connecticut Founded by the Reverend Thomas Hooker in 1636 Wanted a colony that supported universal suffrage

(right to vote) not limited to the criteria of church membership

Adopted a constitution called the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut: first written constitution of the American colonies

Significance: laid the Revolutionary principle that “authority is laid in the consent of the governed”

New Hampshire and Maine Territory shared by Sir Fernando Gorges and Captain

John Mason Mason took southern territory and named it New

Hampshire, Gorges took northern territory and named it Maine

New Hampshire became a royal colony but Maine was purchased by Massachusetts from Gorges’ heirs and remained part of Mass. until 1820

Other New England Colonies

1) Why was John Winthrop concerned about the ideas of Roger Williams? (#3)

2) How did Thomas Hooker’s beliefs promote the idea of separation of church and state? (#4)

3) Use a graphic organizer to list the New England Colonies and the reasons for their founding. (#6)

Classwork/Homework:

Classwork/Homework– Pg 71 #’s 3, 4 and 6

1) Why was John Winthrop concerned about the ideas of Roger Williams? (#3)

2) How did Thomas Hooker’s beliefs promote the idea of separation of church and state? (#4)

3) Use a graphic organizer to list the New England Colonies and the reasons for their founding. (#6)