The Settlement of New England

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Religion in the 13 British Colonies
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The Settlement of New England
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Separatists in England

• Separatist Beliefs
• Sect of Puritans who believed only visible
  saints those who could demonstrate in front of
  their fellow Puritans their elect status should
  be admitted to church membership.
• Because the Church of England enrolled all the
  kings subjects, Separatists felt they had to
  share churches with the damned.
• Therefore, they believed in a total break from
  the Church of England.

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The Mayflower

• 1620 ? a group of 102 people half Separatists
• Negotiated with theVirginia Company to settle
  in its jurisdiction.
• Non-Separatists included about 50 strangers.
• Plymouth Baywhere they landedwas way outside
  the domain of the Virginia Company.
• Became squatters without legal right to land
  specific authority to establish a govt.

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The Mayflower CompactNovember 11, 1620

• Written and signed before the Pilgrims
  disembarked from the ship.
• Not a constitution, but an agreement to form a
  crude govt. and submit to majority rule.
• Signed by 41 adult males.
• Led to adult male settlers meeting in assemblies
  to make laws in town meetings.

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• Having undertaken, for the glory of God, and
• advancement of the Christian faith, and honor
  of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the
  first
• colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do
  by these presents solemnly and mutually, in the
  presence of God, and one of another, covenant and
  combine ourselves together into a civil body
  politic, for our better ordering and preservation
  and furtherance of the ends aforesaid and by
  virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame
  such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts,
  constitutions and offices, from time to time, as
  shall be thought most meet and convenient for the
  general good of the Colony, unto which we promise
  all due submission and obedience.
• --Mayflower Compact, 1620

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The MA Bay Colony

• 1629 ? non-Separatist Puritans got a royal
  charter to form the MA Bay Co.
• Wanted to escape attacks by conservatives in the
  Church of England Anglican Church.
• They didnt want to leave the Church, just its
  impurities.
• 1630 ? 1,000 people set off in 11 well-stocked
  ships
• Established a colony with Boston as its hub.

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Puritanism

• PuritansA form (sect) of Calvinism
• Predestination.
• Good works could not save those predestined for
  hell.
• No one could be certain of their spiritual
  status.
• Gnawing doubts led to constantly seeking signs of
  conversionthat they were indeed destined to
  spend eternity in heaven.
• Want to totally reform purify the Church of
  Englandrid of ceremony, concept of good works.
• The congregations that formed (hence the term
  Congregationalists) answered to no higher
  church body . . .

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John Winthrop

• Well-off attorney and manor lord in England.
• A Modell of Christian Charity.
• Became 1st governor of Massachusetts.
• Believed that he had a calling from God to lead
  there.
• Served as governor or deputy-governor for 19
  years.
• ?Model of Christian Charity

..we shall be as a City on a hill.The eyes of
all people are upon us.
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City Upon a Hill

• In the King James version of the Bible the text
  reads
• Ye are the light of the world. A city that is
  set on an hill cannot be hid.
• --Gospel of Matthew

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American Exceptionalism
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American exceptionalism is the idea that the
United States and the American people hold a
special place in the world and history, by
offering opportunity and hope for humanity,
derived from its unique balance of public and
private interests governed by constitutional
ideals (and the consent of the governed) that are
focused on personal and economic freedom.
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• History of American Exceptionalism
• de Tocqueville first calls America exceptional
  in 1835.
• The phrase American Exceptionalism was first
  said by either Stalin or Jay Lovestone (leader of
  the American Communist Party) in 1929.
• ?Exceptionalism through U.S. History

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John Winthrop

• Well-off attorney and manor lord in England.
• A Modell of Christian Charity.
• Became 1st governor of Massachusetts.
• Believed that he had a calling from God to lead
  there.
• Served as governor or deputy-governor for 19
  years.
• ?Model of Christian Charity

..we shall be as a City on a hill.The eyes of
all people are upon us.
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Puritan MassachusettsTheocracy or Democracy?

• Theocracy
• a form of government in which a community is
  ruled by religious leaders
• Democracy
• a form of government in which people choose
  leaders by voting government by the people rule
  of the majority

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The Great Migration

• Turmoil in England leading to the English Civil
  War sent about 70,000 to America between 1629
  and 1640.
• Not all Puritans!

