Week 9

1. Week 9

3. New England The second invasion

4. Puritan Origins • 1st Puritans arrived in 1628 • 1630s new settlement led by John Winthrop b.1588 to wealthy East Anglian family • 700 non-separating Congregationalists. • Most migrants from East Anglia • Beginning of Great Migration era

5. Like pilgrims, puritans disliked lingering Catholic practices in Anglicanism • separation of church and state necessary • ‘only the Godly should rule the Godly’ • Unlike pilgrims committed to ideals of the Church of England

6. Try to set example of behaviour for others to follow • Image = staid, boring, no fun • really just trying not to be sinful.

7. Each congregation independent • Refuse to accept authority of bishops • or any civil power over religion • Tolerated, rather than accepted

8. Until appointment of William Laud as Arch Bishop of Canterbury (1620) • increased investigation and persecution of dissenters • One motivation for flight

9. Religion not the only motive • 1620s-30s social and economic situation worsened • Part of from a manor-based to a market-oriented economy • Created 2 factors which affect Puritan motivations

10. 1) Decline in cloth trade • During early 17thC the went into decline, hit the farmers of east Anglia hard • 2) enclosure • Part of new agricultural push open lands enclosed • displacement of farm families and laborers

11. led to an increase in • Unemployment • Poverty • Begging • 1628 1st of three years of crop failure • Sense that British society full of people that had lost control of their lives

12. Puritan view of work • Not simple drudgery to sustain life • A vocation • calling through which one • improved the world • glorified God • followed life’s pilgrimage towards salvation

13. As pious, literate, and enterprising middle men and women • Puritan beliefs delivered control • all around they saw chaos • Proving they were chosen to lead the country out of it problems

14. ‘City on a hill’ • Aim in leaving • create “Merry old England” anew in America • Then return to England to lead the country to a new future

15. Many migrants continued to own land in England • Great Migration • 1630 -40 • 21,000 people • From end of the Great Migration to the end of the 17th c more people left New England than settled in it

16. Getting the charter • Virginia Company dead by 1624, new charter needed. • Puritan merchants get charter of Massachusetts Bay Company from King 1629 • Only migrants allowed to be shareholders, so charter taken to America – prevents alteration, by British Government, at later date. • 4 ships set out for America in 1630, the Arbella, the Talbot, the Ambrose and the Jewel.

17. Settlers • 70% in family groups • 30% single males • usually attached to families as servants. • Adults in 30s or 40s • brought children with them • had more after arrival. • Life exp very good • 70s when only 50s in England • few problems with disease, no major Indian problem (smallpox epidemic)

18. Result stable society • Between 1620 – 1642 21,000 travel to New England • Majority from 1629 forwards • Approximately 5% of white migrants to America at the time • By 1700, despite returnees, New England counts for 40% of white population

19. Also a literate society • First print shops in America • Cambridge (1640) Boston (1675) • At least 60% of males could read and write • Religion based on the book • Literacy and numeracy also aided economic activity • Harvard (1636) linked to Emmanuel College, Cambridge • 90 New Eng. Ministers trained there

20. Town settlement • Very different to the south • Chesapeake rich landowners with large tracts of land and many landless servants and later slaves • New England town-centered farm based landscape

21. Initial Puritan settlement was in 1629 at salem Jerusalem • When Winthrop turned took his group further south to Boston • Towns quickly sprouted • 1640 twenty towns • 1660 seventy towns • Many towns have British names • New England was a “transplanted English vine”

22. Puritan New England was not built by Puritans alone • “Strangers” were needed to ensure the regions success • Approx 17% of the Great Migration was un-free labor

23. Servants and New England • Most servants were tied to an individual family • Not as part of a work gang as in Virginia • Debt peonage also existed – particularly in fishing industry • Slavery, although not as large as in the south, also existed in New England • After 1650 non English war captives, mainly Scottish and Irish, were shipped as bound labor

24. Ideologically New England was built on faith • built on the backs of not only servants but also paid specialized labor • Carpenters built their houses • Millwrights, Tanners, and Iron workers all contributed to the economic success of Puritan New England

25. Puritan religious ideal pushed them to commercial success and a desire to subdue the land • But the “strangers” they brought to help • Had their own ideology • Often made them both indifferent and hostile to Puritan ideals

26. Strangers appeared in court far more frequently than Puritans • Charged with offenses like • Drunkenness • Assault • Lewdness • Larceny • Blasphemy

27. Thomas Morton • 1625, 50 year old Morton invested in Mount Wollaston, a commercial settlement in New England • Placated workers with strong drink • Danced around Maypole often with Native American Women • Region became known as Merrymount

28. 1628 Miles Standish marched on Merrymount • Arrested Morton for selling arms to Native Americans • Shipped back to England • returned one year later

29. 1630 returned to Merrymount • Massachusetts arrested Morton again • Burned his house • Sent him back to England…again

30. 1643 he returned … again • First to Rhode Island and Maine • Before heading back to Massachusetts • Arrested again and spent one year in jail • Ended his life in Maine

31. But Puritans were also pragmatic with the strangers • Iron workers in Lynn, Massachusetts • Exempted from attending church on Sunday • And from securing a Minister

32. Puritans and booze • There were (and are) a lot of alehouses and taverns in England • One Puritan in 1635 described England as overrun with • “many beastly, barbarous, belching drunkards” • In New England they regulated rather than prohibited alcohol

33. A moderate amount for health was OK but to much caused problems • Most New England towns possessed a tavern (In James town there was 1 Tavern per ten people) • Tavern was primarily for travelers to rest and find refreshment • Locals were limited to a half-hour in a tavern

34. Servants, and skilled workers alike sort out Taverns for longer periods • They also operated, and frequented, unlicensed bars • In New Hampshire and Maine major fishing regions there were • “ walking taverns” booze boats that followed the fleets • Port cities became the focus for the bar scene • By mid-century there were more bars than churches in Boston

35. Looking out from the ports • The sea brought wealth to the puritans it also threatened danger • The world was a “sea of sin” • Sin threatened puritans like “violent winds” • That threatened to expose New England as a “weak and ill compacted vessel”