{"id":4670,"date":"2021-06-21T16:14:01","date_gmt":"2021-06-21T16:14:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory1\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=4670"},"modified":"2022-10-19T21:18:18","modified_gmt":"2022-10-19T21:18:18","slug":"the-massachusetts-bay-colony","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-ushistory1\/chapter\/the-massachusetts-bay-colony\/","title":{"raw":"The Massachusetts Bay Colony","rendered":"The Massachusetts Bay Colony"},"content":{"raw":"<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\r\n<h3>Learning Objectives<\/h3>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Analyze the impact of Puritanism on the government and social structure of the Massachusetts Bay Colony<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<section id=\"fs-idp49511456\"><\/section><section id=\"fs-idm67326400\">\r\n<div id=\"fs-idp17599472\" class=\"history americana\">\r\n\r\n<span style=\"color: #077fab; font-size: 1.15em; font-weight: 600;\">Massachusetts Bay Colony\u2014\u201cA City upon\u00a0a Hill\u201d<\/span>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/section><section id=\"fs-idm3960848\">\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"alignleft\" width=\"471\"]<img class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images-archive-read-only\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/883\/2015\/08\/23202137\/CNX_History_03_03_Seal.jpg\" alt=\"Image (a) shows the 1629 seal of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. On the seal, an Indian dressed in a leaf loincloth and holding a bow is depicted asking colonists to \u201cCome over and help us.\u201d Image (b) is a portrait of John Winthrop, who wears dark clothing, an Elizabethan ruff, and a pointed beard.\" width=\"471\" height=\"299\" \/> <strong>Figure 1<\/strong>. In the 1629 seal of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (a), an Indian is shown asking colonists to \u201cCome over and help us.\u201d This seal indicates the religious ambitions of John Winthrop (b), the colony\u2019s first governor, for his \u201cCity upon a Hill.\u201d[\/caption]\r\n<p id=\"fs-idm1343600\">A much larger group of English Puritans left England in the 1630s, establishing the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the New Haven Colony, the Connecticut Colony, and Rhode Island. Unlike the exodus of young males to the Chesapeake colonies, these migrants were families with young children and their university-trained ministers. Their aim, according to John Winthrop, the first governor of Massachusetts Bay, was to create a model of reformed Protestantism\u2014a \u201cCity upon\u00a0a Hill,\u201d a new English Israel. The idea of a \u201cCity upon\u00a0a Hill\u201d made clear the religious orientation of the New England settlement, and the charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony stated as a goal that the colony\u2019s people \u201cmay be soe religiously, peaceablie, and civilly governed, as their good Life and orderlie Conversacon, maie wynn and incite the Natives of Country, to the Knowledg and Obedience of the onlie true God and Saulor of Mankinde, and the Christian Fayth.\u201d To illustrate this, the seal of the Massachusetts Bay Company\u00a0shows a half-naked Indian who entreats more of the English to \u201ccome over and help us.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_7075\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"499\"]<a href=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5595\/2021\/06\/07160152\/Masscolony.png\"><img class=\"wp-image-7075\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5595\/2021\/06\/07160152\/Masscolony.png\" alt=\"Map of Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1630 to 1691. Shows area in and around Boston, New Hampshire, and Maine.\" width=\"499\" height=\"403\" \/><\/a> <strong>Figure 2<\/strong>. Map of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.[\/caption]\r\n<p id=\"fs-idp7864752\">Puritan New England differed in many ways from both England and the rest of Europe. Protestants emphasized literacy so that everyone could read the Bible. This attitude was in stark contrast to that of Catholics, who refused to tolerate private ownership of Bibles in the local language. The Puritans, for their part, placed a special emphasis on reading scripture, and their commitment to literacy led to the establishment of the first printing press in English America in 1636. Four years later, in 1640, they published the first book in North America, the Bay Psalm Book.<\/p>\r\nThe New England Puritans set out to build their utopia by creating communities of the godly. Groups of men, often from the same region of England, applied to the colony\u2019s General Court for land grants, which averaged 36 square miles. They generally divided part of the land for immediate use while keeping much of the rest as \u201ccommons\u201d or undivided land for future generations. The town\u2019s inhabitants collectively decided the size of each settler\u2019s home lot based on their current wealth and status. Besides oversight of property, the town restricted membership, and new arrivals needed to apply for admission. Those who gained admittance could participate in town governments that, while not democratic by modern standards, nevertheless had broad popular involvement. All male property holders could vote in town meetings and choose the selectmen, assessors, constables, and other officials from among themselves to conduct the daily affairs of government. Upon their founding, towns wrote covenants, reflecting the Puritan belief in God\u2019s covenant with His people. Towns sought to arbitrate disputes and contain strife, as did the church. Wayward or divergent individuals were persuaded and corrected before coercion.