Notes: Settling the Northern Colonies, 1619–1700
Puritan Origins and the Protestant Reformation
The Northern vs Southern pattern of settlement emerged from different motives and economies, shaping distinct regional characteristics that persisted for generations.
South: promise of riches, tobacco economy, plantation culture.
North (New England and Middle Colonies): religious devotion shaped early settlements more than worldly wealth.
The Protestant Reformation (began with Martin Luther in 1517) produced Puritanism as a dominant religious force in parts of England and its colonies.
Luther denounced priestly authority; Bible as the sole source of God’s word.
Calvin, a Swiss reformer, elaborated Luther’s ideas and helped shape American religious thought.
Calvinism and its core doctrines:
God is all-powerful and all-good; human beings are inherently weak because of original sin.
God is all-knowing and determines who will be saved (the elect) and who will be damned (predestination).
Salvation is not earned by good works; however, the elect must demonstrate signs of conversion and sanctified living to be visible saints.
Conversion: a profound personal experience revealing the elect’s heavenly destiny; leads to holy, disciplined living.
English religious reform and the Puritans:
Henry VIII’s break with Rome (in the 1530s) led to the Church of England; Puritans sought further purification from Catholic practices within England.
Puritans largely came from economically depressed woolen districts; Calvinist discipline offered spiritual comfort amid social unrest.
Puritans split into Moderates (reform from within the Church) and Separatists (break with the Church of England).
Separatists and the Pilgrims:
In 1608, Separatists fled to Holland to maintain English religious purity; dissatisfied with Dutchification of their children, they sought a safer English haven.
Negotiated with the Virginia Company to settle under its jurisdiction; their Mayflower trip carried 102 people (one died en route; one born—Oceanus).
The Mayflower Compact (before disembarking) established a crude government and majority rule, not a constitution, signed by 41 adult males (not by servants or two seamen).
Plymouth’s economy: fur, fish, lumber; its core claim to historical significance lay in moral leadership and spiritual purpose rather than size or wealth.
Plymouth and the Pilgrims
Plymouth’s first winter (1620–1621) claimed 44 of 102 lives; only a few were well enough to bury the dead.
The next autumn (1621) yielded a bountiful harvest and the first Thanksgiving.
Leaders:
William Bradford: self-taught scholar (Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French, Dutch); chosen governor 30 times; feared non-Puritan settlers on their own terms might disrupt the experiment.
Economic base: fur, fish, lumber; beaver and Bible as sustaining bodies for body and soul.
Plymouth’s scale:
Tiny in numbers and economy, but morally and spiritually influential; population around 7000 by 1691 when it merged with the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
The Massachusetts Bay Colony: Building a Bible Commonwealth
Origins and migration:
Puritans sought to reform the Church of England from within; many were highly educated and prosperous.
The 1629 charter for the Massachusetts Bay Company enabled a sizable settlement with Boston as its hub; the charter functioned as a deeds-like constitution, shielded from direct royal control for years.
The Great Migration (1630s) brought about a flood of Puritans to New England: ~70{,}000 English refugees left England; ~20{,}000 to Massachusetts; many others to the Caribbean island of Barbados.
John Winthrop: a leading governor, moved from England; saw his mission as a calling from God to lead a holy community.
Economic life and growth:
Core industries: fur trading, fishing, shipbuilding; Massachusetts Bay rapidly became the most influential New England outpost.
Winthrop’s vision: “We shall be as a city upon a hill,” serving as a beacon to humanity.
Governance and church-state relations:
Franchise: about two-fifths of adult males were freemen; qualification required church membership.
Town governments: broader franchise for male property holders; decided local matters by majority rule.
The Congregational Church: mass membership criteria; the church wielded significant influence on civil life.
Clergy governance: John Cotton and other preachers defended the government’s duty to enforce religious rules; ministers could be hired or fired by congregations but could not hold political office.
Separation of church and state in limited form: the Puritans avoided an unholy fusion of church and state; yet religious norms guided public life and taxation supported the church.
