• Puritans wanted to “purify” the Church of England because they believed it had become too much like the Catholic Church.

– Wanted simpler church service

– Objected to the wealth and power of bishops

• Separatists (the Pilgrims) were more strict Puritans.

– Wanted to remove all traces of Catholicism from their religion

– Wanted total separation from the Church of England

• Church of England was the official church of the land.

– English subjects required to attend services and pay taxes to support the church

– Dissenters were fined and put in prison

• Led by William Bradford, 35 Separatists joined 66 others on the Mayflower in 1620.

• Their sponsor, the Virginia Company, intended they land near the Hudson River.

• They first landed in Provincetown, Massachusetts on the tip of Cape Cod and later founded Plymouth Colony south of present-day Boston

• The colony never grew very large and was absorbed by the Massachusetts Bay Colony

• The Mayflower Compact was based simultaneously upon a majoritarian model (even though the signers were not in the majority) and the settlers' allegiance to the king. – It was in essence a social contract in

which the settlers consented to follow the compact's rules and regulations for the sake of survival.

– It was signed on November 11, 1620 by 41 of the ship's more than one hundred passengers, in what is now Provincetown Harbor near Cape Cod.

• The original document was lost, but the transcriptions in Mourt's Relation and William Bradford's journal Of Plymouth Plantation are in agreement and accepted as accurate. – Bradford's hand written manuscript is

kept in a special vault at the State Library of Massachusetts.

Bradford's transcription is as follows:

In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, etc.

Having undertaken, for the Glory of God and advancement of the Christian Faith and Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the First Colony in the Northern Parts of Virginia, do by these presents solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of another, Covenant and Combine ourselves together into a Civil Body Politic, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute and frame such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunder subscribed our names at Cape Cod, the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France and Ireland the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth. Anno Domini 1620.

The 'dread sovereign' referred to in the document used the archaic definition of dread; meaning awe and reverence (for the King), not fear.

In a sermon delivered before the Arbella landed, Winthrop expressed the sense of mission that bound the Puritans together, which is excerpted on the next 2 slides.

“We must be knit together in this work as one man, we must entertain each other in brotherly Affection, we must be willing to abridge ourselves of our superfluities, for the supply of others necessities, we must uphold a familiar Commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience and liberality, we must delight in each other, make others Conditions our own rejoice together, mourn together, labor, and suffer together, always having before our eyes our Commission and Community in the work, our Community as members of the same body, so shall we keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, the Lord will be our God and delight to dwell among us, as his own people and will command a blessing upon us in all our ways…when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies…

…for we [in New England] must Consider that wee shall be as a City upon a Hill, the eyes of all people are upon us; so that if we shall deal falsely with our god in this work we have undertaken and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword through the world, we shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of god and all professors for Gods sake; we shall shame the faces of many of gods worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into Curses upon us till wee be consumed out of the good land whether we are going…

Excerpt continued…

• Considered the Bible as the true law of God that provided guidelines for church government.

• Called for a less priestly church that emphasized preaching.

• Believed that all Christian churches should be organized through councils called presbyteries or church courts rather than under bishops, as in the Church of England. – Some Puritans believed that each

congregation was a complete church in itself and should have total control of its own affairs.

• Emphasized Bible reading, prayer, and preaching in worship services.

• They simplified the ritual of the sacraments.

• They also wanted more personal and fewer prescribed prayers.

• They stressed grace, devotion, prayer, and self-examination to achieve religious virtue.

• Believed in the Calvinist belief of predestination, which said that God chose those who would achieve salvation before birth and were the “Elect,” or the chosen ones.

• As the system of self-government evolved, so did the close relationship between Church and State.

• Civic members believes that they were God’s “Elect,” or chosen, and it was their duty to carry out God’s will.

• Allowed all adult males who belonged to the Puritan church to vote.– They chose members of the General

Court, who in turn voted for the governor.

• Puritan laws criminalized such sins as drunkenness, swearing, and idleness.– Punishments included banishment,

infliction of pain on the sinner, or put in the stocks or the pillory.

