Lecture Notes
AP U.S. History
New England and the Middle Colonies in the 17th Century
I. Protestant Reformation and the rise of Puritanism
A. 1517, Martin Luther begins break from Catholic
church; birth of Protestantism
1. Luther declared the Bible
alone was the source of God's word
2. Faith alone would determine
salvation; he denounced authority of the pope.
3. Protestantism vs. Catholicism
came to dominate European politics well into
the next century.
B. John Calvin elaborated on Luther's ideas and
founded Calvinism in his
Institutes of the Christian
Religion (1536)
1. God was all powerful and
all-good.
2. Humans, due to original sin,
were weak and wicked.
3. Predestination
a. God
was all-knowing and knew beforehand who was going to heaven or hell.
-- The "elect" were those chosen by God to
have eternal salvation
b. "Good works" (such as following the sacraments
of the Catholic Church) did
not determine salvation.
c. However,
one could not act immoral since no one knew their status before God
d. A
conversion experience (an intense identifiable personal experience with God)
was seen to be a sign from God that one had been chosen.
-- "visible saints" --After conversion, people expected to
lead "sanctified"
lives as a model for the community.
C. Church of England and the Puritans
1. King Henry VIII broke ties
with Roman Catholic church in 1530's and became
head of the
newly formed Church of England or Anglican Church.
-- The pope had
refused to grant him a divorce; Henry remarried afterwards.
2. Puritans were Protestants seeking to reform the
Anglican Church by removing
its Catholic elements and
excluding people who were not committed.
3. Separatists:
extreme group of Puritans who wanted to break from the Anglican
Church
altogether– later called Pilgrims.
4. James I
concerned that Separatists challenged his role as leader of the Church
and
threatened to force them out of England.
D. Stuart Line of Monarchs: Backdrop to colonization of
North America
o James I (r. 1603-1625)
o Charles I (r. 1625-1642)
o 1642-1649 -- English Civil War
o Interregnum under Oliver Cromwell (1649-1658)
o Restoration: Charles II (1660-1685)
o James I (r. 1685-1688)
o "Glorious Revolution" (1688) -- William & Mary; Bill of Rights (1689)
II. The Pilgrims
A. First wave of Separatists
1. Separatists
left Britain for Holland for freedom to practice Calvinism.
a. Led by John Robinson
b. Later, became unhappy by the "Dutchification" of their children.
c. Eventually longed for opportunity to practice their religion as Englishmen
2. Secured rights with Virginia
Company to settle within its jurisdiction in Virginia
a. Pilgrims
agreed to work for 7 years in return for the support of the joint stock
company which was comprised of non-separatist investors.
b. Profits
would be shared among settlers & investors after 7 years.
3. Mayflower
landed off New England coast with102 persons.
a. Fewer
than half were Separatists
b. Some
historians suggest Pilgrims "hijacked" the ship and gained consent of
non-separatists by issuing the Mayflower Compact.
4. Plymouth Bay
chosen as settlement site
a. Plymouth
had been an Indian community that had been killed off by a great
plague just a few years earlier.
b. Plymouth
was outside jurisdiction of Virginia Company
c. Settlers
thus became squatters: no legal right to land and no recognized gov’t.
5. Mayflower Compact
(not a constitution but an agreement)
a. Purpose:
To legitimize Pilgrims’ settlement outside Virginia by creating a
secular document recognizing James I as their sovereign and creating a
body of all the settlers with power to devise laws, and elect leaders.
-- Yet Plymouth Colony never possessed a charter; it was denied by the
crown.
b. Agreement provided for majority rule among settlers
(excluding servants and
seamen)—became an important seed of democracy.
c. Adult
male settlers assembled to make laws and conduct open-discussion town
meetings.
6. Despite terrible first winter
where over ½ the people died, no one left the colony.
7. Thanksgiving -- Autumn,
1621
a. An
English-speaking Indian, Squanto, helped Pilgrims: demonstrated corn
cultivation, where to fish, and introduced them to Massasoit,
leader
of the Wampanoags.
b. An
alliance formed by Pilgrims & Wampanoags for mutual protection against
other Indian tribes.
c. By fall
of 1921, 20 acres of Indian corn provided food for survival.
d. Pilgrims
adopted Indians’ traditional custom of giving thanks at the time of
harvest, believing their survival as God's will; lasted 3 days and became an
annual event.
e. Peace lasted 41 years until Massasoit’s death in 1662.
