New England Colonies

The Puritans believed that they were the ChosenCompany included men and women from London
People of God destined to found a Newand others from Kent, Hereford, and Yorkshire in
Jerusalem-a New City of God in the wilderness.England.
They interpreted the Bible more literally than theirDavenport and Eaton were also members of the
British counterparts, and sought to establish aMassachusetts Bay Company. On arriving in
purified church, which sometimes meant imposingAmerica in June, 1637, they stopped at Boston
their religious beliefs on unwilling citizens.and remained there during the winter. Pressure
Massachusetts Bay Colonywas brought on them to make Massachusetts
In 1629, the Massachusetts Bay Companytheir home, but Davenport wasn't content to
obtained a charter allowing it to trade and colonizeremain where he would be only one among many.
in New England. Its Puritan stockholders envisionedHe sent Eaton voyaging to find a suitable place
the colony as a refuge from religious persecution.for worship and trade. Eaton suggested that
The charter, which ceded lands from three milesQuinnipiac on the Connecticut shore would be
south of the Charles River to three miles north ofperfect for their new settlement. On April 24,
the Merrimack, allowed the company to establish1638, five hundred English settlers arrived at the
its own government, subject only to the king. Itsharbor to settle permanently on the lands of the
government was to be placed in the hands of aQuinnipiac Native Americans.
governor, deputy governor, and eighteenBefore winter most of the colonists who had
assistants, to be elected annually by the company.arrived in April were living on their house-lots,
Unlike the poor and humble Pilgrims, the foundersleaving their cellars or other temporary shelters
of Massachusetts Bay Colony were men offor new-comers. Some of the houses, being
wealth and social position. They left comfortableoccupied by persons of small estates, were
homes in England to found a Puritan state inpresumably such as a Dutch traveler saw at
America. They got a large tract of land extendingPlymouth, and describes as block-houses built of
from the Merrimac River to the Charles, andhewn logs.
westward across the continent.At a meeting of the General Court, a body of
In the fall of 1630, the Company called the firstsixteen members under the leadership of Eaton, in
General Court in the new colony. All maleSeptember 1640, the new harbor was officially
residents were designated as freemen, but theyreferred to as New Haven. These leaders felt
only had the right to choose the colony'sthat in order for New Haven to become a new
assistants. All legal and judicial powers weretrading center they should create a series of
retained by the assistants themselves, whosettlements in the area. These towns would
elected the governor and deputy governor. Theydeliver their products to New Haven for export.
later restricted the right to vote to only thoseThe leaders of these communities would be
freemen who were Puritans.members of the General Court, and would meet
The Bay Colony government deeded title foron a regular basis in New Haven.
townships to groups of male settlers, who thenThe colony's success soon attracted other
distributed the land among themselves. Andbelievers, as well as those who were not Puritans.
though men of the highest rank received theThey expanded into additional towns: Milford and
largest plots, all men received enough land toGuilford in 1639, Stamford in 1640, and later to
support their families.Fairfield, Medford, Greenwich, and Branford. These
The first winter at Massachusetts Bay Colonytowns formally joined together as the New Haven
was a harsh one. Starvation and disease took theColony in 1643. They based their government on
lives of two hundred people, and another twothat of Massachusetts, but they maintained an
hundred returned to England in the spring. But theeven stricter adherence to the Puritan discipline.
core group of Puritans persevered.The New England Confederation
The Connecticut ColonyWhen civil war in England broke out in 1641, the
The Massachusetts Puritans drove many peopleNew England colonists-more than twenty
from their colony with their strict rules, but therethousand, with fifty villages, almost forty
were others who left of their own free will. Theychurches, and currently without any pressure
were not content with the Puritans and decidedfrom the motherland-seriously began to
to leave. Among these were the founders ofcontemplate the establishment of a new nation. In
Connecticut. They settled the towns of Hartford,1643, the British Parliament acknowledged that
Windsor, and Wethersfield on the Connecticut"the plantations in New England had, by the
River.blessing of the Almighty, had good and
At about the same time, John Winthrop, Jr. led aprosperous success without any public charge to
colony to Saybrook, at the mouth of thethe parent state."
