New England and Religious Change Lecture Notes

Vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts, people, and events related to New England history, religious change, the Enlightenment, and the Great Awakening, based on lecture notes.

New England society (1600s)

Largely based on religion and intolerant of dissent.

British reassertion of control

Achieved by revoking charters, dissolving governments, and enforcing trade laws in the colonies.

Enlightenment

Attitudes transported along international trade routes, spreading the belief that reason could improve society.

Great Awakening

A revival of faith that swept through the colonies during the 1730s, leading to new congregations and the insistence that Christians be 'reborn'.

New England life expectancy

Healthier than England, with residents gaining 5 years of life expectancy.

Women in New England (MA)

Did not participate in town meetings and were excluded from decision-making in the church.

New England self-government

Composed of a governor and a two-house legislature.

New England farms

Chiefly produced for subsistence and local sale.

Coastal towns (e.g., Boston, Salem)

Became bustling seaports, serving as focal points for trade and entry for immigrants.

Puritan New England authority

The Bible, as interpreted by ministers and magistrates.

Nonconformity (Puritanism)

Considered a threat to civil order and subject to punishment.

Roger Williams' beliefs

Preached that the Massachusetts Bay Company had no right to Indian land, that church and state should be separate, and that Puritans should not impose their ideas on others.

Providence

Town founded by Roger Williams in 1636 after being banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Anne Hutchinson

Questioned the importance of the institutional church and its ministers, proclaiming the faithful could communicate directly with God, leading to her banishment.

Antinomianism

A term used by Puritans to describe Anne Hutchinson's teachings, implying a discarding of the moral law or opposition to the moral law.

Navigation Acts

Crown's efforts to reassert control and enforce mercantilist expectations, particularly in New England.

King James II

King who ascended the throne in 1685 and sought to centralize English strength around the throne by creating the Dominion of New England.

Dominion of New England

An enormous colony created by King James II, effectively eliminating a number of existing colonial governments.

Glorious Revolution

Led to the establishment of an English nation that limited the power of the king and provided protections for English subjects.

English Toleration Act of 1689

Provided for greater religious diversity in the British Empire.

Salem Witchcraft Hysteria

A tragic climax in Massachusetts's transition from Puritan utopia to royal colony in 1692–1693.

Causes of Salem Witchcraft Trials

Long-standing quarrels and belief that neighbors had allied with the Devil to cause misfortunes, often involving middle-aged women who had angered their neighbors.

Impact of Salem Witchcraft Trials

Signaled the beginning of the end of Puritanism as a potent force in Massachusetts and triggered a distrust of government.

Enlightenment (definition)

An intellectual and cultural movement in the eighteenth century that emphasized reason over superstition and science over blind faith.

Rationalism

The idea that humans are capable of using their faculty of reason to gain knowledge.

Empiricism

Promotes the idea that knowledge comes from experience and observation of the world.

Progressivism

The belief that through their powers of reason and observation, humans could make unlimited, linear progress over time.

Cosmopolitanism

The belief in being citizens of the world and actively engaged in it.

Deism

An Enlightenment-era belief in a God who created, but has no continuing involvement in, the world and the events within it.

Itinerants

Outspoken traveling evangelists during the Great Awakening who claimed most local parish ministers were incompetent.