B. Success of the Pilgrims
1. Eventually settled in
economically with fur, fish, and lumber.
2. Religion remained paramount in
the community
3. William Bradford
-- prominent leader; elected Governor 30 times
-- To
Encourage farming, Bradford distributed land among the settlers.
4. Miles Standish -- military
leader who was hired to accompany the Pilgrims.
a. Led so
many expeditions against Indians whom he distrusted that he
was scolded by John Robinson
b. Despite
Puritan attacks, Massasoit honored treaty until his death in 1661.
C. 1691, the small Plymouth colony of 7,000 people merged
with MBC.
-- The king
had refused to grant Pilgrims a legal charter for Plymouth Plantation.
III. The Massachusetts Bay Colony (founded in 1629)
A. Why did Puritans want to come to
America?
1. Charles I
dismissed Parliament in 1629 and sanctioned anti-Puritan persecution.
a. Archbishop Laud opposed any separation from the Church of England.
b. Hitherto, moderate Puritans had gathered support in Parliament for reforms
c. King refused to guarantee power of parliament or basic rights for people.
B. MBC founded in 1629 by non-Separatist Puritans out
of fear for their faith and
England's future.
1. Cambridge
Agreement: signed in England, turned the corporate charter
into a government that served as its constitution for many years.
2. Puritans
would now be out of easy reach of royal authority and the archbishop.
C. The "Great Migration" (1630’s)
1. By 1631, 2,000 colonists had arrived in Boston and had
settled a number of
towns around it as well.
2. Turmoil in England resulted in 15,000 more immigrants
coming to New
England (60,000 others scattered throughout North America & West
Indies).
3. English Civil War (1642-1649) ended the Great Migration
a. Puritans remained in England to fight the Royalist forces.
b. Puritans in England led by Oliver Cromwell took control of
gov't
between
1642 & 1660.
c. Charles I beheaded in 1649
D. John Winthrop - Governor of
Massachusetts Bay Colony
1. Covenant
Theology: Winthrop believed Puritans had a covenant with God
to lead new religious experiment in New World
-- "We shall build a city upon a hill"
2. His strong
leadership helped the colony to succeed.
E. Massachusetts became biggest and most influential of New
England colonies.
-- Economy: fishing, shipbuilding, fur
trade, lumbering; some dairy farming,
and farming wheat & corn
IV. Religion and politics in the "Massachusetts Bible
Commonwealth"
A. Governing open to all free adult males (2/5 of
population) belonging to Puritan
congregations;
1. Percentage of eligible
officeholders was more than in England.
2. Eventually, Puritan churches grew
collectively into the Congregational Church
3. Non-religious men and all women
could not vote
4. Townhall meetings emerged
as a staple of democracy
-- Town
governments allowed all male property holders and at times other
residents to vote and publicly discuss issues. Majority-rule show of hands.
B. Purpose of government was to enforce God's laws (part
of covenant theology)
1. Provincial gov't under
Governor Winthrop was not a democracy
2. Only Puritans -- the
"visible saints" -- could be freemen; only freemen could vote
-- Hated
democracy and distrusted non-Puritan common people.
3. Congregational church was "established":
Non-church members as well as
believers
required to pay taxes for the gov't-supported church.
4. Religious dissenters were
punished .
C. Church leadership
1. Influenced admission to church
membership by conducting public interrogations
of people
claiming to have experienced conversion.
2. John Cotton devoted to
defending gov'ts duty to enforce religious rules yet
advocated a
civil government.
3. Clergymen were not allowed to
hold political office
a.
Congregation had the right to hire and fire ministers and set salaries.
b. In
effect, a form of separation of church and state.
c. Puritans
in England had learned their lesson when they suffered at the hands
of the"political" Anglican clergy in England.
4. Cambridge Platform
(1648): 4 Puritan colonies--MBC, Plymouth,
Connecticut
& New Haven -- organized a congregational form of church gov’t
-- Significance:
Congregational church became more uniform throughout New
England.
D. Representative legislative assembly formed in 1634
and after 1642 assembly met
separately
as a lower house and was most influential part of gov’t.