\r\n<div class=\"textbox examples\">\r\n<h3>Watch It<\/h3>\r\nThis video describes the settlement of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"\/\/plugin.3playmedia.com\/show?mf=6771097&amp;p3sdk_version=1.10.1&amp;p=20361&amp;pt=375&amp;video_id=chlGDdUQKCE&amp;video_target=tpm-plugin-zjqu4ddx-chlGDdUQKCE\" width=\"800px\" height=\"450px\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0px\" marginheight=\"0px\"><\/iframe>\r\n\r\nYou can view the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/course-building.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/WM-US+History\/MassachusettsBayColonytranscript.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">transcript for \u201cMassachusetts Bay Colony\u201d here (opens in new window)<\/a>.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<h2>Religious Freedom or Persecution?<\/h2>\r\nAlthough many people assume Puritans escaped England to establish religious freedom, they proved to be just as intolerant as the English state church. When dissenters, including Puritan minister Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson, challenged Governor Winthrop in Massachusetts Bay in the 1630s, they were banished.\r\n<h4>Roger Williams<\/h4>\r\nRoger Williams questioned the Puritans\u2019 taking of Indian land. Williams also argued for a complete separation from the Church of England, a position other Puritans in Massachusetts rejected, as well as the idea that the state could not punish individuals for their beliefs. Although he did accept that nonbelievers were destined for eternal damnation, Williams did not think the state could compel true orthodoxy. Puritan authorities found him guilty of spreading dangerous ideas and expelled him, but he went on to found Rhode Island as a colony that sheltered dissenting Puritans from their brethren in Massachusetts. In Rhode Island, Williams wrote favorably about Native peoples, contrasting their virtues with Puritan New England\u2019s intolerance.\r\n<h4>Anne Hutchinson<\/h4>\r\n<p id=\"fs-idp7856192\">Anne Hutchinson also ran afoul of Puritan authorities for her criticism of the evolving religious practices in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In particular, she held that Puritan ministers in New England taught a shallow version of Protestantism emphasizing hierarchy and actions\u2014a \u201ccovenant of works\u201d rather than a \u201ccovenant of grace.\u201d Literate Puritan women like Hutchinson presented a challenge to the male ministers\u2019 authority. Indeed, her major offense was her claim of direct religious revelation, a type of spiritual experience that negated the role of ministers. Because of Hutchinson\u2019s beliefs and her defiance of authority in the colony, especially that of Governor Winthrop, Puritan authorities tried and convicted her of holding false beliefs. In 1638, she was excommunicated and banished from the colony. She went to Rhode Island and later, in 1642, sought safety among the Dutch in New Netherland. The following year, Algonquian warriors killed Hutchinson and her family. In Massachusetts, Governor Winthrop noted her death as the righteous judgment of God against a heretic.<\/p>\r\nLike many other Europeans, the Puritans believed in the supernatural. Every event appeared to be a sign of God\u2019s mercy or judgment, and people believed that witches allied themselves with the Devil to carry out evil deeds and deliberate harm such as the sickness or death of children, the loss of cattle, and other catastrophes. Hundreds were accused of witchcraft in Puritan New England, including townspeople whose habits or appearance bothered their neighbors or who appeared threatening for any reason. Women, seen as more susceptible to the Devil because of their supposedly weaker constitutions, made up the vast majority of suspects and those who were executed. The most notorious cases occurred in Salem Village in 1692. Many of the accusers who prosecuted the suspected witches had been traumatized by the Indian wars on the frontier and by unprecedented political and cultural changes in New England. Relying on their belief in witchcraft to help make sense of their changing world, Puritan authorities executed nineteen people and caused the deaths of several others.\r\n<div class=\"textbox exercises\">\r\n<h3>Link to Learning<\/h3>\r\nVisit this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.famous-trials.com\/hutchinson\/2395-hutchinson-1637-account\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Famous Trials website<\/a> to learn more about the trial of Anne Hutchinson (1637) or the later <a href=\"https:\/\/famous-trials.com\/salem\/2078-sal-acct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Salem Witch Trials<\/a> (1692).