Expansion and Diversity

1
Expansion and Diversity

• The Rise of Colonial America,
• 1625-1700

2
Puritanism

• Influenced by John Calvin
• Iconoclastic
• Holy Commonwealth
• Doctrinal conformity heresy punishable by death
  
• Doctrine of the Elect
• Faith (public relation/confession)
• Upright life
• Sacraments
• Established democratic presbytery

3
Max Weber

• The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
• Tenets of Calvinism had profound social
  implications
• Created a favorable climate for commerce
• Role in overthrow of feudalism and establishment
  of capitalism

4
Puritan Reforms

• Less Government Control of Church
• Episcopacy
• Presbytery
• Congregational

5
Joint-Stock Companies

• Virginia Company of Plymouth
• Attempt at Colonization failed
• Virginia Company of London
• Jamestown Colony on the James River
• John Smith
• Communal labor and land Socialist Model

6
Tobacco

• John Rolf
• Headright Policy
• 1616 Colony allowed an elected assembly
• 1616 African labor imported

7
Problems

• Indian Wars
• Fraud
• High Mortality Rate
• Charter Revoked

8
Campaign to Eliminate Puritan Influence

• Insistence that services be conducted according
  to Book of Common Prayer
• Dismissed Puritan Ministers
• Fined or excommunicated Puritan Laity

9
Massachusetts Bay Company

• Obtained Charter to colonize Mass. Bay in (north
  of Plymouth) in 1628.
• Moved seat of Government to colony
• Puritan dominated/Self-governing

10
Puritan Orthodoxy

• Holy Commonwealth, or city upon a hill
• Covenant people
• Church membership restricted to the Elect
• Harvard established in 1636 to educate ministry

11
Attempt to retain Gemeinschaft

• Regulation of prices
• Town meeting
• Representative government
• Suffrage limited to Church Members
• House lots small near town
• Traveled to farms
• Cooperation between Church and State

12
Heterodoxy Dissent

• Roger Williams
• Civil government should remain absolutely
  uninvolved in religious matters
• Banished from colony established Rhode Island
• Ann Hutchinson
• Attacked doctrinal foundation of Puritanism
  good works as evidence of election
• Undermined authority, antinomian, outside her
  prescribed role

13
Half-Way Covenant, 1662

• 1650 fewer than half of adults in Boston were
  Saints
• Much of third generation remained unbaptized
• 1662 compromise permit children of baptized
  adults to receive baptism but could not take
  Lords Supper or Vote

14
New England Frontier

• Puritans and Indians,
• 1620-1675

15
Antecedents

• Pre-1605 cross-cultural contact involved trade
  and danger
• Misunderstandings or criminal acts by both sides
• Explorers returned with information
• Early kidnappings
• Used for propaganda
• Traders not interested in long-term relations
  with Indians
• Indians used Europeans in their inter-tribal
  conflicts

16
Puritan Worldviews

• Indians would be glory of New Zion
• Heathen in need of saving grace
• Satan had a hold on Indians
• Old Testament Theology
• Wield bloody sword
• Plague sign of Gods judgement
• Convinced the Indians were born white
• No sense of racial superiority
• Indians were culturally inferior, but could be
  over come

17
Indians of New England

• Tribal
• Not heavily populated
• Primarily agrarian
• Inter-tribal hostilities and alliances
• E.g. Pequots
• Most Indians did not think of settlers as
  invaders or usurpers
• Settlers were eager customers
• Aided Indians against enemy tribes

18
Expansion of Puritans

• Settlers often received cordial welcome
• Abundance of land
• English made available trade goods
• Presence of English enhanced tribal survival
  against enemy tribes
• Puritans tried to maintain good relations with
  Indians punished violators

19
Persistent Myths

• Puritans stole Land, or purchased with a few
  trinkets
• Indian did not understand concept of land
  ownership
• Both are demonstrably false
• Puritan Indian worldview vis-à-vis land was
  similar
• All New England tribes had some form of land
  ownership
• Legal transactions had to be witnessed and
  approved by both Indian and Puritan leaders

20
Pequot War

• Puritans not first intruders into Connecticut
  the Pequots were.
• Pequot break away from Mahican in the North
• Algonquian word for destroyer
• Connecticut tribes encouraged Puritan settlement
  but threatened Pequot hegemony
• Pequot reputation for brutality warred against
  Indians, Dutch, English

21
Origins of the Pequot War

• Spring 1634 Pequots board and massacre ship and
  crew
• Not wanting to go to war, Pequots agree to an
  indemnity payment and to turn over culprits
• Pequots renege
• Block Island Indians board and massacre another
  ship and crew
• Culprits flee to Pequot tribe

22
Puritans call for Revenge

• Block Island Indians routed
• Attack on Seybrook Pequots
• Destroyed Indian village, several Indians killed
  and wouned
• Pequot attack on Seybrook colonists
• Up to 30 killed and tortured
• Puritans must respond or risk annihilation
• No Indian side to the story most Indian tribes
  supported the Puritan side to curb Pequot
  hostility