E. Early dissension in the MBC.
1. Quakers, who believed in
an inner light and not in theology, flouted the
authority of
the Puritan clergy and were persecuted.
2. Anne Hutchinson – believed
in antinomianism
a.
Accordingly, the "elect" didn’t need to obey God's or man's law
because
they were predestined for salvation.
b. She held
prayer meetings at home to discuss John Cotton’s sermons with
other women; this was taboo for a non-clergy member to do.
c. Clergy
accused her of heresy and brought her to trial in 1638.
i. She claimed direct revelation from God -- even a higher heresy.
ii. She was banished from colony; set out for Rhode Island pregnant.
3. Roger Williams -- minister
from Salem
a. Extreme
Separatist who challenged legality of Plymouth and Bay Colony
charters because land belonged to Indians and was not the king’s land to grant.
-- Claimed colony took land from Indians w/o fair compensation
b. "liberty
of conscience"
i. Williams denied authority of civil gov't to regulate religious behavior.
-- Stated gov’t could only punish civil crimes while the church alone had
responsibility for religious discipline.
-- Stated that no man should be forced to go to church.
-- In effect, challenged the basis of the Massachusetts Bay government.
ii. Used "wall of separation" metaphor for church and state
separation.
-- Jefferson would later use this metaphor to disestablish religion in VA
which later influenced "No Establishment" clause of the Constitution.
c. General
Court banished him from colony in October, 1635 and Williams fled
in winter of 1636 to Narragansett Bay; sheltered by Indian friends.
d. He
purchased lands from Indians and founded the community of Providence,
accepting all settlers regardless of their beliefs.
F. The decline of Puritanism
1. First generation Puritans began
losing their religious zeal as time went on.
a. Large
population influx dispersed Puritan population onto outlying farms
away from control of church and neighbors.
b. After the
wave of dissention in the 1630s and 1640s (e.g. Hutchinson
and Williams) conversions decreased dramatically.
-- Children of non-converted members could not be baptized.
c. The jeremiad,
taken from the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah, was used
by preachers to scold parishioners into being more committed to their faith.
d.
Conversions continued to decrease as 2nd generation Puritans had
trouble
getting their conversions authenticated by the church, thus preventing their
children from being baptized.
2. "Half-Way
Covenant",1662: sought to attract more members by giving
partial
membership to the unconverted (who had been baptized as children).
-- The
children of these Half-Way members were allowed to be baptized.
3. Eventually, Puritan churches
baptized anyone
a.
Distinction between the "elect" and other members of society
subsided.
b. Strict
religious purity was sacrificed for wider religious participation.
-- Women began making up a larger % of congregations.
4. Salem Witch Trials, 1692
-- Symbolized the decline of Puritan clergy
a. Massachusetts
suffered political, religious, and military upheaval that led to
widespread paranoia and unrest.
-- Not uncommon for Europeans and colonists in the 16th and 17th
centuries
to believe that the devil worked through witches in the real world.
b. First
accusations began when young girls, after listening to voodoo tales from
a black servant, began behaving oddly.
i. Which hunt resulting in a reign of horror ensued after certain older women
were allegedly witches
ii. The young female accusers were from the poor western part of the
community and accused the more prosperous people in the eastern part.
c. After
witch trials, 20 people were executed
d. Cotton
Mather, one of most prominent clergymen in Massachusetts, tacitly
supported the witch trials and thus weakening the prestige of the clergy.
V. Completing the New England Colonies
A. Rhode Island (1644)
1. Williams built Baptist church
at Providence (1st Baptist church in America?)
a. Complete
freedom of religion, even for Jews and Catholics. Also Quakers.
b. No oaths
required regarding one's religious beliefs
c. No
compulsory attendance at worship
d. No taxes
to support a state church
2. Provided simple manhood suffrage
in the colony from the outset
-- Opposed
to special privilege of any sort
3. Rhode Island saw immigration
dissenters from Bay Colony which led to most
individualistic and independent population (along with North Carolina).
4. Given charter from Parliament in
1644; squatters now had rights to land
B. Connecticut (founded in 1636)
1. May 1636, group of Boston
Puritans led by Rev. Thomas Hooker moved
into the
Connecticut River valley area and founded the town of Hartford
a. Three
valley towns of Hartford, Windsor, and Wethersfield established
Connecticut colony.
b. Hooker
believed MBC gov't was too arbitrary and oppressive.
c. His
congregation also wanted more lands that MBC was unwilling grant.
