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The Protestant Reformation
Produces Puritanism
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Martin Luther declared that the Bible alone was the source of God’s Word, not the
Catholic church
John Calvin took this a step further and said people were predestined to be saved or to
burn in hell.
Calvinism was the basis for Puritanism.
Calvinism was based on predestination. People who were Calvinist did not know
whether they were going to be saved. However, they were encouraged to display “holy
behavior” and search for their “signs of conversion” which would tell a person about his
or her destination at the end of life.
Calvinism began to take shape in England after Henry VIII severed ties with the Roman
Catholic Church.
However, Puritans were not satisfied with the slow progress of the English Protestant
Reformation.
Puritans thought visible saints were the only ones that could have church membership.
The Church of England wanted to include the “saints” and the “damned” people. A small
group of Puritans called the Separatists decided to break away and settle in New England.
King James I thought that if people challenged his spiritual leadership, they would also
challenge his political leadership. Therefore, he wanted to oust the separatists.
The Pilgrims End Their Pilgrimage
at Plymouth
 Separatists that fled to Holland in 1608 were wanted to live and die as an English person,
not a Dutch person. Therefore they left for the New World, though there were stories of
cannibals.
 Original destination was Jamestown but the “Mayflower” was blown off course and made
landfall at a rocky coast of New England in 1620 with 102 people. One died on board, one
was born on board.
 Captain Myles Standish (Captain Shrimp) was considered an important Indian
negotiator and fighter.
 Pilgrims did not land on Plymouth Rock, instead they explored the area and chose
Plymouth Bay. They did not have a legal right to form a government and they did not
have legal right to the land as it was outside the jurisdiction of the Virginia Company.
 Mayflower Compact was written and it was basically a precedent for written
constitutions. However, it was just a simple written agreement of setting up a
government and to submit to the regulations. Forty-one adult males signed this
document.
 The first winter was deadly with 44 people surviving out of the 102. But when the
“Mayflower” sailed back to England in the spring, no Separatist went back. In Fall of 1621,
the Pilgrims enjoyed the first Thanksgiving Day and were better off with fur, fish, and
lumber.
 William Bradford was a prominent leader but he was afraid of the non-Puritan settlers
corrupting his community.
 Eventually this colony merged with the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
The Bay Colony Bible
Commonwealth
 More moderate Puritans thought it would be okay to try to
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reform the Church of England, possibly through Parliament.
Charles I dismissed Parliament in 1629 and authorized
persecution of Puritans. Therefore the moderate Puritans that
were not separatists were able to get a royal charter to leave to
New England and form the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
In 1630, a thousand Puritans on eleven ships set sail for New
England initially. Later the colony rose to twenty thousand
members while fifty thousand others went to the West Indies for
warmer weather. Great Migration.
John Winthrop became the governor of the Bay Colony.
He wanted to make the Bay Colony a “city on a hill” where
everybody could see them as a holy society and as a model for
humankind.
New England had a diversified economy due to no single cash
crop.
Building the Bay Colony
 All freemen belonged to the church congregation.
 Unreligious men and women were not given the right to vote and women not at
all. As a result, 2/5ths of men could vote.
 Town governments involved property holders and some residents to vote also.
 Provincial government was not a democracy, Winthrop feared that people
would corrupt the government.
 Religious leaders had a big influence. John Cotton was one of them and he
defended the government’s duty to enforce God’s laws.
 The congregation could hire and fire the minister and set his salary. Clergymen
could not hold formal office for the Puritans feared that this would lead to
another corruption, just like the events in England.
 Puritans believed in a “calling to do God’s Work on Earth”. Later the “Protestant
ethic” was introduced involving a commitment to work and to engage in
worldly pursuits.
 There were some pleasures such as food, drink, singing, and monogamous love.
 However, there were some laws. New Haven had one where if a young married
couple was caught kissing in public, they would be fined twenty shillings.
 Puritans took life and hell seriously though.
Trouble in the Bible
Commonwealth
 It was not total harmony in the Bay Colony. A group called the Quakers were
persecuted and were even killed if they defied banishment.
 Anne Hutchinson went as far as saying that predestination did not require
people to be holy. She said the truly saved did not need to follow God’s or
people’s laws.
