Massachusetts Bay Colony

1. Massachusetts Bay Colony In 1628, in search of more capital to generate more settlement, the sponsors of several New England villages formed a joint-stock company, the Massachusetts Bay Company. They petitioned the king for a charter to land between the Charles River and the Merrimac River. The company’s primary goal was profit and economic opportunity, but as conditions for Puritans in England deteriorated a second motivation for the colony arose: freedom to practice their religion. In March 1630, led by Governor Winthrop, 400 Puritans left for the New World to establish the Massachusetts Bay Colony. While aboard the Arbella, Winthrop set out his plan for the colony in a sermon, titled “A Model of Christian Charity” based on the line from the Gospel of Matthew 5:14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid.” During the 1630s, some 80,000 people left England for the New World. It was known as the Great Migration. Of those, about 20,000 came to Massachusetts Bay.

2. “A Model of Christian Charity” Now the only way to avoid this shipwreck and to provide for our posterity is to follow the counsel of Micah, to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God, for this end, 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, so that we shall see much more of his wisdom, power, goodness, and truth than formerly we have been acquainted with, we shall find that the God of Israel is among us, when ten of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies, when he shall make us a praise and glory, that men shall say of succeeding plantations: the lord make it like that of New England. For we must consider that we 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 God’s sake; we shall shame the faces of many of gods worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into curses upon us until we be consumed out of the good land whether we are going: And to shut up this discourse with that exhortation of Moses that faithful servant of the Lord in his last farewell to Israel (Deut. 30).Beloved there is now set before us life, and good, death and evil in that we are commanded this day to love the Lord our God, and to love one another to walk in his ways and to keep his commandments and his ordinance, and his laws, and the articles of our covenant with him that we may live and be multiplied, and that the Lord our God may bless us in the land whether we go to possess it: But if our hearts shall turn away so that we will not obey, but shall be seduced and worship other Gods, our pleasures, and profits, and serve them, it is propounded unto us this day, we shall surely perish out of the good land whether we pass over this vast sea to possess it; . . . Therefore let us choose life, that we, and our seed, may live; by obeying his voice, and cleaving to him, for he is our life, and our prosperity. 1. What does Winthrop mean by the term “City upon a Hill”? 2. According to Winthrop, how can this city be achieved and what will prove its achievement? 3. Does the Massachusetts Bay Colony live up to the Puritans’ expectations of such a city? 4. Explain: “abridge ourselves of our superfluities,” “succeeding plantations,” “covenant”.

3. “I durst not officiate to an unseparated people. [Unless they] make a public declaration of their repentance for having communion with the churches of England.” Roger Williams Though Winthrop was a devout Puritan, and was interested in maintaining power, he was not “puritanical” in his governance. He realized that the real threat to the colony was from religious zeal, not from internal social wickedness. Thus, he was rather a lenient ruler; and it was his leniency, not his chicanery, which forced him out of office. One of Winthrop’s chief detractors was Roger Williams. Williams was an ardent Separatist, but he came from England to Boston, not Plymouth. He would likely not have been happy anywhere, but he was especially unhappy in Boston. He believed that the Puritans’ earlier unwillingness to leave the Church of England contaminated him and would have nothing to do with them. So Williams made his way up to Salem to try out their congregation, but he found them just as unsatisfactory. Then he moved on to Plymouth to see if the Separatists themselves would meet his criteria. They did not.

4. At its heart, Williams’ problem with the colonies was that he believed that there should be complete separation of church and state and that no one could be coerced into belief. He held that the “perfect church” could have no contact with the unregenerate. This eventually led him to believe that no true church was even possible on Earth. Williams began to agitate against the government; he claimed that magistrates had no authority in religious matters. As his criticisms became less restrained and more dangerous to the stability of the colony, Williams was brought before the court to renounce his opinions. He refused, and talk began about deporting him to England. Before that happened, Governor Winthrop allowed him to escape Massachusetts. In 1636, he established a settlement on Narragansett Bay. He called it the Providence Plantation, and it was the first permanent settlement in Rhode Island. • At Providence, Williams fulfilled his goals: • he bought the land from the Indians, something he had always criticized the settlers of Massachusetts Bay for not doing; • he permitted believers of any Faith and non-believers, as well, to live there; • government service required no religious test—there was complete separation of church and state.