2. New Haven founded in 1638
a. Founded
by Puritans wanting stricter and closer church-gov't alliance than
Massachusetts (in contrast to Hooker’s ideas)
b. When the
colony harbored two judges who condemned Charles I to death,
Charles II sought revenge by granting colonial charter to Connecticut
which
merged New Haven with more democratic settlements in Connecticut Valley
3. Fundamental Orders drafted
in 1639 by new Connecticut River colony
a. First
modern constitution in American history
b.
Established a democracy controlled by "substantial" citizens
i. Gov’t should be based on consent of the people.
ii. Patterned Massachusetts’ gov’t.
c.
Foundation for Connecticut’s colonial charter and later, its state
constitution.
C. Maine absorbed by MBC in 1677 after purchase
from the heirs of its founders
-- Remained part of Massachusetts
for nearly 150 years until Compromise of 1820.
D. New Hampshire (1679) -- absorbed in 1641 by
Massachusetts Bay colony
1. Primarily fishing and trading
economy
2. 1679, Charles II arbitrarily
separated N.H. from MBC after being annoyed with
MBC's
apparent greed in land acquisition. N.H. became royal colony.
VI. New England Confederation (1643) -- MBC, Plymouth,
Connecticut & New Haven
A. Pequot War (1636-1637) -- Despite Puritan victory
over Indians, New England
colonies realized collective
security was necessary for future defense.
1. Relations between Puritans &
Pequots strained in years preceding the war in
southern
Connecticut and Rhode Island as Puritans wanted Indians to move
2. Connecticut towns sent 90 men who
opted to attack a smaller village of
non-combatants where 400 Indian men, women and children were slain
3. By summer’s end, most remaining
Pequots either captured, sold as slaves to
West Indies,
or fled for shelter to their former enemies.
4. Puritans used Biblical passages
to justify extermination of the Pequots.
B. In response to Pequot War, New England Confederation
founded in 1643.
1. Purpose: defense
against foes (e.g. Indians, French, and Dutch).
2. Significance: First milestone
on road to colonial unity.
3. English Civil War in 1640s left
colonies to fend for themselves.
4. Organization
a. Exclusively Puritan (Maine & Rhode island not allowed)
b. Helped to solve intercolonial problems (e.g. runaway
servants and criminals)
C. King Philip’s War (1675)
1. New England Confederation put
to the test during war with Indian chieftain King
Philip (Metacom) -- Wampanoag Chief, son of Massasoit
2. 52 of 90 Puritan towns attacked;
burning or other damage ensued; 13 destroyed
-- Indians
copied the Puritan attacks on noncombatants in the Pequot War.
3. Colonists victorious; many
Indians sold into slavery.
-- Metacom
executed and his head was cut-off and displayed for 20 years.
4. Impact of war: bloodiest ever
fought on New England soil.
VII. Dominion of New England
A. Charles II clamps down on New
England Confederation
1. Relative
autonomy among the colonists ran disturbed Charles,
royalists, and Church of England.
-- Puritan hopes of purifying the English Church were destroyed
2. MBC
charter revoked in 1684 in response to its resisting royal orders
B. Dominion of New England
(1686)
1. Mercantilism:
colonies existed for the benefit of the mother country:
wealth, prosperity, and self-sufficiency.
2. 1685,
Lords of Trade created Dominion of New England Goal to unite
all colonies from Nova Scotia to the Delaware River under one gov’t
3. Purpose
of DNE:
a. Enforce Navigation laws created to protect mercantilist system
-- Trade with non-British colonies & allies forbidden
b. Bolstered colonial defense against Indians, Dutch, and French.
4. 1686,
James II appointed Sir Edmund Andros to lead the DNE to
oversee all of New England and later New York and East and West Jersey
a. Colonists despised his autocracy and allegiance to Anglican Church
b. Town meetings forbidden; all land titles revoked.
c. Heavy restrictions on the courts, press, and schools
d. Taxed the people without consent of their representatives
e. Enforced unpopular Navigation Laws and suppressed smuggling
-- Smuggling became common and even honorable
C. England's "Glorious Revolution"
triggered "First American revolution"
1. Catholic James II dethroned in
England and replaced by his daughter Mary
and her Dutch-born
Protestant husband William III (William of Orange).