Social and cultural life:
Protestant ethic: workers saw a calling in earthly labor; religious devotion did not preclude worldly pleasures, yet laws (e.g., sumptuary laws) regulated behavior (e.g., New Haven’s Blue Laws).
The Day of Doom (Michael Wigglesworth, 1662) captured Puritan views of eternal fate.
The governing structure and key figures:
John Cotton: prominent minister who defended the state’s duty to enforce religious rules; he preached and prayed extensively.
The clergy’s power was significant but not absolute; congregations controlled ministerial hiring and salaries.
The Puritan Experience in Everyday Life
The Puritans’ worldview combined spiritual seriousness with practical governance:
A covenant-based government aimed to enforce God’s laws for believers and nonbelievers alike.
Economic and social life involved disciplined, communal responsibility; the “calling” shaped daily routines and labor.
The social fabric included respect for education, literacy, and religious study; yet dissenters and nonconformists faced penalties.
Dissent, dissenters, and dissenting communities:
Quakers faced fines, floggings, and banishments for defying Puritan authority.
Anne Hutchinson challenged predestination doctrine and asserted that internal revelations trumped civil and religious law; banished in 1638; died in New York after leaving Massachusetts Bay.
Roger Williams rejected civil government’s authority over religious practice and promoted religious liberty; founded Rhode Island with complete religious toleration, including Jews and Catholics; allowed freedom of worship, no oaths of allegiance to a church, no taxes to support a state church, and sheltered Quakers.
Rhode Island earned a reputation as a liberal haven; earned the nickname "Little Rhody" and the title of the traditional home of the otherwise minded; its initial squatters gained charter rights in 1644.
The Expansion of New England
Connecticut and New Haven:
Hartford founded in 1635; Thomas Hooker led Puritans westward toward the Connecticut River.
The Fundamental Orders (1639): a modern constitution that established a democratically controlled regime by substantial citizens; later used as a model for Connecticut’s charter and state constitution.
New Haven (1638): founded by Puritans aiming to create a tighter church-government alliance than Massachusetts; 1662 charter merged New Haven with the Connecticut Valley settlements.
Maine and New Hampshire:
Maine: earlier settlements by both Dutch and English; absorbed by Massachusetts Bay in 1623–1641; formally purchased in 1677; remained part of Massachusetts for about 150 years.
New Hampshire: settled along the coast by Puritans; absorbed by Massachusetts in 1641 under a charter interpretation; became a royal colony in 1679 when the king separated it from Massachusetts.
Caribbean migration and the Great Migration’s broader context:
The Caribbean received more Puritans than New England; sugar economy and indentured labor reshaped English colonization patterns.
Indigenous relations and conflicts:
Epidemics prior to Plymouth’s arrival devastated local tribes (Wampanoag), paving the way for English settlement.
Squanto and Massasoit facilitated initial cooperation; a treaty with Plymouth in 1621 helped sustain early relations.
Later conflicts, notably Metacom (King Philip) in 1675–1676, forged a pan-Indian alliance against English expansion; 52 Puritan towns attacked; 12 destroyed; Metacom was killed and his family enslaved; his head displayed at Plymouth for years.
King Philip’s War marked a turning point, slowing westward expansion and entrenching English dominance in New England.
Confederations and Early Unity in New England
New England Confederation (1643):
Four Puritan colonies (Bay Colony, Plymouth, New Haven, Connecticut Valley settlements) formed a defensive alliance against Indians, French, and Dutch; also handled intercolonial problems like runaway servants and criminals.
Each member colony had two votes; Rhode Island and Maine were excluded for alleged heterodoxy and undesirable traits.
It was the first meaningful step toward intercolonial unity and provided experience in delegated representative government.
Tensions with England and imperial overreach:
Charles II’s restoration in 1660 re-energized royal authority in the colonies; Massachusetts’s early independence began to be challenged.