5. Connecticut Connecticut’sorigins were more mundane.It grew out of western extensions of the Massachusetts Bay Colony along the Connecticut River. In 1636, Thomas Hooker led three congregations to the region where they founded the towns of Wethersfield and Hartford. John Winthrop, Jr. led a group that planted itself at Saybrook. The settlements were originally governed from the Massachusetts General Court, but as they grew they chose to avoid the arduous travel to Boston and established their own legislature. In 1637, the settlements created Connecticut. In 1639, they wrote the “Fundamental Orders of Connecticut.” Although similar to the Massachusetts Bay charter, in Connecticut a man did not have to be a church member to participate in government. Thus the “Orders” represent a democratizing of colonial government.

6. New Hampshire was created by a royal charter in 1622. One of the main settlements, Exeter, was founded in 1638 by the Rev. John Wheelwright. Wheelwright was a supporter of Anne Hutchinson. In 1637, the 46 year-old midwife, pregnant with her 16th child, got into trouble in the Massachusetts Bay Colony by preaching the “covenant of grace.” That meant that one was freed from moral law by one’s faith and by God’s grace. She also contended that individuals could be in direct contact with God and receive His direct inspiration. This was heresy. Puritans argued that being among God’s elect proved that you had to show your election through works; and that it was a sin of pride to believe that God would have direct contact with any human. Hutchinson was forced out of Newtown (later Cambridge) in 1638. She sought refuge in the Narragansett country (new Providence). She found her way to Long Island to live among the Dutch. In 1643, she was killed in an Indian attack.

7. from the Trial of Anne Hutchinson, 1637 Hutchinson “If you please to give me leave I shall give you the ground of what I know to be true. Being much troubled to see the falseness of the constitution of the Church of England, I had like to have turned Separatist. Whereupon I kept a day of solemn humiliation and pondering of the thing; this scripture was brought unto me—he that denies Jesus Christ to be come in the flesh in antichrist. . . . He that denies the testament denies the testator, and in this did open me and give me to see that those which did not teach the new covenant had the spirit of antichrist, and upon this he did discover the ministry unto me, and ever since, I bless the Lord, he hath let me see which was the clear ministry and which was wrong. . . . Now if you do condemn me for speaking what in my conscience I know to be truth I must commit myself unto the Lord.” Mr. Nowel: “How do you know that was the spirit?” Hutchinson: “How did Abraham know . . .?” Dep. Gov. Thomas Dudley: “By an immediate voice.” Hutchinson: “So to me by an immediate revelation.” Hutchinson: “By the voice of his own spirit to my soul. I will give you another scripture, Jeremiah 46:27-28 – out of which the Lord showed me what he would do for me and the rest of his servants. . . . You [the Court] have power over my body but the Lord Jesus hath power over my body and soul; and assure yourselves this much as in you lies to put the Lord Jesus Christ from you, and if you go in this course you begin, you will bring a curse upon you and your posterity, and the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” Gov. John Winthrop: “I am persuaded that the revelation she brings forth is delusion. The court hath already declared them selves satisfied . . . Concerning the troublesomeness of her spirit and the danger of her course amongst us. . . . Mrs. Hutchinson, the sentence of the court you hear is that you are banished from out of our jurisdiction as being a woman not fit for our society, and are to be imprisoned till the court shall send you away.” Q1. What sense do you get of Anne Hutchinson from this transcript excerpt? Why do you think Hutchinson was considered “dangerous” by the Court?

8. Hutchinson has become a symbol as a victim of the religious intolerance of the Puritans. But her life is more complicated than that. She did not fit in anywhere and more likely was a victim of a time that did not respect the opinions of women. Winthrop called her death, “a special manifestation of divine justice.”

9. New England in the 1640s Unlike in the Chesapeake, conditions in New England remained stable enough after the defeat of the Indians in the Pequot’s War (1637) that the crown left New Englanders alone. But events in the 1670s rocked colonial society and pushed England to take greater control over the entire region. An incident involving the Wampanoag erupted into the bloodiest war per population in U.S. history.

10. King Philip’s War, 1675-1676 Named after Chief Metacomet, whom the English called King Philip, the warwas triggered by specific incidents, but the war had deeper, long-term causes, as relations between the English and the Wampanoag had deteriorated as more settlers came and encroached on Indian land. Tensions began when Philip’s older brother Alexander was imprisoned in Boston where he caught a fever and died. Then an Indian who had converted to Christianity and had testified against Alexander was murdered. When the English settlers executed 3 Wampanoag tribesmen for the murder, Metacomet retaliated by destroying the town of Swansea, killing 8. Colonial volunteers formed a brigade to avenge the town. Philip held the upper hand throughout the spring of 1675 until the third day of a siege at Brookfield when colonials killed eighty Indians.

