Finishing Chapter 2 Colonial America Governance, Expansion, and Indian Wars Notes

Political Evolution of the Massachusetts Bay Colony

• Initial Governance and Charter Misconceptions:

  • Freemen originally believed their sole political power was electing assistants to the governor.

  • By $1644$ (after initial realizations in $1634$), freemen discovered that Governor John Winthrop had hidden key provisions of the colony charter to maintain tight personal control.

  • The charter actually granted freemen—not the governor—the power to pass laws and levy taxes.

• Restructuring into a Bicaemral Legislature ($1644$):

  • Within $14$ years of founding, the Massachusetts Bay Colony transformed from a joint-stock company into a representative governing body modeled on the English Parliament.

  • House of Lords Equivalent: Composed of wealthy elite, council members, and the governor's cabinet.

  • House of Commons Equivalent: Composed of elected representatives (deputies) chosen by local freemen to represent individual communities in the General Court (General Assembly).

Religious Dissenters and the Founding of Rhode Island

• Roger Williams:

  • A Separatist minister belonging to the Pilgrim branch who preached in Salem and Plymouth.

  • Condemned the Massachusetts Bay leadership for lacking religious purity and argued that civil government should have no authority to enforce religious compliance in a theocracy.

  • Banished from Massachusetts Bay; fled south and founded Providence Plantation in $1636$.

  • Providence became the first settlement in Rhode Island, establishing strong self-governance and religious freedom.

  • Granted a formal colonial charter in $1643$ (after forming a confederation in $1640$).

• Gender Roles and Paternalism in Puritan Society:

  • Social and legal structure was strictly paternalistic; women were treated as invisible non-entities under the law.

  • Women were viewed primarily as vessels to produce male heirs and were expected to accept second-class status as taught by both Catholic and Protestant traditions.

  • Women were permitted to engage in independent activities only with their husband's explicit permission and strictly among other women.

• Anne Hutchinson:

  • Taught that the physical presence of the Holy Spirit inside a believer's heart exempted them from divine and earthly religious laws dictated by male church leaders.

  • Rejected the belief that good deeds, noble acts, claims of divine visions, or earthly wealth guaranteed salvation.

  • Originally held meetings for women, but male colonists eventually began attending her gatherings.

  • Arrested and tried by colonial leaders for heresy and subverting political authority. Despite effectively out-arguing her accusers during the trial, she was banished from the colony.

  • Fled first to Providence Plantation, but left due to leadership conflicts with Roger Williams.

  • Relocated to Long Island, where she suffered a miscarriage. Massachusetts Bay leaders cited her tragic loss as divine retribution, stating God punished her for defying authority.

Settlement of Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Maine

• Founding of Connecticut ($1637$):

  • Driven westward along the Connecticut River Valley by congregations seeking open land, which had been cleared due to severe Native American depopulation from European diseases.

  • Led by Thomas Hooker in $1637$, three Plymouth congregations established the Connecticut Colony.

  • Joined by strict Puritans who founded New Haven as a refuge for rigid religious separatism from England.

• Impact of Royal Charters:

  • Royal charters altered local governance rules for joint-stock or proprietary colonies.

  • Religious persecution limits: Colonies could no longer banish other religious sects or mutilate dissidents (such as cutting out the tongues of Quakers/Religious Society of Friends before expelling them).

  • Economic obligations: Royal colonies were forced to tolerate other sects and pay mandatory taxes to support the established Church of England.

• New Hampshire and Maine:

  • In $1662$, land north of Massachusetts was granted to Fernando Gorges and John Mason, who split the property at the Piscataqua River.

  • Mason took the southern section (New Hampshire); Gorges took the northern section (Province of Maine).

  • During the $1640$s and $1650$s, Massachusetts unilaterally annexed both territories based on overlapping charter boundaries.

  • Following $28$ years of legal battles, the English Privy Council separated New Hampshire from Maine, designating New Hampshire as an independent royal colony.

  • Massachusetts purchased the rights from Gorges's heirs, keeping Maine as a district of Massachusetts until $1820$.

Native American Populations and the Pequot War

• Regional Native Tribes (Algonquian Language Group):

  • Connecticut: Mohican.

  • Rhode Island: Narragansett.

  • Massachusetts: Wampanoag and Massachusett.

  • Maine: Abenaki.

• Demographic Collapse ($1610$–$1675$):

  • An inflow of $80\,000$ English settlers over $14$ years introduced smallpox epidemics.

  • The Abenaki population dropped from $12\,000$ to $3\,000$.

  • Southern New England native populations fell from $65\,000$ to $10\,000$.

  • Governor William Bradford noted that native people died miserably "like rotten sheep."

  • Puritans interpreted the high mortality of native women and children ("the seeds of increase") as divine providence clearing land for Congregationalists.

• The Pequot War ($1636$–$1637$):

  • In $1636$, Puritans attacked the Pequots (a subgroup of the Mohicans) to seize land.

  • Roger Williams convinced the Narragansett to ally with the English against their Pequot rivals.