1662: Connecticut received a sea-to-sea charter grant that legitimized squatters; Rhode Island earned a charter in 1644 and then again under royal authority in 1663.
1684: Massachusetts’s charter was revoked; 1686: Dominion of New England established under royal authority.
The Dominion aimed to enforce Navigation Laws, streamline administration, and consolidate control over New England and nearby colonies.
Sir Edmund Andros and the Dominion:
Andros led the Dominion; he dissolved town meetings, tightened courts and schools, revoked land titles, and taxed without consent; enforced Anglican toleration and Navigation Laws.
The Dominion provoked resistance; Glorious Revolution (1688-1689) toppled James II in England and collapsed the Dominion when news reached America.
Aftermath and salutary neglect:
1691: Massachusetts became a royal colony with a new charter; voting rights opened to all qualified male property holders (eroding the prior church-based franchise).
The Glorious Revolution inspired colonial resistance, loosening royal grip and ushering in a period of salutary neglect where smuggling and colonial self-government became more common.
The Atlantic Context: The Dutch and the Swedes in New Netherland
Dutch New Netherland (1623–1664):
A company town run by the Dutch West India Company; focus on fur trade and commercial interests rather than religious toleration or democratic governance.
Purchases from Native Americans (including Manhattan) were made with trinkets; New Amsterdam became the colonial hub.
The colony featured a cosmopolitan population and aristocratic tendencies; patroonships granted to promoters who settled large numbers of people.
The Wall Street name originated from protective walls on Manhattan; Dutch cultural influence left a legacy in place names, architecture, and customs (e.g., Easter eggs, waffles, sauerkraut, bowling, skating, kolf).
The Dutch and English conflict:
Several Anglo-Dutch wars in the 17th century; New Netherland came under English assault due to strategic location and economic ambition.
Swedish Delaware and New Sweden (1638–1655):
The Swedes established New Sweden along the Delaware; the Dutch, led by Peter Stuyvesant, seized the territory in 1655, ending Swedish rule.
Delaware’s Swedish legacy persisted in place names and early settlers; eventually integrated into New Netherland and later into Pennsylvania.
Henry Hudson and the Dutch claim:
Hudson’s voyage (1609) into Delaware and New York Bays; his exploration laid claims to the Hudson River region for the Dutch.
New Sweden and Dutch resistance:
The Swedish colony’s failure to sustain itself contrasted with Dutch consolidation of power in the Hudson Valley.
Social and political culture in New Netherland/New York:
The Dutch colony remained autocratic and aristocratic; dissenters faced persecution; religious toleration limited, though a local assembly eventually gained some power.
By 1664, England seized New Netherland; New Amsterdam renamed New York in honor of the Duke of York.
New York’s long-term impact:
A strategically placed harbor between New England and the Chesapeake; a gateway to the interior via the Hudson River.
The early aristocratic landholding patterns and strong families (Livingstons, De Lanceys) shaped New York politics for generations.
The Quaker presence beyond Pennsylvania:
Quaker influence expanded to Delaware and New Jersey, where religious toleration and liberal ideas slowly took root, though often constrained by royal oversight.
The Quakers and the Pennsylvania Experiment (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware)
The Quakers (Religious Society of Friends):
Emerged in mid-1600s England; pacifists who refused oaths, military service, and supported simple worship without paid clergy.
Quakers spoke in meetings when moved, treated women as equals in church decision-making, and wore broad-brimmed hats as a sign of humility.
They confronted authorities with toleration and nonviolence; faced persecution in England and in some colonies.
William Penn and the founding of Pennsylvania (1681):
Penn, a young Englishman and devout Quaker, received a large land grant from the king to settle in America (the colony named Pennsylvania, “Penn’s Woodland”).
Penn advertised the colony vigorously in multiple languages (English, Dutch, French, German) to attract diverse settlers and investors.
Penn’s Charter established a liberal political framework with a representative assembly elected by landowners; no tax-supported state church; freedom of worship for most groups; naturalization and immigration policies favored economic opportunity.