 After being arrested and questioned, she said God revealed this to her. This was
high heresy. She was banished and headed to Rhode Island on foot with her
family as she was the mother of 14 children and pregnant.
 She moved to New York and all but one of her household were killed by
Indians.
 Roger Williams was also quite the troublemaker, He wanted to make a clean
break from the Church of England, he questioned the legality of the charter,
saying it was stealing land from the Indians and he finally said the civil
government could not have a say in religious behavior. He was ill so they
allowed him to stay a bit longer. He continued his rant and the magistrates
tried to exile him to England but the plot was foiled.
The Rhode Island “Sewer”
 Friendly Indians helped Williams escape to Rhode Island.
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There in Providence, he built the first Baptist church and
also allowed freedom of religion, even Jews.
He did not want government to require taxes for a state
church or oaths or required attendance of church. He was
hospitable to the Quakers even though he did not agree
with their teachings. Rhode Island was the most liberal of
the Northern Colonies and more advanced.
Voting and freedom of opportunity was established.
People who could not handle the Mass Bay Colony moved
to “Rogues” Island which was labeled the “sewer”.
Rhode Island became a state of individuality.
New England Spreads Out
 Connecticut founded in 1635 with Dutch and English settlers. Founded
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by Rev. Thomas Hooker.1639- Fundamental Orders established by
the Connecticut River settlers and was the basis for the state charter
and constitution. 1st constitution. In America there is a faith in written
contract.
New Haven was another colony of Puritans that wanted to have a closer
government-church alliance.
New Haven was not able to get a government charter because they
protected two judges that condemned Charles I to death and Charles II
did not quite like that so he combined New Haven and Connecticut
into one colony of Connecticut.
Maine was bought for the fishing areas by Massachusetts from the
Gorges heirs.
New Hampshire also became a fishing and trading center with granite.
The crown decided to separate New Hampshire after Mass Bay greedily
Puritans Versus Indians
 Before the Pilgrims had arrived, an epidemic killed off many
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Indians. First the Wampanoag Indians befriended the settlers and
this was facilitated through Squanto. There was a treaty with the
Pilgrims signed in by the Pilgrims and Massasoit 1621 and they
together celebrated the first Thanks-giving.
Confrontations exploded in 1637 after the Connecticut River colony
pushed the Indians further back. The Pequot tribe was involved in
the conflicts. The English besieged a Pequot village on
Connecticut’s Mystic River and set fire to the wigwams with their
Narragansett allies. This led to annihilation and uneasy peace with
the Pequot Indians.
The Puritans attempted to convert the remaining Indians to
Christianity (praying-towns)
Intertribal unity was the only way to oust the English.1675-Metacom
(Massasoit’s son) aka King Philip created such an alliance leading to
assaults on New England.
A year later, the war was over with 52 Puritan towns attacked and 12
completely gone. Metacom’s wife and children were sold to slavery.
He himself was captured, beheaded and drawn/quartered.
This was a critical defeat of the Indians.
Seeds of Colonial Unity and
Independence
 1643- Four colonies banded together to form the New
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England Confederation.
Each colony received two votes in the Confederation.
Puritan club so Rhode Island and Maine were excluded.
First step to colonial unity
King first paid little attention but now that the civil war in
England was past and Charles II was restored, the king
decided to take an aggressive approach to colonial
management. He gave Connecticut and Rhode Island royal
charters and revoked Mass. Bay’s charter.
Andros Promotes the First American Revolution
 Dominion of New England formed by the crown to over take the
Confederation.
 Initially to bolster defense against Indians.
 Administration of English Navigation Laws. These laws were designed to
control the colonies, esp. on trade with countries that England did not want to
trade with.
 Led by Sir Edmund Andros with no legislature.
 Open affiliation with Church of England created disdain.
 Curbed town meetings, courts, the press, and schools, revoking land titles
 Taxed without consent of representatives
 The Glorious Revolution in England was a model for the New Englanders.
Soon a Boston mob gathered. Andros tried to flee but was caught and shipped
off to England.1691- Mass Bay made a Royal colony. All male property owners
now had the right to vote under the new charter.
