New England Colonies

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New England Colonies

• Chapter 3, Section 2 Pages 76 - 80

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Did You Know?

• Today in the city of Cape Cod, the Massachusetts
• House of Representatives deliberates under a
  giant
• carved wooden codfish whose head points at
• whichever part is in power --- the Democratic or
  the
• Republican.

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Religious Freedom

• There were two groups of Protestants in England.
  
• Puritans --- those who wanted to reform the
  Anglican Church.
• Separatists --- those who wanted to leave and set
  up their own church.

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The Separatists

• Some Separatists fled to the Netherlands for
  religious
• freedom.
• Some of these Separatists were given a guarantee
  by
• the Virginia Company to be able to practice their
• religion freely if they settled in Virginia. In
  return they
• had to share their profits with the Virginia
  Company.
• These people called themselves Pilgrims.

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The Pilgrims

• The Mayflower carried the Pilgrims to settle in
  the Virginia
• colony. However, they landed north at Plymouth,
• Massachusetts.
• Plymouth was not part of the Virginia Company
  territory
• and its laws did not apply. So the Pilgrims drew
  up the
• Mayflower Compact to provide laws to live by.
• It was the beginning of a representative
  government in
• America.

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New Settlements

• Hard times beset the Puritans in England.
• In 1629 a group received a royal charter and
  formed
• the Massachusetts Bay Colony located north of
• Plymouth.
• The group settled in Boston with John Winthrope
  as
• their governor.

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Migration to Massachusetts

• During the Great Migration in the 1630s, more
  than
• 15,000 Puritans came to Massachusetts to escape
  religious
• persecution and economic difficulties in England.
• An elected group called the General Court ran the
  colony.
• The Massachusetts Bay Colony created a colonial
  legislature
• when settlers wanted a larger role in government.
• Every adult male church member who also owned
  property
• could vote for their representatives to the
  General Court.

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Additional Settlements

• Although the Puritans left England for religious
  freedom in
• America, they criticized, or persecuted, people
  who held religious
• beliefs other than theirs. This led to the
  formation of new colonies.
• Colonists began to settle along the fertile
  Connecticut River valley
• in the 1630s.
• In 1636 Thomas Hooker founded the settlement of
  Hartford.
• Three years later, Hartford and two other towns
  adopted the
• Fundamental Orders of Connecticut. This was the
  first written
• constitution in America.

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Additional Settlements

• Roger Williams, a minister, established Rhode
  Island
• and Providence Plantations, where religious
  toleration
• existed. People could worship as they pleased.
• In 1638, John Wheelwright founded the colony of
  New
• Hampshire. It became independent of
  Massachusetts
• in 1679.

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Discussion Questions

• How do you think the Pilgrims lives in America
  compared to their lives in England?
• Why were the Puritans so intolerant of religious
  views of other than their own?