Settling the Northern Colonies

1. Settling the Northern Colonies Chapter 3

2. The Protestant Reformation Produces Puritanism • Martin Luther was indirectly helping shape a nation that was yet to be discovered when he nailed his 95 Theses to the door of Wittenberg Cathedral. • Out of his beliefs came the theological idea of Calvinism.

3. Calvinism • Calvinism was founded by John Calvin of Geneva. • Calvinism became the dominant theological credo of New England Puritans, other American settlers, Scottish Presbyterians, French Huguenots, and the Dutch Reformed Church. • God, according to Calvin, was all-powerful and all-good. Humans, were weak and wicked.

4. Calvinism • Calvin also thought, since God was all-knowing, that people were predestined to go to heaven or hell. • Even though people were predestined, it did not mean that they could live their lives however they wanted. • The fact that they were unsure of their statuses gnawed at Calvinists as they continually searched for conversion, signs of their saving grace.

5. Puritans • The Puritans in England were from the depressed woolen districts and they fed off of the thought of a divine plan that shaped their lives. • The most devout Puritans, including those who eventually settled in New England, believed that they should not have to share their pews with those who were “damned”.

6. Puritans • These devout Puritans became known as Separatists, and vowed to break away from the Church of England entirely. • King James I was head of both church and state from 1603 to 1625. • He decided that if people could defy him as their spiritual leader, they could eventually defy him as their political leader.

7. King James I • King James decided that he would harass the Separatists out of the England.

8. The Pilgrims end Their Pilgrimage at Plymouth • The Separatists originally set sail for Holland in 1608, but lived in poverty and resented the “Dutchification” of their children. • They longed to live as English men and women and purified Protestants. • The Separatists were supposed to land in Virginia, but after being at sea for 65 days, missed their destination.

9. The Pilgrims end Their Pilgrimage at Plymouth • Only one of the 102 died en route and one was born during the voyage aboard the Mayflower. • Less than half were Separatists. • One such nonbelonger was Myles Standish, who proved to be indispensable as an Indian fighter and negotiator. • Since the Pilgrims were not on the land they were supposed to be, they were technically squatters.

10. The Pilgrims end Their Pilgrimage at Plymouth • Before disembarking, the Pilgrim leaders drew up the Mayflower Compact, which was a significant step toward the first form of self-government. • The winter 1620-1621 claimed the lives of all but 44 of the 102 settlers. • When the Mayflower sailed back to England none of the Separatists returned with it.

11. The Pilgrims end Their Pilgrimage at Plymouth • Eventually, the colony found its economic legs in fur, fish, and lumber. • The little colony was never significant economically or numerically (only 7,000 by 1691), but its cultural importance cannot be overstated. • In 1691, the Plymouth colony merged with its neighbor, the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

12. The Bay Colony Bible Commonwealth • In 1629 Non-Separatist Puritans secured a royal charter to form the Massachusetts Bay Company. • The Massachusetts Bay Colony was blessed with 11 ships carrying nearly a thousand immigrants.

13. The Bay Colony Bible Commonwealth • During the Great Migration of the 1630s, about 70,000 refugees left England (about 20,000 came to Mass.) • May Puritans went to the West Indies, especially Barbados • Mass. Bay Colony settlers believed that they had a covenant with God, an agreement to build a holy society that would be a model for humankind.

14. Building the Bay Colony • The colonial government, although liberal, was not a democracy. • The Governor John Winthrop, thought democracy was the “meanest and worst” of all forms of government. • There was a strong dividing line between the Puritans who were “freemen” (belonging to the Congregational Church) and those who were not.

15. Building the Bay Colony • The Bay colonists endorsed the idea of the separation of church and state by; • Giving the congregation the right to hire and fire the minister and set his salary. • Clergymen were barred from holding formal political office.

16. Trouble in the Commonwealth • At the beginning, the Bay colonists lived in relative harmony. • However, the Quakers, who flouted the authority of the Puritan clergy, were given fines, floggings, and banishment. • In an extreme case, four Quakers who defied expulsion, one of them a woman, were hanged on the Boston Common.