• Dissenting from Puritan law was prohibited and strictly punished.

• He was a Puritan minister, and colonial leader who founded the Colony of Connecticut after dissenting with Puritan leaders in Massachusetts. His congregation settled in the Connecticut River Valley. – He was known as a great speaker and a leader of universal

Christian suffrage (voting rights).• He was one of the writers of the colony’s written constitution,

the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut.

• The Fundamental Orders of Connecticut has the features of a written constitution, and is considered by some as the first written Constitution in the Western tradition,

and thus earned Connecticut its nickname of The Constitution State.• It extended voting rights to all free

men, not just church members and it opened up more men to be able to run for office positions.

• He was an English theologian and Separatist minister who believed in religious tolerance, the separation of church & state (government), and an advocate for fair dealings with Native Americans.

• In 1634, he was exiled by law from Salem after being brought before the Salem Court for spreading "diverse, new, and dangerous opinions" that questioned the Church and threatened it’s authority.

• He bought land from the Narragansett Indians to establish Providence, now Rhode Island.

• In 1644, he received a charter creating the colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, named for the principal island in Narragansett Bay and the Providence settlement which provided a refuge for religious minorities.

• He is credited for originating either the 1st or 2nd Baptist church established in America, which he is known to have left soon afterwards, exclaiming, "God is too large to be housed under one roof."

• She married William Hutchinson, a merchant, in 1612, and in 1634 they migrated to Massachusetts.– Anne Hutchinson soon organized weekly meetings of Boston

women to discuss recent sermons and to give expression to her own theological views.

• Before long her sessions attracted ministers and magistrates as well. – She stressed the individual's intuition as a means of reaching

God and salvation, rather than the observance of institutionalized beliefs and the precepts of ministers.

• Her opponents accused her of antinomianism—the view that God's grace has freed the Christian from the need to observe established moral precepts.

• She believed that people did not need a minister’s teachings to be spiritual. • She was imprisoned, tried, and banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.• Surprisingly, Anne Hutchinson still had followers, and some even decided to join

her and her family on their exile to a small settlement on the island of Aquidneck in Rhode Island. 

• A few years later, following the death of her husband, Anne, her servants and 5 of her children moved to New Netherland and were massacred by Mahican Indians (who were fighting with the Dutch) in September of 1643 in East Chester New York.

• He stoutly defended his sister-in-law, Anne Hutchinson, and Governor Henry Vane, who all stood for freedom of speech and opinion, but there was a great deal of political partisanship mixed with these theological disputes.

• The controversy between Wheelwright and the conservatives was the principal issue in John Winthrop’s candidacy for governor of the colony against Vane. • Winthrop was elected, and Vane returned to England,

while Wheelwright was banished from Massachusetts along with Anne Hutchinson and other friends for their dissent and insubordination.

• After he left Massachusetts, he settled in northern Massachusetts. He returned to England where he sought permission to start a settlement in present-day New Hampshire. • In 1679 it became a royal colony, under direct

control of the king.

• By late 1700s most colonies were royal colonies. In town meetings church members and land owners voted on town matters.

• Massachusetts General Court passed education laws.

• Girls learned reading, writing, and some arithmetic.

• Boys had more education opportunities.

• By the 1700s Harvard and Yale colleges were available to them.

• Colonists became less dependent on the Indians for survival. The Native Americans now had guns.

• Some Puritans felt it was their duty to drive the Native Americans out or kill them.• Land conflicts were behind the Pequot War and King Philip’s War. Both wars

nearly wiped out the Native Americans involved.

In the 17th century the Pequot tribe, rival of the Narragansett, was centered along the Thames River in present-day southeast Connecticut. As the colonists expanded westward, friction began to develop.

Points of tension included unfair trading, the sale of alcohol, destruction of Pequot crops by colonial cattle and competition over hunting grounds.

Disputes between the Puritans and Native Americans over land arose.

For every acre a colonial farmer needed to support himself and his family, a Native American needed 20 for hunting, fishing, and agriculture.Native Americans believed that no one owned the land—it was given to them by the great spirits for everyone to use.