\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/section>\r\n<h2>Surviving in New England<\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_1231\" align=\"alignright\" width=\"409\"]<a href=\"http:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/text\/wp-content\/uploads\/mass_seal.jpg\"><img class=\"wp-image-1231 \" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images-archive-read-only\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/880\/2015\/04\/23193032\/mass_seal-1000x562.jpg\" alt=\"Seal of the Massachusetts Bay Colony\" width=\"409\" height=\"230\" \/><\/a> <strong>Figure 3<\/strong>. Seal of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, featuring a fictional Indian saying, \"Come over and help us,\" highlighting some of the missionary zeal felt by the colonists.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nNot every English person who moved to New England during the seventeenth century was a Puritan, but Puritans dominated the politics, religion, and culture of New England. Even after 1700, the region\u2019s Puritan inheritance shaped many aspects of its history.\r\n\r\nWhile the Puritans did not succeed in building a godly utopia in New England, a combination of Puritan traits with several external factors created colonies wildly different from any other region settled by English people. Unlike those heading to Virginia, colonists in New England (Plymouth [1620], Massachusetts Bay [1630], Connecticut [1636], and Rhode Island [1636]) generally arrived in family groups. The majority of New England immigrants were small landholders in England, a class contemporary English called the \u201cmiddling sort.\u201d When they arrived in New England they tended to replicate their home environments, founding towns comprised of independent landholders. The New England climate and soil made large-scale plantation agriculture impractical, so the system of large landholders using masses of enslaved individuals\u00a0or indentured servants to grow labor-intensive crops never took hold.\r\n\r\nThere is no evidence that the New England Puritans would have opposed such a system were it possible; other Puritans made their fortunes on the Caribbean sugar islands, and New England merchants profited as suppliers of provisions and enslaved persons\u00a0to those colonies. By accident of geography as much as by design, then, New England society was much less stratified than any of Britain\u2019s other seventeenth-century colonies.\r\n\r\nAlthough New England colonies could boast wealthy landholding elites, the disparity of wealth in the region remained narrow compared to the Chesapeake, Carolina, or the Caribbean. Instead, seventeenth-century New England was characterized by a broadly-shared modest prosperity based on a mixed economy dependent on small farms, shops, fishing, lumber, shipbuilding, and trade with the Atlantic World.\r\n\r\nA combination of environmental factors and the Puritan social ethos produced a region of remarkable health and stability during the seventeenth century. New England immigrants avoided most of the deadly outbreaks of tropical disease that turned Chesapeake colonies into graveyards. Disease, in fact, only aided English settlement and relations to Native Americans. In contrast to other English colonists who had to contend with powerful Native American neighbors, the Puritans confronted the stunned survivors of a biological catastrophe. A lethal pandemic of smallpox during the 1610s swept away as much as 90 percent of the region\u2019s Native American population. Many survivors welcomed the English as potential allies against rival tribes who had escaped the catastrophe. The relatively healthy environment coupled with political stability and the predominance of family groups among early immigrants allowed the New England population to grow to 91,000 people by 1700 from only 21,000 immigrants. In contrast, 120,000 English went to the Chesapeake, and only 85,000 White colonists remained in 1700.\r\n<h3>A Lasting Puritan Legacy<\/h3>\r\nAlthough by many measures colonization in New England succeeded, its Puritan leaders failed in their own mission to create a utopian community that would inspire their fellows Puritans back in England. They tended to focus their disappointment on the younger generation. \u201cBut alas!\u201d Increase Mather lamented, \u201cThat so many of the younger Generation have so early corrupted their [the founders\u2019] doings!\u201d The Jeremiads, sermons lamenting the fallen state of New England due to its straying from its early virtuous path, became a staple of late seventeenth-century Puritan literature.\r\n\r\nYet the Jeremiads could not stop the effects of the prosperity that the early Puritans achieved. The population spread and grew more diverse as New England prospered. Many, if not most, New Englanders retained strong ties to their Calvinist roots into the eighteenth century, but the Puritans (who became Congregationalists) struggled against a rising tide of religious pluralism. On December 25, 1727, Judge Samuel Sewell noted in his diary that a new Anglican minister \u201ckeeps the day in his new Church at Braintrey: people flock thither.