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Colonizing New EnglandThe Great Migration
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New England Spreads Out
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Covenant Theology

• Covenant of Grace
• between Puritan communities and God.
• Social Covenant
• Between members of Puritan communities with each
  other.
• Required mutual watchfulness.
• No toleration of deviance or disorder.

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Puritan Rebels Anne Hutchinson

• Intelligent, strong-willed,well-spoken
  womanarrived in the colony in 1634.
• Key beliefs
• Antinomianism--the doctrine that faith in Christ
  frees the Christian from obligation to observe
  the moral law as set forth in the Old
  Testament--Truly saved didnt need to obey the
  law of either God or man.
• Holy life was no sure sign of salvation. (Good
  works vs. Faith alone)

AnneHutchinson
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Hutchinsons Crimes

• Challenged the saintschurch leaders authority.
• Supported Rev. John Wheelwright, who also
  preached doctrine of salvation by faith alone.
• Held meetings in her homefirst for women only,
  but then men began attending.
• She would readand then interpret (!)scripture.

AnneHutchinson
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Anne Hutchinsons Trial

• 1637 ? she confounded the Puritan leaders for
  days.
• Eventually bragged that she had received her
  beliefs DIRECTLY from God.
• Direct revelation was even more serious than the
  heresy of antinomianism.
• Puritan leaders banished her ? she her family
  (6 children, a foot of snow, 6 days) traveled to
  RI and later to NY.
• She and all but one member of her family were
  killed in an Indian attack in Westchester County.
• John Winthrop saw Gods hand in this?

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"Thus it had pleased the Lord to have compassion
of his poor churches here, and to discover this
great imposter, an instrument of Satan so fitted
and trained to his service for interrupting the
passage of His kingdom in this part of the
world, and poisoning the churches here . . .
--John Winthrop
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Puritan Rebels

• Young, popular minister in Salem.
• Argued for a full break with the Anglican
  Church.
• Condemned MA Bay Charter, as it did not give
  fair compensation to Indians.
• Denied authority of civil govt. to regulate
  religious behavior.
• 1635 ? found guilty of preaching new dangerous
  opinions and was exiled.

Roger Williams
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Rhode Island

• 1636 ? Roger Williams fled here from MA Bay.
• MA Bay Puritans had wanted to exile him to
  England to prevent him from founding a competing
  colony.
• Remarkable political freedom in Providence, RI
• Universal manhood suffrage ? later restricted by
  a property qualification.
• Opposed to special privilege of any kind ?
  freedom of opportunity for all.
• RI becomes known as the Sewer because it is
  seen by the Puritans as a dumping ground for
  unbelievers and religious dissenters ? More
  liberal than any other colony.

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New England Settlement, Late 17th Century
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Population of the New England Colonies
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Reaction to Changing Society

• Origins of the Half-Way Covenant
• Puritan population moved out of town away from
  control of church.
• Traditionally, children of non-converted
  (non-saved) members could not be baptized w/o
  conversion experience.
• "Half-Way Covenant 1662 sought to attract more
  members by giving partial membership?
• Puritan churches baptized anyone (although they
  couldnt vote in church affairs) and distinction
  between the "elect" and other members of society
  gradually subsided . . . And spiritual leaders
  worried . . .

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Salem Witch Trials (1692)

• Trouble began in winter
  1692 when Rev. Parris
  daughter Betty began
  having fits.
• Possible causes stress,
  asthma, guilt, boredom,
  child abuse, epilepsy,
  delusional
  psychosis, a disease called "convulsive ergotism"
  brought on by injesting rye--eaten as a cereal
  and as a common ingredient of bread--infected
  with ergot . . . or witchcraft.
• By the end of February, 7 other girls were
  afflicted.
• WHO was corrupting them???

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• Trials took place between March 1692 September
  1693.
• The first three accused Tituba (a slave from
  Barbados), Sarah Good (a beggar who lived with
  anyone who would house her), and Sarah Osborne
  (an elderly woman who hadnt been to church in a
  year).
• Tituba ultimately confessed . . . and admitted
  Good and Osborne were witches too.

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End of Spectral EvidenceEnd of Hysteria

• By the time the witch hunt ended more than a year
  later
• ?nineteen convicted witches were executed, at
  least four accused witches had died in prison,
  and one man, Giles Corey, had been pressed to
  death. As many as two hundred other persons were
  arrested and imprisoned on witchcraft charges.
  Two dogs were executed as suspected accomplices
  of witches.