Connecticut River. Up to that time, the DutchThe New England Confederation was a political and
seemed to have the best chance to settle themilitary alliance of the British colonies of Plymouth,
Connecticut Valley, but the control of that regionMassachusetts Bay, Connecticut, and New Haven.
was then firmly in the hands of the English.Established in 1643, its primary purpose was to
The Connecticut people had no charter, and theyunite the Puritan colonies against the Native
wanted something more definite than a vagueAmericans living in their midst, against the French
compact. So in the winter of 1638-39 they metto their north, and the Dutch in the New
at Hartford and set down on paper a completeNetherland Colony to their west.
set of rules for their guidance. The ConnecticutThe colonists living in Rhode Island, New
constitution of 1638-39 is looked upon as "the firstHampshire, and Maine asked to be admitted to
truly political written constitution in history." Thethe Confederation, but were denied.
government they established was similar to thatMassachusetts Bay Governor John Winthrop said
of Massachusetts, with one key exception-inthey were refused, "because they ran a different
Connecticut you didn't have to be a member ofcourse from us, both in their ministry and civil
the church to vote and participate in theadministration." Whatever that means.
government.The business of the confederation was to be
Rhode Islandtransacted by a commission of eight men, two
Roger Williams, a Puritan minister, disagreed withfrom each colony. A vote of six was required to
the Massachusetts leaders on several points. Hecarry a measure. The expenses as well as the
thought that the colonists had no right to landsspoils of war were to be divided among the
that were not purchased from the Nativecolonies, according to their male populations
Americans. And he insisted that the rulers had nobetween the ages of sixteen and thirty years.
power in religious matters. He insisted on theseThe confederation disintegrated in 1654 after
points so strongly that the MassachusettsMassachusetts Bay Colony refused to join the
government expelled him from the colony.war against the Netherlands during the First
In the spring of 1636, with four companions, heAnglo-Dutch War.
founded the town of Providence. There heSocial Conditions
decided that every one should be free to worshipThe New England colonies were all settled on the
God as he or she saw fit. Other nonconformiststown system. Each town consisted of a church
followed Roger Williams to that region, includingcongregation, with family homes and public
Anne Hutchinson and William Coddington, whobuildings. In the middle of the community was the
founded Portsmouth in 1638.Puritan church, where services were held every
A short-lived dispute sent Coddington to theSunday, and by law everyone had to attend. The
southern tip of Aquidneck Island (purchased fromchurch building also served as the meeting house,
the Narragansetts), where he established Newportwhere laws were made and town business was
in 1639. The fourth original town, Warwick, wasconducted.
settled in 1642 by Samuel Gorton, anotherThere were no crops that demanded large
dissident from Portsmouth.plantations-like the cultivation of tobacco in Virginia.
These communities were founded on the principleThe colonists were small farmers, mechanics,
of absolute freedom of conscience. Most of theship-builders, and fishermen. Unable to afford
settlers were people who couldn't endure theservants or slaves, the colonists relied upon the
rigors of Puritan theology, law, and custom. Infamily labor of their sons and daughters.
fact, they couldn't agree among themselves, andThe family was the social unit. The healthy climate
for many years Rhode Island was the mostand good diet enabled parents to raise six or
turbulent of all the New England colonies. Their soulseven children to maturity. By age ten, boys
liberty, as Roger Williams called it, apparently didn'tworked with their fathers in the fields and barn,
extend to civil matters.while daughters assisted their mothers in the
New HavenJohn Davenport, an extreme Puritanhouse and garden. Most sons remained unmarried
clergyman, and Theophilus Eaton, a Londonand worked on the family farm until their middle
merchant, were the leaders of the Eastlandor late twenties, knowing that their fathers could
Company that eventually settled the Colony ofeventually provide them with a farm from the
New Haven. The leaders and many of theirfamily rights in the town lands.
followers were men of considerable property. The