\u201d Previously forbidden holidays like Christmas were celebrated only in Church. Puritan divine Cotton Mather discovered on the Christmas of 1711, \u201ca number of young people of both sexes, belonging, many of them, to my flock, had\u2026a Frolick, a reveling Feast, and a Ball, which discovers their Corruption.\u201d\r\n\r\nDespite the lamentations of the Mathers and other Puritan leaders of their failure, they left an enduring mark on New England culture and society that endured long after the region\u2019s residents ceased to be called \u201cPuritan.\u201d\r\n<div class=\"textbox examples\">\r\n<h3>Watch It<\/h3>\r\nThis video highlights some of the earliest English colonies and their struggles living in the Americas.\r\n\r\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=o69TvQqyGdg\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"textbox tryit\">\r\n<h3>Try It<\/h3>\r\nhttps:\/\/assess.lumenlearning.com\/practice\/aa971aa7-36a9-4f0f-a9b0-1fe6ddaccbb1\r\n\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"<div class=\"textbox learning-objectives\">\n<h3>Learning Objectives<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Analyze the impact of Puritanism on the government and social structure of the Massachusetts Bay Colony<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<section id=\"fs-idp49511456\"><\/section>\n<section id=\"fs-idm67326400\">\n<div id=\"fs-idp17599472\" class=\"history americana\">\n<p><span style=\"color: #077fab; font-size: 1.15em; font-weight: 600;\">Massachusetts Bay Colony\u2014\u201cA City upon\u00a0a Hill\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"fs-idm3960848\">\n<div style=\"width: 481px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images-archive-read-only\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/883\/2015\/08\/23202137\/CNX_History_03_03_Seal.jpg\" alt=\"Image (a) shows the 1629 seal of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. On the seal, an Indian dressed in a leaf loincloth and holding a bow is depicted asking colonists to \u201cCome over and help us.\u201d Image (b) is a portrait of John Winthrop, who wears dark clothing, an Elizabethan ruff, and a pointed beard.\" width=\"471\" height=\"299\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Figure 1<\/strong>. In the 1629 seal of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (a), an Indian is shown asking colonists to \u201cCome over and help us.\u201d This seal indicates the religious ambitions of John Winthrop (b), the colony\u2019s first governor, for his \u201cCity upon a Hill.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"fs-idm1343600\">A much larger group of English Puritans left England in the 1630s, establishing the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the New Haven Colony, the Connecticut Colony, and Rhode Island. Unlike the exodus of young males to the Chesapeake colonies, these migrants were families with young children and their university-trained ministers. Their aim, according to John Winthrop, the first governor of Massachusetts Bay, was to create a model of reformed Protestantism\u2014a \u201cCity upon\u00a0a Hill,\u201d a new English Israel. The idea of a \u201cCity upon\u00a0a Hill\u201d made clear the religious orientation of the New England settlement, and the charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony stated as a goal that the colony\u2019s people \u201cmay be soe religiously, peaceablie, and civilly governed, as their good Life and orderlie Conversacon, maie wynn and incite the Natives of Country, to the Knowledg and Obedience of the onlie true God and Saulor of Mankinde, and the Christian Fayth.\u201d To illustrate this, the seal of the Massachusetts Bay Company\u00a0shows a half-naked Indian who entreats more of the English to \u201ccome over and help us.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7075\" style=\"width: 509px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5595\/2021\/06\/07160152\/Masscolony.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7075\" class=\"wp-image-7075\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5595\/2021\/06\/07160152\/Masscolony.png\" alt=\"Map of Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1630 to 1691. Shows area in and around Boston, New Hampshire, and Maine.\" width=\"499\" height=\"403\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-7075\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Figure 2<\/strong>. Map of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"fs-idp7864752\">Puritan New England differed in many ways from both England and the rest of Europe. Protestants emphasized literacy so that everyone could read the Bible. This attitude was in stark contrast to that of Catholics, who refused to tolerate private ownership of Bibles in the local language. The Puritans, for their part, placed a special emphasis on reading scripture, and their commitment to literacy led to the establishment of the first printing press in English America in 1636. Four years later, in 1640, they published the first book in North America, the Bay Psalm Book.