11. For more than a year, the war raged throughout New England, colonials answering every Indian assault with an equally vicious attack. In a fierce battle near South Kingston, Rhode Island, the colonials destroyed the Indian settlement and killed more than seven hundred, wounding and leaving for dead another three hundred or so. By late summer 1676, the Wampanoag had had enough. Philip escaped capture and ran away but was found out and killed in a final showdown. After his death, colonials forced the remaining Indians into submission, taking their land. By the time it ended, thirteen colonial towns had been destroyed and at least six hundred settlers had been killed and nearly two thousand wounded.The defeated Indians fared far worse, losing more than one thousand to death and many of the remaining were captured and sold into slavery in the West Indies.

12. New Netherland In 1609, the Dutch East India Company hired Henry Hudson to find the “Northwest Passage.” Hudson sailed the coast of North America and located the river that now bears his name. He sailed as far up-river as he could but was stopped by rapids at what is now Albany, New York. Not able to go farther, he met with the local Mohican Indians and negotiated a contract for the Mohicans to provide furs to the Dutch. They sealed the deal with a few kegs of brandy.

13. In 1614, the Dutch established trading posts at Fort Orange (near modern day Albany, NY) and at the mouth of the river. Ten years later, the Dutch West India Co. began a settlement at what is now Governor’s Island. In 1626, Peter Minuit bought Manhattan Island from the Indians and moved the settlement there, calling it New Amsterdam. The colony spread west to the Delaware, east to the Connecticut River, and north to the Mohawk River but remained thinly populated because its focus was on furs.

14. To encourage settlement, the company established the patroon system, modeled after the European manorial and the French seigneurial systems. A stockholder governed a patroonship, a large estate on the river, if he peopled it with 50 adults within four years, and established herds, barns, mills, and any other necessities for farming. The tenants would treat him as “lord of the manor,” paying him rent, using his mill, and submitting to his authority. The patroon system did little to entice settlers because too much open land was available and few Dutchmen wanted to volunteer for serfdom.

15. The Restoration of the monarchy in England, in 1660, in the person of Charles II, led to the official recognition of Rhode Island and Connecticut. It also led to new expansion into the new world. The Dutch expanded their territories while the British were engaged in Civil War. The British Crown fretted over the Dutch presence dividing the English colonies and Dutch control of the best routes into the interior of North America (the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers). Charles II decided to push the Dutch out. In 1664, English warships reached New Amsterdam. Dutch Governor Peter Stuyvesant vowed to fight. But without the weapons or the will to withstand the English, the Dutch surrendered without a shot being fired. Charles II granted the lands to his brother James, the Duke of York, and the colony became New York. Some of the Dutch returned to Holland, but most of them stayed.

16. Taking New Netherland gave England control of lands between the Hudson River and Delaware Bay. The Duke of York gave control of these lands to friends John Berkeley and George Carteret. The land became known as New Jersey. The colony was an important outlet for surplus population in New England and New York. Because New Jersey had a policy of religious toleration many settlers were members of the Society of Friends, the Quakers. The Friends believe that an “inner light” burns in all people and so all people have dignity and value. When the light burned bright within them, they might shake a bit under its force. Critics called them Quakers. The Friends are pacifists, insisting that war is never the answer, and oppose slavery in any form.

17. A leading Quakerin West Jersey was William Penn. Penn converted to Quakerism and in the middle 1670s became interested in America. He hoped to establish a “Godly experiment” in the New World. He petitioned for a charter. Penn’s father had loaned the king £16000; so in 1681 Charles II granted Penn a proprietorship. As proprietor, Penn could name the governor and establish a government. The colony was named Pennsylvania, meaning “Penn’s woods.” Penn also took control of Delaware. In 1683, Penn founded Philadelphia —”the city of brotherly love.” By 1700, Pennsylvania’s population topped 21,000.