-- Parliament
created a constitutional monarchy: forbade the king from
levying taxes or ruling
without its consent.
2. News of James II’s removal
prompted Boston leaders to arrest Andros
and
ship him back to England.
3. Unrest spread from New England to
the Carolinas
4. DNE collapsed and enforcement of
Navigation Laws was disrupted.
D. Post-Glorious Revolution New England
1. 1691, Massachusetts made a royal
colony with a new charter & royal governor.
2. Tighter administrative control by
the crown over British America resulted.
VIII. New England Life and Contributions to the American
Character
A. Impact of Geography
1. Lack of good soil forged the
Puritan characteristic of frugality and hard work.
2. Trade became cornerstone
of the colony’s economy: fishing and shipbuilding
3. Lumbering, shipping, and
fir trade also became important due to abundant
forests and
harbors.
4. Less ethnic diversity; immigrants not eager to settle in soil depraved region.
B. Puritan contribution to American character
1. Democracy (within the
Congregational church) via town meetings and
voting rights
to church members (starting in 1631)
a. Led to
democracy in political gov't ("Body of Liberties" in 1641 may have
been world’s first bill of rights).
b. Townhall
meetings where freemen met together and each man voted was
democracy
in its purest form.
c. New
England villagers regularly met to elect their officials, appoint
schoolmasters and attend to civic issues (e.g. road repair)
2. Perfectionism
a. Puritans
sought to create a perfect society based on God's laws
i. Argued against slavery on moral grounds
ii. Ideas lay the foundation for later reform movements: abolition of slavery,
women's rights, education, prohibition, prison reform, etc.
b.
Protestant work ethic: those who were faithful and worked hard and
succeeded were seen favorably by God.
C. Education was a major feature of New England society
1. Harvard College founded
in 1636 to train the clergy; first college in the colonies.
--
Virginians did not found a college until 1693 (William & Mary College)
2. Massachusetts School of Law (1642
& 1647)
a. Towns with more than 50 families required to provide
elementary
education
to enable children to read the Bible.
b. New
England became most literate section of the country.
-- Majority of adults knew how to read and write
D. Small villages and farms formed basis for the tightly
knit society
1. Necessary to
provide security from bordering Indians, French and Dutch.
2. After 1640s,
outsiders generally not welcome in villages
E. Extremely strict and conservative lifestyle
IX. New England Family
A. New England’s climate less deadly than in southern
Colonies
1. Cooler weather and clean water =
less disease
2. Added 10 years to life spans compared
to England; life expectancy was 70 yrs
B. Puritans tended to migrate as families rather than as
individuals
C. Families had many children.
D. Strong families stability produced healthy adults and
strong social structure.
Main Ideas:
1. What political and religious
circumstances in England led to the formation
and development of New England?
n Persecution of Puritans in England resulted in the migration of Pilgrims and Puritans in the 1620s
n English Civil War significantly reduced migration to New England.
n English Civil War preoccupied English gov't and left the colonies to fend for themselves (e.g., New England Confederation).
n Pilgrims came for religious freedom in 1620
n Puritans came starting in 1629 to "build a city on a hill"; Covenant Theology
n Rhode Island founded by a religious dissenter, Roger Williams
n Connecticut River colonies founded by Puritan communities
n Protestant work ethic resulted in a diverse and successful economy
n Puritan clergy had much power until the late 17th century.
n Education important so that people could read the Bible; high literacy rate
n Creation of tightly-knit communities
3.
How did New England differ socially, economically and politically from the
southern
colonies?
n Socially: emphasis on Puritanism (little religious toleration), education,
strong family and community ties
n Economically: diverse economy -- trade, fishing, shipbuilding,
shipping, fur trade, some dairy farming, some corn and wheat farming;
relatively small numbers of slaves
n Politically: church members could vote, not as aristocratic, strong communities
4. How did Puritanism in New England lead towards democracy?
n Townhall meetings
n Church members could vote
5. Trace the decline in the prestige of the Puritan clergy in 17th century New England:
n Jeremiad
n Halfway Covenant (1662)
n Dominion of New England (1680s)
n Salem Witch Trials (1692)
n By 1700, Puritan church became the Congregational Church that was open to all comers.
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