Relations with Native Americans were framed as fair and respectful; Penn’s treaties with chiefs like Tammany were highlighted as models of peaceful coexistence; Indians sometimes served as caretakers in early Philadelphia.
The Qua kers’ influence on society was significant, yet continued to face challenges from non-Quaker settlers, Scots-Irish, and others who settled nearby.
Pennsylvania’s governance and social policy:
Proprietary regime: a liberal and inclusive system with a representative assembly and landowner voting rights.
No state church; freedom of worship; Catholic and Jewish groups faced restrictions on political participation under pressure from London.
The death penalty existed for treason and murder, but not as many capital crimes as in England.
No formal military defense plan; the colony emphasized civil liberty and reform. Slavery began to appear, but Quaker anti-slavery sentiments gained traction in the colony.
The Middle Colonies: economic and social democracy
The Middle Colonies—New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania—shared features: fertile soil, broad land areas, river systems (Susquehanna, Delaware, Hudson) that supported fur trade and inland commerce; relatively diversified economies including lumber, shipbuilding, and farming.
They earned the nickname the “bread colonies” due to heavy grain exports; urban centers (Philadelphia, New York) grew into significant commercial hubs.
The region was ethnically mixed and economically diverse, with Quakers contributing strongly to the social fabric and political life.
Benjamin Franklin: a quintessential figure of the Middle Colonies; the Philadelphia-born polymath who embodied Enlightenment ideals and urban modernity.
New Jersey and Delaware:
New Jersey: formed in 1664 when two proprietary proprietors received the area from the Duke of York; later divided into East and West Jersey; Quakers acquired West Jersey in 1674 and established a sanctuary there.
Delaware: Swedish-influenced colony; three counties; originally under Penn’s influence; gained its own assembly in 1703 but remained under Pennsylvania governance until independence.
The Philadelphia example:
Philadelphia’s growth symbolizes the urban and commercial potential of the Middle Colonies; Penn’s founding planning contributed to a city famous for its openness and civic life.
Summary of the Middle Colonies:
A comparatively tolerant religious climate, strong commercial opportunities, and a mix of settlers from different European backgrounds.
The region served as a bridge between the intensely Puritan New England and the plantation South.
Chronology Highlights (Selected Milestones)
1517: Martin Luther begins the Protestant Reformation.
1536: John Calvin publishes Institutes of the Christian Religion.
1620: Pilgrims sail to Plymouth Bay aboard the Mayflower; Mayflower Compact signed (41 signatories).
1624: Dutch establish New Netherland.
1629-1641: Charles I dismisses Parliament and persecutes Puritans; Great Migration grows.
1630-1642: Puritans establish Massachusetts Bay Colony; large incoming migration to New England.
1635-1636: Connecticut and New Haven colonies formed; Hartford founded (1635).
1637: Pequot War; Puritan forces destroy a Pequot village at Mystic River.
1638-1643: Anne Hutchinson banished (1638); Roger Williams banished (1635–1636) and found Rhode Island (1644 charter).
1639: Fundamental Orders drafted in Connecticut; considered a modern constitution.
1643: New England Confederation formed by four Puritan colonies.
1650-1655: New Netherland conquers New Sweden (Delaware) and Dutch presence solidifies.
1664-1665: English seize New Netherland; New Amsterdam renamed New York; Duke of York assumes control.
1669-1700: Quakers establish Pennsylvania; William Penn founds Philadelphia (1682–1683 planning era); Penn’s Treaty (treaty with Indians) is celebrated as a symbol of peaceful relations.
1680s-1690s: Dominion of New England established (1686) and dissolved after the Glorious Revolution (1688–1689); Andros deposed.
1691-1692: Massachusetts becomes a royal colony; Salem witch trials peak around 1692 in nearby Massachusetts; RI and CT charter stability increases.
1700: By 1700, the Middle Colonies and New England show distinct regional identities; the Atlantic world links English, Dutch, Swedish, German, and African labor in complex ways.
