New England | In Class Notes

Non-Conformists

Pilgrims: religious separatists. They do not believe in multicultural.
Mayflower: On the way to America, they ran into a storm stopping at Massachusetts (Plymouth 1620)
Mayflower Compact: live together in a community of law. People do not agree with this.
Starving time (1620-1621)
- Half of the pilgrims starve to death because Massachusetts is cold, which dries out the livestock, leaving no food.
- Native Aid: Squanto
- Squanto is captured and brought to Spain, sold as a slave. He tells people he doesn’t want to be a slave. A Jesuit priest understands he is a native and saves him.
- He teaches the pilgrims how to farm and survive, allowing them to continue their journey.
Thomas Morton: Ruler of Ma Re Mount. Not by election but because he was the most able man.
Ma Re Mount: once ruled by an evil man, who treated them like slaves. Thomas threw him out. He allowed his people to practice their religion.
- The pilgrims hated him for it. They despised him, embracing love and being tolerant. So, they set Thomas on an island and burnt down Ma Re Mount

The Great Migration (1620-1640) 20,000 immigrated: In England at this time, there is a king, Charles. He believes in divine right. Catholic sympathizer.
- Plimouth hit its highest population in 1630. Unfortunately, they decline because of economic opportunity. This creates a new colony, the Massachusetts Bay Company
Massachusetts Bay Company: Established in 1628, this company aimed to create a new colony where Puritans could practice their religion freely and engage in profitable trade. Economics was its main goal.
- You can elect your own governor
Boston (1630): 1,000 people who lived there. The leader is a pertinent preacher.
John Winthrop: gives a sermon on Christian love and charity. He tells his followers to follow God’s laws, emphasizing the importance of community and mutual support, as they build their new society.
- Rules the colony for the next 13 years

In new england, the first thing you do is build a church
- Why?
  - Puritans believe in order to have a personal connection to Christ, you need to practice your faith, read the bible. So you build a church/school so you can have a personal relationship with Christ. No public schools till reconstruction.
- Settlement expansion: Small farms that grow wheat, barley, and corn.
- New england cannot have their economy without slaves
Motives?
- Population growth
- Land scarcity
- Religious differences
Triangular trade: Goods from the new world were transported to Europe, where they were exchanged for manufactured products, which in turn were sent to Africa in exchange for slaves, creating a complex economic system that significantly impacted New England's development.
- Molasses, rum, and sugar

“Little Commonwealths”
Women in New England are called “Deputy husbands”. They control where the kids go to school and how they treat people
- Huge role in planning the family, a huge amount a power. You cannot have a say without your wife’s agreement. They sew their own clothes and keep check of the books.
The man controls the family, traditional
Tight-knit communities

Puritans created a government for religious conformity, establishing laws based on their interpretation of scripture to ensure that the society adhered strictly to their religious values.
- You are required to go to church and practice their religion. Criminalized (illegal): Dancing, singing, adultery, booze, and laziness, premarital sex, gossip, if you wear clothing from another class of yours, and if you celebrate Christmas.
Puritans created Harvard College in 1636
- Goal: teach religion, teaching ministers how to spread the faith
- They have a printing press at Cambridge, MA (1640) to print Bibles. This means literacy is highly valued in Puritan society, as they believed that an educated population would lead to a stronger community.
Which craft?
- A long history in Europe of witch trials; the fear of witchcraft was prevalent among Puritan communities, leading to paranoia.

Roger Williams: Have a government connected to an established religion. He has come from prosecution in England. He did not believe that the king should have the power of life or death over you.
- Non-conformist. Does not like the church of England. He believed that church and state should not be connected.
- Gets kicked out of MA
Providence, Rhode Island (1636): Was Rogues land a place where non-conformists will go to escape persecution
Anne Hutchison: commits a crime of holding a prayer meeting in her own home with men and women.
- She is speaking her mind; she disagrees with the prime minister. She is calling out powerful men, and they don’t like it. Which then makes her expelled.
- She was banished, she quoted, “Better to be cast out of the church than to be….”
Mary Dyer (1660): She converted to a Quaker in MA. Which was illegal. She fought for her right to live in MA and be a Quaker. She then got executed for that reason.
- The MA government executes many Quakers.