New England

Puritans & Pilgrims

What you need to know

• Locate/identify Massachusetts, Rhode Isl, Connecticut & New Hampshire colonies

• Difference between Pilgrims & Puritans• Town meetings• Mayflower Compact• Fundamental Orders of Connecticut• Roger Williams and Rhode Island• The Halfway Covenant

Puritans—Background

• Group wanted to purify the Church of England (while remaining members)

• Didn’t believe in big organization controlling local congregations

• Believed people could experience God personally – conversion experiences

• Believed church was too close to Catholics, should be simpler

The Pilgrims

• Separatists – wanted complete separation from Church of England• Didn’t believe church could be fixed

• Discriminated against – went to America for freedom of religion

The Pilgrims

• Came to America aboard the Mayflower

• While on boat, men signed Mayflower Compact – agreement on rules for colony

• 1620 – landed on Plymouth Rock, called colony Plymouth Colony

Massachusetts Bay Co.

• 1630 – Joint Stock company set up by John Winthrop

• Brought many Puritans from England• Set up capital in Boston• Absorbed Plymouth Colony

Massachusetts Bay Co.

• Created government to rule colony• Only company stockholders & adult

male church members could vote• Children of members were not full

church members• Halfway covenant – allowed children of

members to have some rights

Massachusetts Bay Co.

• No separation of church & state• Criminal laws very strict

• Examples of crimes: drunkenness, idleness, swearing

• Took children away from parents if they misbehaved

Massachusetts Bay Co.

• Allowed small towns to rule over themselves

• Many areas had town meetings –regular people allowed to make decisions elected reps usually make

Roger Williams• Puritan minister• Argued that Puritans were hypocrites

• Came to America for religious freedom• Then took away others’ freedom by giving

rights only to members of their religion• Also said that English had no right to take

Indian land – must purchase it• Got banished (threatened imprisonment)

Roger Williams

• Left Puritans, started Baptist church• Left Massachusetts, traveled a few

miles south• Founded colony of Rhode Island

• Colony had absolute religious freedom• No religious group ran colony govt

Anne Hutchinson

• Thought that people didn’t need ministers to tell them what to believe

• Church banished her from colony• She went to Rhode Island for

freedom

Connecticut

• Puritans sent groups to settle further down the coast

• Fundamental Orders of Connecticut• 1st written constitution in America

Native Resistance

• Natives thought land treaties were agreements to share use of land

• Colonists thought of land treaties as agreements that change owners permanently

• Resulted in many arguments that became battles

Native Resistance

• Pequot War• Colonists fought against Pequot tribe• Colonists fought alongside Narragansett• Colonists massacred Pequots, killed

unarmed women & children• Seriously upset Narragansett allies

Native Resistance

• King Philip’s War• Metacom was chief of a nearby tribe• Colonists called him King Philip• Fought over a year against colonists

Native Resistance

• King Philip’s War• Heavy casualties for both sides• Eventually Puritans won war, cut off

Metacom’s head, displayed it on a spike

FOR TWENTY YEARS

What you need to know

• Locate/identify Massachusetts, Rhode Isl, Connecticut & New Hampshire colonies

• Difference between Pilgrims & Puritans• Town meetings• Mayflower Compact• Fundamental Orders of Connecticut• Roger Williams and Rhode Island• The Halfway Covenant