17. Anne Hutchinson: Dissenter • Hutchinson was exceptionally intelligent, strong-willed, and talkative (mother of 14). • She questioned the Puritan doctrine of predestination (this was heresy). • She believed in antinomianism- those whoa re truly saved need not bother to obey the law of either God or man (even worse heresy).

18. Anne Hutchinson: Dissenter • She was banished by Puritan magistrates. • She set out, on foot, with her family to Rhode Island. • She and all but one of her household were killed by Indians. • John Winthrop, Gov. of Mass. Bay, saw “god’s hands” in her fate.

19. New England Spreads Out • In 1639, settlers on the Connecticut River drafted a document known as the Fundamental Orders. • This document was, in effect, a modern constitution, which established a regime democratically controlled by the “substantial” citizens. • Parts of the Fundamental Orders were later borrowed by Connecticut for its colonial charter and ultimately for its state constitution.

20. Glorious Revolution (1688-1689) • Also known as the Bloodless Revolution. • The unpopular Catholic King James II was dethroned and replaced with Protestant rulers (Dutch-born William II and his English wife Mary II).

21. Glorious Revolution (1688-1689) • Inspired, many colonists struck back against royal authority (New York and Maryland 1689-1691). • Most importantly, the new monarchs relaxed their grip on colonial trade, ushering in a period of “salutary neglect” when the hated Navigation Laws were only weakly enforced.

22. Seeds of Colonial Unity and Independence • A path-breaking experiment in union was launched in 1643, when four colonies banded together to form the New England Confederation. • It was an exclusively Puritan club consisting of Massachusetts colonies (Bay and Plymouth) and New Haven and the valley settlements in Connecticut

23. Old Netherlanders at New Netherland • The Dutch East India Company (DEIC) at one time supported an army of 10,000 men and a fleet of 190 ships. • Henry Hudson was employed by DEIC to find riches and also the coveted shortcut through the continent. • New Netherland was planted in 1623-1634 and was never of primary interest to the founders.

24. Old Netherlanders at New Netherland • The Company bought Manhattan Island from the Indians for worthless trinkets. • This was 22,000 acres of perhaps the most valuable real estate in the world for pennies/acre.

25. Dutch Residues in New York • Charles II had granted the area of New Netherland to his brother, the Duke of York. • The English came to reclaim the land from the Dutch and after it was renamed New York. • We still see Dutch influence in New York • Harlem (Haarlem) • Brooklyn (Breuckelen) • Hell Gate (Hellegat) • Easter Eggs, Santa Claus, waffles, bowling, sleighing, skating, kolf (golf)

26. Penn’s Holy Experiment in Pennsylvania • Quakers were considered to be a problem to the establishment because; • They refused to support the Church of England with taxes. • They would take no oaths because Jesus commanded, “Swear not at all”. • They refused military service.

27. William Penn • William Penn was a young man who grew increasingly fond of the Quaker faith and wanted to escape persecution by going to the New World. • Penn was granted an immense amount of fertile land by the king in the land known as Pennsylvania (Penn’s Woodland), named for Penn’s father.

28. William Penn • Penn was the “first American advertising man”. • He sent out paid agents with pamphlets printed in English, Dutch, French, and German to advertise Pennsylvania. • Penn launched the colony in 1681. • Penn got along well with the Natives and was an astute city planner.

29. Pennsylvania • Pennsylvania was considered a nice place to live because; • All ethnic groups were treated equally • Land was plentiful • There were only 2 capital crimes; treason and murder (as opposed to 200 in England) • People were afforded economic opportunity, civil liberty, and religious freedom.

30. Pennsylvania • Penn ended up in prison because of his close bond with Charles II, who was falling out of favor with the colonists. • Penn died of a paralytic stroke and was never fully appreciate by the people of Pennsylvania.

31. The Middle Way in the Middle Colonies • The middle colonies- New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. • The “middle way” of the middle colonies was; • The fertile soil • Broad streams and rivers (Delaware, Hudson, and Susquehanna) • They were the “bread colonies” • Industrial (vast forests for logging and shipbuilding) • Ethnically mixed and religiously tolerant • Smaller than the plantations of the South, but bigger than small-farm New England.