<\/p>\n<p>The New England Puritans set out to build their utopia by creating communities of the godly. Groups of men, often from the same region of England, applied to the colony\u2019s General Court for land grants, which averaged 36 square miles. They generally divided part of the land for immediate use while keeping much of the rest as \u201ccommons\u201d or undivided land for future generations. The town\u2019s inhabitants collectively decided the size of each settler\u2019s home lot based on their current wealth and status. Besides oversight of property, the town restricted membership, and new arrivals needed to apply for admission. Those who gained admittance could participate in town governments that, while not democratic by modern standards, nevertheless had broad popular involvement. All male property holders could vote in town meetings and choose the selectmen, assessors, constables, and other officials from among themselves to conduct the daily affairs of government. Upon their founding, towns wrote covenants, reflecting the Puritan belief in God\u2019s covenant with His people. Towns sought to arbitrate disputes and contain strife, as did the church. Wayward or divergent individuals were persuaded and corrected before coercion.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox examples\">\n<h3>Watch It<\/h3>\n<p>This video describes the settlement of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/plugin.3playmedia.com\/show?mf=6771097&amp;p3sdk_version=1.10.1&amp;p=20361&amp;pt=375&amp;video_id=chlGDdUQKCE&amp;video_target=tpm-plugin-zjqu4ddx-chlGDdUQKCE\" width=\"800px\" height=\"450px\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0px\" marginheight=\"0px\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>You can view the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/course-building.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/WM-US+History\/MassachusettsBayColonytranscript.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">transcript for \u201cMassachusetts Bay Colony\u201d here (opens in new window)<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Religious Freedom or Persecution?<\/h2>\n<p>Although many people assume Puritans escaped England to establish religious freedom, they proved to be just as intolerant as the English state church. When dissenters, including Puritan minister Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson, challenged Governor Winthrop in Massachusetts Bay in the 1630s, they were banished.<\/p>\n<h4>Roger Williams<\/h4>\n<p>Roger Williams questioned the Puritans\u2019 taking of Indian land. Williams also argued for a complete separation from the Church of England, a position other Puritans in Massachusetts rejected, as well as the idea that the state could not punish individuals for their beliefs. Although he did accept that nonbelievers were destined for eternal damnation, Williams did not think the state could compel true orthodoxy. Puritan authorities found him guilty of spreading dangerous ideas and expelled him, but he went on to found Rhode Island as a colony that sheltered dissenting Puritans from their brethren in Massachusetts. In Rhode Island, Williams wrote favorably about Native peoples, contrasting their virtues with Puritan New England\u2019s intolerance.<\/p>\n<h4>Anne Hutchinson<\/h4>\n<p id=\"fs-idp7856192\">Anne Hutchinson also ran afoul of Puritan authorities for her criticism of the evolving religious practices in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In particular, she held that Puritan ministers in New England taught a shallow version of Protestantism emphasizing hierarchy and actions\u2014a \u201ccovenant of works\u201d rather than a \u201ccovenant of grace.\u201d Literate Puritan women like Hutchinson presented a challenge to the male ministers\u2019 authority. Indeed, her major offense was her claim of direct religious revelation, a type of spiritual experience that negated the role of ministers. Because of Hutchinson\u2019s beliefs and her defiance of authority in the colony, especially that of Governor Winthrop, Puritan authorities tried and convicted her of holding false beliefs. In 1638, she was excommunicated and banished from the colony. She went to Rhode Island and later, in 1642, sought safety among the Dutch in New Netherland. The following year, Algonquian warriors killed Hutchinson and her family. In Massachusetts, Governor Winthrop noted her death as the righteous judgment of God against a heretic.<\/p>\n<p>Like many other Europeans, the Puritans believed in the supernatural. Every event appeared to be a sign of God\u2019s mercy or judgment, and people believed that witches allied themselves with the Devil to carry out evil deeds and deliberate harm such as the sickness or death of children, the loss of cattle, and other catastrophes. Hundreds were accused of witchcraft in Puritan New England, including townspeople whose habits or appearance bothered their neighbors or who appeared threatening for any reason. Women, seen as more susceptible to the Devil because of their supposedly weaker constitutions, made up the vast majority of suspects and those who were executed. The most notorious cases occurred in Salem Village in 1692. Many of the accusers who prosecuted the suspected witches had been traumatized by the Indian wars on the frontier and by unprecedented political and cultural changes in New England. Relying on their belief in witchcraft to help make sense of their changing world, Puritan authorities executed nineteen people and caused the deaths of several others.