Native Americans signed land treaties with the English in which they received gifts, such as blankets, guns, iron tools, or ornaments in return for agreeing to share the land for a limited time.

Europeans on the other hand, saw the treaties as a one-time deal in which Native Americans sold their land to new owners.

Further poisoning the relationship was the disdain in which the Indians were held by the colonists; many felt no qualms about dispossessing or killing those whom they regarded as ungodly savages.

While the Pequot’s had been planning to attack the English for years, the first major conflict arose in Connecticut in 1637, when the Pequot nation decided to take a stand against the colonists.

In July 1636, John Oldham, a trader of questionable honesty, was killed by the Pequot. The incident led Governor John Endicott to call up the militia. What followed was the first significant clash between English colonists and North American Natives. Allying themselves with the Mohegan and Narragansett, the colonists attacked a Pequot village on the Mystic River (near present-day New London) in May 1637.

Encircling their foes under the cover of night, the colonists set the Indian dwellings ablaze, then shot the natives as they fled from their homes.

From 400 to 700 Indian men, women and children were killed; many of the survivors were sold into slavery in Bermuda.

The Pequot chieftain Sassacus (Top Right) was captured by the Mohawks and executed.

His tribe was virtually exterminated.

Renowned warrior Uncas (Right), son in law of Sassacus, allied his forces with the English colonists in the war and defeated the rival Narragansett in 1643.

The colonists and their allies set an unfortunate precedent in the Pequot War by ignoring the conventions of European warfare to punitively devastate the homes and lives of men, women and children.This was the first instance wherein Algonquian peoples of what is now southern New England encountered European-style warfare.

The idea and reality of total war was essentially new to them. After the Pequot War, the uneasily allied colonies represented such a power that no Native alliance could stand against them for a generation.

In 1675, a fairly long period of peace came to an end with King Philip's War.English observations of the land surrounding the Great Swamp Fight was a factor in their settlement of the town of Fairfield in 1639.

King Philip's War, sometimes known as Metacom's War or Metacom's Rebellion, lasted 14 months, from June 1675 through August 1676.

In 1600, southern New England was home to approximately 90,000 Indians. Approximately 12,000 were Pokanokets, a tribe living at the head of Narragansett

Massasoit, sachem (leader) of the Pokanokets, was succeeded by two of his sons: Wamsutta, who changed his name to Alexander, and Metacom, whose English name was Philip (below).

13 years after becoming sachem, Philip initiated a region-wide attack by several tribes on English settlements in southern New England and coastal Maine.

Deprived of their land and livelihood, many Native Americans had to work for the English to earn a living.

Native Americans also had to obey the Puritan laws, such as no hunting or fishing on the Sabbath (Sunday’s).

Metacom organized a last-ditch effort to wipe out the English invaders.

Using hit-and-run tactics, Native Americans attacked and burned settlements though out New England.

For over 2 years, both sides wages a war of mutual brutality and destruction.Native American resistance came to an end due to food shortages, disease, and heavy casualties in which most gradually surrendered or fled.

Casualties included Metacom, who was shot by an Indian ally of the English.

To commemorate their victory, they displayed the head of Metacom at Plymouth for 20 years, which also served as a reminder of the fate of any Native American who tried to resist English rule.

Before the war; the overall population of southern New England was approximately 70,000

(50,000 English settlers and 20,000 Indians).

By the end of the war, 5,000 to 6,000 people were dead.

Some 800 English men, women, and children perished in King Philip's War; Plymouth Colony alone lost 8 % of its adult male population in 14 months.

Among the Indians, 2,000 died of battle wounds, 3,000 died of disease or starvation, 1,000 were sold into slavery (500 from Plymouth alone), and 2,000 fled west or north.

By the end of the war, 1/3 of New England's approximately 100 English towns had been burned and abandoned.

Thousands had perished, including approximately 500 colonial soldiers.

It took years to rebuild frontier towns.

War caused higher taxes and damaged the economy, particularly the fur trade.

All the southern New England tribes lost cultural autonomy and political and military influence

English conquest in northern New England was nearly complete.