The Atlantic Context and Historiography
Debates about American origins: Europeanization vs. Americanization.
Earlier scholarship emphasized European roots; later work emphasizes a distinct American experience shaped by cross-cultural contact and adaptation.
A transatlantic approach highlights cultural exchange among European, African, and Native American people; emphasizes how the environment and intergroup contact shaped colonial societies.
Key interpretive shifts:
The role of Caribbean labor in the colonization of the Chesapeake and the rise of slavery in English America.
The diversity of English migration, including family groups and individuals, with varying religious, economic, and political motivations.
The Middle Colonies as a site of pluralism and democratic experiment, with religious liberty and economic openness, contrasting with the more religiously uniform Puritan sphere in New England.
Quantitative snapshots (approximate by 1700):
To the Caribbean: about 220{,}000 English migrants.
To the southern mainland colonies: about 120{,}000.
To the middle Atlantic and New England: about 40{,}000, though this later grew to dominate the colonial population.
Scholarly contributions:
Richard S. Dunn, Sugar and Slaves (1972): emphasizes Caribbean economic factors in early English colonization.
Edmund S. Morgan, American Slavery, American Freedom (1975): stresses economic motivations behind English settlement and slavery in the Chesapeake.
Bernard Bailyn and David Hackett Fisher: explore Europeanizing America or Americanizing Europe as a dynamic question.
Overall takeaway:
By 1700, colonial America displayed notable diversity in peoples, economies, governance, and religious life; it was not simply a transplant of English institutions but a borrowing, adaptation, and innovation in a new world.
Illustrative Details, Examples, and Metaphors
"Beaver and the Bible" — Puritan life balanced material sustenance with spiritual aims.
The Mayflower Compact as a precedent to written constitutions — an early example of self-government by agreement, not a royal charter.
City upon a hill — Winthrop’s metaphor for practiced virtue and exemplary governance.
The “Sewer” of Rhode Island — Rhode Island earned its reputation for religious toleration and divergence from Puritan orthodoxy.
Anne Hutchinson’s antinomianism — the notion that faith alone could secure salvation challenged the moral authority of civil law; her banishment helped free religious practice in the colonies.
Rhode Island’s religious toleration and asylum for Quakers — a model of pluralism in early American life.
King Philip’s War as a turning point — a brutal conflict that redefined Indian-European relations and slowed colonial expansion.
The Dutch Wall Street and place names — cultural memory embedded in urban geography and toponymy (Harlem, Brooklyn, Hell Gate).
The Franklin chest anecdote (Seventeenth-Century Valuables Cabinet) — example of material culture illustrating the social history of the era.
The 1689 Glorious Revolution in America — exemplifies the link between English political upheaval and colonial political evolution.
Connections to Foundational Principles and Real-World Relevance
The Puritan experiment in Massachusetts established early debates about the role of religion in governance, church-state relations, and the definition of political participation (franchise tied to church membership).
Rhode Island’s religious liberty and Penn’s Pennsylvania reflected long-term questions about tolerance, pluralism, and civil rights that would shape American political philosophy.
The Middle Colonies’ mixed economy and religious toleration foreshadowed the eventual American model of diverse regional economies and mainstreamed principles of religious liberty and representative government.
The era’s conflicts (Pequot War, King Philip’s War) demonstrate how frontier expansion and intergroup relations shaped American frontier policy and intercolonial cooperation.
The historiographical shift toward transatlantic and comparative history helps explain why colonial America cannot be understood solely through a European lens; it was a complex, hybrid society formed by multiple cultural streams.
The role of enslaved labor grows in later chapters, but early indentured servitude (e.g., in the Chesapeake) sets the stage for a broader labor system that would transition to slavery as the colonies evolved.
Appendix: The Chronology and Further Reading
Chronology snapshot (selected events in approximate sequence) are provided above; see dedicated sections for detailed dates and context.
For further reading, appendices in the source text provide additional context and recommended web resources.