 The Glorious Revolution also inspired the other colonies to strike back.
 New monarchs relaxed the grip on the colonies.
 More English officials staffed the courts too though. Many were incompetent
rulers.
 Salutary neglect is an English policy to ignore their own laws
Old Netherlanders at New
Netherland
 Religious wars against Catholic Spain went on late 16th century in the
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Netherlands and the Dutch won their independence with aid from
Protestant England.17th century was the Golden Age of Dutch. Naval
wars were fought between English and Dutch and the Dutch were able
to fend some of the fighting off.
Dutch East India Company was part of Dutch colonial power.
The Dutch sent Henry Hudson who defied his orders to go to the
northeast and instead sailed into the Delaware Bay and New York Bay
and into the Hudson River.
The weaker Dutch West India Company was in the West Indies.
Dutch bought Manhattan Island and created New Amsterdam (now
New York City).
Limited lawmaking body established
New Amsterdam had many different people with different
backgrounds.
Patroonships attempt to recreate feudal Europe in America, but fails.
Friction with English and Swedish
Neighbors
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Dutch shareholders demanded dividends.
Indians massacred Dutch
New England hostile to Dutch
Mass. vetoed a measure to fight off the Dutch.
Swedes trespassed the Dutch lands by planting New
Sweden on Delaware river.
 Golden age of Sweden during 30 years war because of
Gustavus Adolphus.
 Dutch in 1655 sent military expedition against Swedish led
by Peter Stuyvesant.
 Main fort fell and Swedish faded away.
Dutch Residues in New York
 New Netherland surrounded by New England colonies
and New England people emigrated into New
Netherland. English regarded Dutch as intruders.
 Charles II granted his brother, Duke of York, to try to
circumvent the Dutch defenses.
 Dutch fell bloodlessly and therefore New Amsterdam
was called New York from now on.
 The Dutch still left behind an autocratic spirit and an
aristocracy.
Penn’s Holy Experiment in
Pennsylvania
 Quakers formed in mid-1600s and denied support for the
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Church of England by taxes.
They spoke up in town meetings when they felt like it
PPl of deep conviction that did not serve in the military.
William Penn was attracted to Quaker ideals in 1660. His
father flogged him for doing this. Many Quakers were
persecuted in this manner.
In 1681, he managed to secure a charter and move to the
New World to Pennsylvania, the best advertised colony.
He had liberal land policy and welcomed many from all
over Europe.
Middle colonies are the breadbasket colonies
Quaker Pennsylvania and Its Neighbors
 Penn. formally launched in 1681 although “squatters” of other nationalities
were already there making it easier to form a colony. Philadelphia (”Brotherly
Love” in Greek) was a well planned city with wide streets.
 Penn bought his land from the Indians including Chief Tammany.
 Although the Quakers initially welcomed the Indians and there was peace, the
other immigrants did not and soon this led to an end of the Quaker idealism.
 The colony was liberal with freedom of religion and capital punishment was
only given for treason and murder.
 No immigration restrictions and no provision for an army.
 First active anti slavery group.
 “Blue laws” prevented some “ungodly revelers”.
 Shrewd business people.
 However, Penn was never fully appreciated and he had a tactless inexperienced
governor. He grew too close to James II, the Catholic king, and he was thrown
in prison three times for treason and died of a stroke.
 Small Quaker settlements were flourishing next door. New Jersey started in
1664. Large amounts of New Englanders went to this colony.
 Proprietors sold West New Jersey to a group of Quakers who set up shop before
Pennsylvania. East New Jersey was acquired later by Quakers.
 Delaware was Swedish ruled named after Lord De La Warr. This area was
controlled by Pennsylvania until the Am. Revolution.
The Middle Way in the Middle
Colonies
 Mid colonies had some things in common.
 Soil fertile compared to rocky New England.
 Many rivers, prominent ones like Susquehanna, Delaware,
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and Hudson
Industry- lumbering/shipbuilding
Seaports
Intermediate sized land except in aristocratic NY.
Religious toleration and democratic gov’t.
Ben Franklin was born here.
Colonies realized they were far from Mother England, not
much of a relationship.
Ethnically and religiously diverse.