<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox exercises\">\n<h3>Link to Learning<\/h3>\n<p>Visit this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.famous-trials.com\/hutchinson\/2395-hutchinson-1637-account\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Famous Trials website<\/a> to learn more about the trial of Anne Hutchinson (1637) or the later <a href=\"https:\/\/famous-trials.com\/salem\/2078-sal-acct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Salem Witch Trials<\/a> (1692).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<h2>Surviving in New England<\/h2>\n<div id=\"attachment_1231\" style=\"width: 419px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/text\/wp-content\/uploads\/mass_seal.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1231\" class=\"wp-image-1231\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images-archive-read-only\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/880\/2015\/04\/23193032\/mass_seal-1000x562.jpg\" alt=\"Seal of the Massachusetts Bay Colony\" width=\"409\" height=\"230\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-1231\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><strong>Figure 3<\/strong>. Seal of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, featuring a fictional Indian saying, &#8220;Come over and help us,&#8221; highlighting some of the missionary zeal felt by the colonists.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Not every English person who moved to New England during the seventeenth century was a Puritan, but Puritans dominated the politics, religion, and culture of New England. Even after 1700, the region\u2019s Puritan inheritance shaped many aspects of its history.<\/p>\n<p>While the Puritans did not succeed in building a godly utopia in New England, a combination of Puritan traits with several external factors created colonies wildly different from any other region settled by English people. Unlike those heading to Virginia, colonists in New England (Plymouth [1620], Massachusetts Bay [1630], Connecticut [1636], and Rhode Island [1636]) generally arrived in family groups. The majority of New England immigrants were small landholders in England, a class contemporary English called the \u201cmiddling sort.\u201d When they arrived in New England they tended to replicate their home environments, founding towns comprised of independent landholders. The New England climate and soil made large-scale plantation agriculture impractical, so the system of large landholders using masses of enslaved individuals\u00a0or indentured servants to grow labor-intensive crops never took hold.<\/p>\n<p>There is no evidence that the New England Puritans would have opposed such a system were it possible; other Puritans made their fortunes on the Caribbean sugar islands, and New England merchants profited as suppliers of provisions and enslaved persons\u00a0to those colonies. By accident of geography as much as by design, then, New England society was much less stratified than any of Britain\u2019s other seventeenth-century colonies.<\/p>\n<p>Although New England colonies could boast wealthy landholding elites, the disparity of wealth in the region remained narrow compared to the Chesapeake, Carolina, or the Caribbean. Instead, seventeenth-century New England was characterized by a broadly-shared modest prosperity based on a mixed economy dependent on small farms, shops, fishing, lumber, shipbuilding, and trade with the Atlantic World.<\/p>\n<p>A combination of environmental factors and the Puritan social ethos produced a region of remarkable health and stability during the seventeenth century. New England immigrants avoided most of the deadly outbreaks of tropical disease that turned Chesapeake colonies into graveyards. Disease, in fact, only aided English settlement and relations to Native Americans. In contrast to other English colonists who had to contend with powerful Native American neighbors, the Puritans confronted the stunned survivors of a biological catastrophe. A lethal pandemic of smallpox during the 1610s swept away as much as 90 percent of the region\u2019s Native American population. Many survivors welcomed the English as potential allies against rival tribes who had escaped the catastrophe. The relatively healthy environment coupled with political stability and the predominance of family groups among early immigrants allowed the New England population to grow to 91,000 people by 1700 from only 21,000 immigrants. In contrast, 120,000 English went to the Chesapeake, and only 85,000 White colonists remained in 1700.<\/p>\n<h3>A Lasting Puritan Legacy<\/h3>\n<p>Although by many measures colonization in New England succeeded, its Puritan leaders failed in their own mission to create a utopian community that would inspire their fellows Puritans back in England. They tended to focus their disappointment on the younger generation. \u201cBut alas!\u201d Increase Mather lamented, \u201cThat so many of the younger Generation have so early corrupted their [the founders\u2019] doings!\u201d The Jeremiads, sermons lamenting the fallen state of New England due to its straying from its early virtuous path, became a staple of late seventeenth-century Puritan literature.