  • In $1637$, English and Narragansett forces surrounded a Pequot fort near Mystic, Connecticut, set it ablaze, and burned approximately $6\,100$ people to death.

  • Final Engagement: Remaining Pequots were trapped in a swamp; adult men were killed, boys were sold into slavery in the West Indies, and women and girls were distributed as enslaved servants to Puritans.

Cultural Interactions and King Philip's War

• Anglo-Native Relations and Trade:

  • Native adoption of English culture or trade led to localized peace; native words adopted into English include squaw, papoose, moccasin, wigwam, and succotash.

  • The first book printed in the American colonies was an Algonquian-language Bible created for missionary work.

  • Trader Thomas Morton noted that Native Americans ("infidels") were vastly more humane and friendly than Christian settlers.

• King Philip's War ($1675$–$1676$):

  • Native forces acquired muskets and metalworking skills, initially threatening English military control.

  • In August $1676$, native leader Massasoit's grandson (King Philip / Metacom) was killed in battle, destroying the tribal confederation.

  • Over $500$ native survivors were exported into overseas slavery from Plymouth alone, including Metacom's wife and son.

Proprietary Expansion and the Iroquois Confederacy

• The Carolinas:

  • North Carolina (Albemarle): Settled around $1650$ near the Dismal Swamp; viewed by authorities as a pirate haven; received a governor in $1664$ and assembly in $1665$; first official town established in $1770$.

  • South Carolina: Founded by eight proprietors who recruited seasoned slaveholders from Barbados accustomed to tropical climates and disease.

  • Charleston (Charles Town): Established in $1670$ and moved in $1680$ between the Ashley and Cooper Rivers (named after proprietor Lord Ashley Cooper).

  • John Locke: Drafted the initial colonial constitution for South Carolina alongside Lord Ashley Cooper.

  • Transitioned to royal colonies: South Carolina in $1719$, North Carolina in $1729$

• The Iroquois Confederacy:

  • Formed around $1570$ by Hiawatha (Onondaga) to end destructive inter-tribal blood feuds by setting fixed financial compensation rates for homicides.

  • Composed of Five Nations: Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca ("Iroquois" is an Algonquian term meaning "snake").

  • Feared by neighboring groups (Tobacco, Delaware, Susquehannock, Conestoga, Huron, Fox, Sauk, Kickapoo).

  • Matriarchal Structure: Clan mothers elected male leaders and controlled politics. Men resided with their mothers-in-law and lived in longhouses ($50$–$100$ feet long, housing up to $20$ families).

  • Utilized wampum belts for diplomatic treaties and record-keeping.

  • Political structure served as a direct model studied during the drafting of the U.S. Constitution.

Proprietary Development of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware

• New York:

  • Originally settled in $1614$ as the Dutch colony of New Netherland, centered around the fur trade.

  • In $1626$, Dutch Governor Peter Minuit purchased Manhattan Island from local tribes.

  • Dutch attempts to form feudal manors (patroonships) failed due to poor governance.

  • In $1664$, James, Duke of York (brother of King Charles II), brought a fleet to take the colony; the Dutch surrendered without a shot being fired.

• New Jersey:

  • Granted in $1664$ by the Duke of York to Sir George Carteret and Lord John Berkeley.

  • Divided into East and West Jersey; settled by Scots, Swedes, Finns, and English Quakers.

  • Burlington: Founded as a Quaker settlement in $1677$

  • Bristol: Founded in $1681$ by Samuel Clift, who received a $262$-acre grant to operate a ferry service across the Delaware River to Burlington (ferry operated for $250$ years until the Burlington-Bristol lift bridge opened in $1931$).

  • Reunified into a single royal colony in $1702$

• Pennsylvania and William Penn:

  • William Penn: Son of Admiral Sir William Penn; expelled from Oxford; beaten by his father; converted to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) at age $22$–$23$.

  • Quaker Doctrines: Founded in $1647$ by George Fox; centered on the "Inner Light" (divine presence in all individuals); practiced absolute pacifism; rejected religious hierarchy, titles, and headstones.

  • Founding of Pennsylvania ($1682$): Granted to Penn by King Charles II to settle a royal debt owed to Penn's late father. Penn established it as a proprietary "Holy Experiment" guaranteeing absolute freedom of worship to anyone believing in one God.

  • Philadelphia: Laid out at a strategic river junction; named from Greek (Philo = love, Adelphia = city). Penn offered free city lots to purchasers of rural acreage.

  • Delaware: Granted to Penn in $1682$; maintained a separate assembly while sharing Pennsylvania's governor until becoming an independent colony.

Founding of Georgia

• The Georgia Charter ($1732$):

  • Granted by King George II to $21$ proprietors for land between the Savannah and Altamaha Rivers.

  • Designed with a dual purpose: a philanthropic refuge for debtor rehabilitation and persecuted European Protestants, and a military buffer zone against Spanish Florida.

  • Settled in $1733$ at Savannah with a diverse population (Germans, Swiss, Austrians, Scots, Portuguese Jews, Welsh).

  • The proprietary experiment failed to meet economic targets and surrendered its charter to become a royal colony in $1753$.