Northern Colonies

Conflict and Growth

French Activity

• Establishing presence in Canada• Engaged in fur trading• Building relationship with Native population– Samuel de Champlain

• Viewed by English as competitors

Arrival of the Pilgrims

• Separatists: desire to purify church doctrine• Emigrated to Holland initially, concerned with

assimilation• Viewed across the Atlantic a better option• Target: Virginia• Came ashore further north 1620

Cont….

• Common folk, farmers and craftsmen• Necessary to construct rules due to location:

Mayflower Compact• Benefitted from chaos back home

Pilgrim/Native Relations

• First winter devastating• Required assistance of native population• Different relationship than fellow countrymen

to the south initially– Assistance from Wampanoag

• Pleasantries soon wore off due to smallpox exposure

Massachusetts Bay Company

• Events in England encouraging migration of Puritans

• Organized effort to move more to New England region, seeking refuge

• John Winthrop elected governor• Largest single migration of its kind, 1000

people

Cont…..

• Serious, pious• Founding a holy commonwealth, form of a

theocracy• Dominance of families ensured loyalty, and

continued growth• Eventually see interests moving outward

Expansion of New England

• In search of more fertile soil• Relief from oppressive religious ideologies• Conflict of theology – Connecticut: 1635 Thomas Hooker• Expanding voting rights and access to politics

– Rhode Island: 1644 Roger Williams• Goal was to abandon all allegiance to Church of

England• Briefly the only colony allowing worship of all faiths

King Philip’s War

• 1637 sees escalation in conflict between natives and newcomers– Natives viewed as a threat to creation of a godly

community• 1675 Metacom, King Philip, leads resistance

movement• Bloodiest and most prolonged encounter of 17th

century– Advances in technology on both sides

• Alliance with rivals allows whites to prevail

Middle Colonies

• Battle for New York– Dutch had dibs, English come ashore 1644, Dutch

surrender, regain control in 1673, lost it again 1674, officially English

• Pluralistic society– Number of ethnicities– No official religious authority enforced– Politics and land in the hands of a few favored

individuals

Quakers

• Society of Friends seeking refuge• Led by George Fox and Margaret Fell• No formal church government or paid clergy• Needed an influential supporter to receive

charter– William Penn able to assist after fathers death

• Pennsylvania proved to be most successful colony in early stages

The Glorious Revolution

• James II movement to centralize control of New England and Middle colonies 1686 (except Pennsylvania)– Governed by Edmund Andros

• Great disruption and frustration for colonists and citizens of England

• Bloodless coup changes direction• William and Mary seize the throne