Chapter 2: Beginnings of English America (1607-1660)

The dawn of Catholicism in America brought many contradictions sparking religious wars between different groups. This led legislative, social, and political change in the country.

2.1 Exchange between John Smith and Powhatan (1608)

John Smith encounters Powhatan and his tribe. Details of this encounter displays the difference between Powhatan and Smith.

Misunderstanding between Smith and Powhatan

• Powhatan wanted forty copper swords
• Smith seeks corn and food for his men
• Smith believes that Powhatan thought that by subjecting the Smith’s men into labor, Smith shall now demand for an exchange
• Powhatan understands the intent of Smith’s settlement in his home; to invade his people not for trade
• Smith argues that Powhatan’s people have violated the promise that they discussed, hence, Powhatan should not demand his terms

2.2 Sending Women to Virginia (1622)

The Virginia Company promoted the immigration of women to be married off to independent colonists. However, %%Virginia remained flooding with widows, single men and orphans.%%

• A ship arrives containing one widow and eleven mades for wives for the people in Virginia
  • The women were carefully chosen and given good reference
• Instructions were sent to Master Pountis
  • The women must be housed, lodged, and fed until their engagement to their husbands
  • The women who cannot marry immediately are to be cared for until they find a suitable husband
  • The women are preferred to marry into landowners rather than servants
  • They want the women to be cared for
  • The women represent the company and their intent with this project

2.3 Maryland Act Concerning Religion (1644)

Institutionalized the principle of toleration that had prevailed from the colony’s beginning. It punished anyone who “troubled or molested“ a Christian for religious reasons.

Members excluded from toleration under the MaryLand law

• The law excluded everyone else except the christians

Major Reasons for instituting religious toleration

• Maryland was falling into anarchy due to the religious-political battles of the English Civil War in 1640s
  • Became the milestone in the early history of religious freedom in America

2.4 John Winthrop, Speech to the Massachusetts General Court (1645)

In a 1645 speech to the Massachusetts legislature explaining the Puritan conception of freedom, Governor John Winthrop distinguished sharply between two kinds of liberty.

Winthrop’s Definition of Liberty

• Liberty is two-fold
  • Natural - based on human nature
  • Incompatible and inconsistent with authority
  • Cannot endure the least restraint of the most just authority
  • It makes men more evil and in time worse than brute beasts
  • Civil or federal or moral - refers to the covenant between God and man, in the moral law, and the politic covenants and constitutions, amongst men themselves
  • This liberty is the proper end and object of authority, and cannot subsist without it
  • It is a liberty to that only which is good, just, and honest
  • This is the liberty you have to stand for even if it endagers you and your possessions
  • It is maintained and exercised in a way of subjection to authority, the same as Christ’s endowment of freedom

Analogies of Liberty

• The status of women within the family
  • Women choose their husbands, but is bonded to their husband in such a way that they must be obedient to them.
  • Like civil liberty, one has the liberty to choose, however, is still obligated to follow religious and political authority.
  • Natural liberty is subjective in nature, leading men into wrongdoings, making it difficult for authority to handle.

2.5 The Trial of Anne Hutchinson (1637)

Anne Hutchinson was placed on trial for sedition (expressing opinions dangerous to authority). The trial showcases the classic example of the collision between established power and individual conscience.

Major charges against Anne Hutchinson

• Sedition - expressing opinions dangerous to authority.
  • Anne Hutchinson began holding meetings in her home where she discussed of religious issues
  • Hutchinson charged that most of the ministers in Massachusetts were guilty of faulty preaching
  • Distinguishing “saints“ predestined to go to Heaven from the damned through activities such as church attendance and moral behavior rather than by an internal state of grace

The Puritans Idea of Religious Freedom

• For Puritans, women are not allowed to speak up in society
  • “…maintained a meeting and an assembly in your house that hath been condemned by the general assembly as a thing not tolerable nor comely in the sight of God nor fitting for your sex…“

2.6 Roger Williams, Letter to the Town of Providence (1655)

Roger Williams, the son of a London merchant, studied at Cambridge University and emigrated to New England in 1631. He is considered one of the founders of the principle of religious toleration.

The Limits of Liberty

• Williams argued that if the religious were not affected by the justice, sobriety, and peace in the country.
• Preachers and members should not be forced by the government.
• However, If someone refused to perform their duties to society, they must be punished accordingly.
• A good religion encourages people to do good things and avoid evil things
• Religion teaches people right from wrong

Strengths and Weaknesses of Williams Analogy

WEAKNESS

• The tone is overly direct

STRENGTH

• A clear display of the extent and limits of liberty

2.7 The Levellers, The Agreement of the People Presented to the Council of the Army (1647)

In 1647, the Levellers, history’s first democratic political movement, proposed a written constitution, The Agreement of the People, which began by proclaiming “at how high a rate we value our just freedom.” At a time when “democracy” was still widely seen as the equivalent of anarchy and disorder, the document proposed to abolish the monarchy and House of Lords and greatly expand the right to vote. It called for religious freedom and equality before the law for all Englishmen.

Criticism of the Levellers

• The Levellers propose that “in all laws made or to be made every person may be bound alike“
  • The Levellers criticized the monarchy and its right to be above the law

The Main Rights the Levellers Want to Protect

• Freedom of conscience with regards to religion
• Equality under the laws
• All laws made or to be made every person may be bound alike