New England Colonies An overview.

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New England ColoniesAn overview.
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The people who lived there

• NEW ENGLAND
• New England is in the northeast of North America
  and has generally thin and stony soil, relatively
  little flat land, and long cold winters, making
  it hard to make a living from farming.
• New Englanders harnessed water power and
  established grain mills and sawmills. Good
  forests encouraged shipbuilding.
• Excellent harbors promoted trade, and the sea
  became a source of great wealth. In
  Massachusetts, the cod (fishing) industry alone
  quickly furnished a good basis for profit and
  prosperity.

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Founding of Massachusetts Bay Colony and Plymouth
Colony
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• On Sept. 16, 1620 the ship "Mayflower" set off
  from Plymouth, England on it journey to the New
  World. There were 102 passengers on the Mayflower
  including 41 Christian Puritan Separatists.
• After spending many years in Holland exiled from
  the English Church, the Puritans were seeking a
  new life of religious freedom in America.

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• The group had obtained a Patent from the London
  Virginia Company which indentured them into
  service for the Company for seven years after
  they arrived and settled.
• When they arrived they anchored off the tip of
  Cape Cod, in an area now known as Massachusetts,
  and before they even set foot on shore they
  wrote, and signed, an agreement called the
  "Mayflower Compact" that would set the rules to
  guide them through the early hard times. The
  Compact served as the official Constitution of
  the Plymouth Colony for many years.

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Pilgrim Fashions
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• After landing they explored the area around Cape
  Cod for over a month using the maps they had
  obtained in England.
• During their exploration they had a few minor
  encounters with the local natives. Finally, on
  December 21, they decided on a location near
  Plymouth Harbor which they named Plymouth.
• Nearly half of the colonists and crew died from
  illnesses that first winter as they struggled to
  build their town.

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Squanto and the Pilgrims.

• The following spring they were visited by a local
  Wampanoag native named Samoset who introduced the
  settlers to another native named Squanto who's
  village had occupied the area before the Pilgrims
  arrived. His people had all been killed by
  diseases brought by European explorers.
• Squanto spoke English very well and he stayed
  with the Pilgrims and taught them many valuable
  skills that enabled them to survive in their new
  country. He also played a very big part in
  bringing the Pilgrims and the local native
  population together, leading, eventually, to a
  lasting peace treaty.

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John Winthrop and the Puritans

• Not long after the Pilgrims arrived in Plymouth
  more Puritans came to Massachusetts and settled
  Naumkeag (later named Salem).
• John Winthrop, carrying the Massachusetts Bay
  Charter, arrived in 1630 and founded Boston.
  Maine was annexed (claimed and taken) by
  Massachusetts in 1652 and later the Plymouth
  Colony was too.

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Rhode Island Colony

• In 1635, Roger Williams was put on trial by the
  Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and found
  guilty of holding four opinions at difference
  with those officially allowed.
• His sentence was banishment from the colony
• After spending the winter with the Indians he
  finally bought land from them in what is now
  called Providence. The new Rhode Island colony
  became a haven for those seeking religious
  freedom.

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• The colony of Rhode Island, founded on complete
  religious toleration, separation of church and
  state, and political democracy, became a refuge
  for people persecuted for their religious
  beliefs, even in Massachusetts.
• Rhode Island colonists participated in a simple
  form of democratic government, with each family
  represented in political meetings by the vote of
  the head of the family.

• Anabaptists and Quakers fled the persecutions of
  the Puritans to settle in Rhode Island.
• In 1658, a Jewish community arrived in Newport,
  Rhode Island, seeking religious freedom.

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Rhode Island Native Americans

• Roger Williams maintained close ties to the
  Narragansett Indians and continued to protect
  them from the land greed of the Massachusetts Bay
  Colony.
• His respect for the Indians, his fair treatment
  of them, and his knowledge of their language
  enabled him to carry on peace negotiations
  between the native peoples and European settlers.

• Although Williams preached to the Indians, he
  gave up the attempt to convert them, extending
  his principle of religious freedom to include all
  forms of worship.

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Connecticut Colony

• Clergyman Thomas Hooker and his followers arrived
  in Hartford and declared freedom from all save
  Divine Authority. In 1639 the "Fundamental
  Orders" were enacted to govern the colony. In
  1662 Connecticut finally obtained a Royal Charter
  under John Winthrop Jr.

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Thomas Hooker

• Thomas Hooker arrived in Massachusetts in 1633.
  For a time Thomas and his family settled there
  while he served as the pastor of the 8th church
  in that colony. The civil situation was not
  completely harmonious between the leaders.
• John Cotton, another leader, wanted to set up a
  community in which only men who were members of
  the church and held property could vote. Thomas
  Hooker, like Cotton, wanted to build a godly
  community, but he believed all the men should
  have a voice and a vote.

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• Thomas Hooker left and led about one hundred
  people away to begin a new settlement, which is
  now called Hartford, Connecticut.
• Later, three settlements merged to form the
  Connecticut Colony. This colony put Hooker's
  principles into practice when it adopted the
  Fundamental Orders of Connecticut which is
  sometimes called the first written constitution
  in America.

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New Hampshire

• John Wheelwright, banished from Boston, founded
  the colony of New Hampshire. In 1639 the settlers
  signed the "Exeter Compact" patterned after the
  "Mayflower Compact".
• The towns that formed the colony were all on land
  claimed by Massachusetts and were subject to its
  authority
• Each town would send a representative to the
  massachusetts council in Boston until finally
  being given self government by the King in 1679.