18. “Understand that it is easy to part with or give away great privileges, but hard to [regain them] if once lost.” William Penn Motives of Quaker migration were economic, moral, and political, but religious freedom predominated. In the 1680s, persecution against Quakers intensified. Charles II dissolved Parliament and began to rule without constitutional restraint. Penn actively recruited settlers from throughout Britain and Europe, leading to a great diversity of population. English and Welsh Quakers made the journey, as did members of German dissenting religions such as Mennonite, Amish, Moravian; and Lutheran Rhenish Germans. Later, Scots-Irish immigrants joined the English, Welsh, German, Dutch, Swedish, and Finnish settlers.A majority of the settlers were tradesmen; dominant among the remainder were merchants. Penn’s Prospectus for Merchants, 1683 Your Provincial Settlements both within and without the Town, for Situation and Soil, are without Exception: Your City-Lot is an whole Street, and one side of a Street, from River to River, containing near one hundred Acers, not easily valued; which is besides your four hundred Acers in the City Liberties, part of your twenty thousand Acers in the Countery. Your Tannery hath such plenty of Bark, the Saw-Mill for Timber, the City-Lot for a Dock, [all] to help your People, that by God’s blessing the Affairs of the Society will naturally grow in their Reputation and Profit. I am sure I have not turned my back upon any Offer that tended to its Prosperity: and though I am ill at projects, I have sometimes put in for a Share . . . advance her interest, [particularly in] whatsoever tends to the Promotion of Wine, and to the Manufacture of Linnen in these parts. . . . I shall add no more, but to assure you, that I am heartily inclined to advance your just Interest, and that you will always find me . . . Your Kind Cordial Friend. William Penn

19. The last colonies settled in the 17th century were the Carolinas. A proprietorship for south of Virginia was arranged in 1629 when Charles I gave Attorney General Robert Heath the tract. Heath called it “Carolina”--a Latin form of Charles--but he did not organize it. Some settlers ventured to around Charleston, but by the Restoration, the land was under royal control.

20. South Carolina In 1663, to stop Spanish encroachment north, Charles II gave Carolina to wealthy leaders in other colonies. Many of the proprietors held land in the islands of the Barbados.Led by John Colleton, they formed the Corporation of Barbados Adventurers. They hoped to use Carolina as an outlet for the growing Barbadian population and to provide the Barbados with food. The Barbadian Adventurers distributed land along a headright system to recruit settlers. Immigrants were given 100 acres of land to settle. Persons too poor to pay their own way could come as indentured servants. The wealthier slaveholders who emigrated from the Barbados received an extra headright for each slave they brought—20 acres for a male and 10 acres for a female slave. The “first fleet” of settlers landed in 1670. About 30 percent of the population was black—either Creole or African. Charleston became the most important southern port in the colonies, having the best harbor on the Atlantic coast south of Chesapeake Bay.

21. “Carolina looks more like a [N]egro country than like a country settled by white people.” Samuel Dyssli South Carolina’s economy was based on rice production. Slaves from West Africa knew how to grow rice; they were also cattle herders. South Carolina was beef producer for the colonies. With a prospering economy based on slavery, the population of South Carolina swelled.Africans could withstand the diseases of the semi-tropical climate. The cycle cell made them less susceptible to malaria. By 1720, blacks became a majority in the colony. It was the only colony ever to have a black majority. Stono Rebellion, (1739)

22. North Carolina The northern region of Carolina was slow to develop. The first settlers were French Huguenots seeking refuge from Roman Catholic persecution in the 1560s. That colony was wiped out by successive attacks by Indians and the Spanish.Sir Walter Raleigh’s failed Roanoke adventure followed in the 1580s. St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, 1572

23. Under Lord Albemarle, the region began to be settled in the 1660s. The first settlers were Virginians looking for opportunity. After 1685, it was a refuge for Huguenots and Swiss and German Protestants. It grew very slowly because of its isolation and inadequate harbors. Bath, the colony’s first town, was not founded until 1704. North Carolina did offer economic opportunity once settlement started in earnest and by the Revolution its population topped 110,000. Its staple crop was tobacco, but the colony became equally important as a supplier of stores to the Royal Navy (naval stores): timber, tar, turpentine, and hemp.

24. Georgia The last colony was Georgia. James Oglethorpe received a charter to found a colony south of the Carolinas on land bought from the Creek Indians. King George II wanted a buffer with Spanish Florida. Oglethorpe wanted Georgia to be a “second chance” for debtors. He transported mulberry bushes to the colony, hoping to create a silk industry. And he banned slavery. Settlers founded Savannah in 1733. The colony remained small, disorganized, and unprofitable until after the Revolution. The penal colony failed. The silk industry failed. And settlers turned to slavery to grow rice. Georgia became a royal colony in 1755.