<\/p>\n<p>Yet the Jeremiads could not stop the effects of the prosperity that the early Puritans achieved. The population spread and grew more diverse as New England prospered. Many, if not most, New Englanders retained strong ties to their Calvinist roots into the eighteenth century, but the Puritans (who became Congregationalists) struggled against a rising tide of religious pluralism. On December 25, 1727, Judge Samuel Sewell noted in his diary that a new Anglican minister \u201ckeeps the day in his new Church at Braintrey: people flock thither.\u201d Previously forbidden holidays like Christmas were celebrated only in Church. Puritan divine Cotton Mather discovered on the Christmas of 1711, \u201ca number of young people of both sexes, belonging, many of them, to my flock, had\u2026a Frolick, a reveling Feast, and a Ball, which discovers their Corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite the lamentations of the Mathers and other Puritan leaders of their failure, they left an enduring mark on New England culture and society that endured long after the region\u2019s residents ceased to be called \u201cPuritan.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox examples\">\n<h3>Watch It<\/h3>\n<p>This video highlights some of the earliest English colonies and their struggles living in the Americas.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"oembed-1\" title=\"When is Thanksgiving? Colonizing America: Crash Course US History #2\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/o69TvQqyGdg?feature=oembed&#38;rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"textbox tryit\">\n<h3>Try It<\/h3>\n<p>\t<iframe id=\"assessment_practice_aa971aa7-36a9-4f0f-a9b0-1fe6ddaccbb1\" class=\"resizable\" src=\"https:\/\/assess.lumenlearning.com\/practice\/aa971aa7-36a9-4f0f-a9b0-1fe6ddaccbb1?iframe_resize_id=assessment_practice_id_aa971aa7-36a9-4f0f-a9b0-1fe6ddaccbb1\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none;width:100%;height:100%;min-height:300px;\"><br \/>\n\t<\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t <section class=\"citations-section\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t <h3>Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t <div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <div id=\"citation-list-4670\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div class=\"licensing\"><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Shared previously<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>New England. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: The American Yawp. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/text\/02-colliding-cultures\/#VI_New_England\">http:\/\/www.americanyawp.com\/text\/02-colliding-cultures\/#VI_New_England<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><li>English Settlements in America. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: OpenStax. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/openstax.org\/books\/us-history\/pages\/3-3-english-settlements-in-america\">https:\/\/openstax.org\/books\/us-history\/pages\/3-3-english-settlements-in-america<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">CC BY: Attribution<\/a><\/em>. <strong>License Terms<\/strong>: Access for free at https:\/\/openstax.org\/books\/us-history\/pages\/1-introduction<\/li><li>Massachusetts Bay Colony Map. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Kmusser. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Wikipedia. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/File:Masscolony.png\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/File:Masscolony.png<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">All rights reserved content<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Colonizing America. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: CrashCourse. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=o69TvQqyGdg&#038;list=PL8dPuuaLjXtMwmepBjTSG593eG7ObzO7s&#038;index=3\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=o69TvQqyGdg&#038;list=PL8dPuuaLjXtMwmepBjTSG593eG7ObzO7s&#038;index=3<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em>Other<\/em>. <strong>License Terms<\/strong>: Standard YouTube License<\/li><li>Massachusetts Bay Colony. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: NBC News Learn. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=chlGDdUQKCE\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=chlGDdUQKCE<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t <\/section>","protected":false},"author":29,"menu_order":11,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"New 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Colony\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"NBC News Learn\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=chlGDdUQKCE\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by-sa\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"Massachusetts Bay Colony Map\",\"author\":\"Kmusser\",\"organization\":\"Wikipedia\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/File:Masscolony.png\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by-sa\",\"license_terms\":\"\"}]","CANDELA_OUTCOMES_GUID":" 6969117e-2a1e-4cec-912f-81734d7db912, 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