The New England Colonies

The Puritans believed that God had commanded them to reform the church and people. They condemned drunkenness, gambling, and Sabbath-breaking and denounced some popular things such as celebrating Christmas. People were expected to live by a set of rules, high in standard and morals.

The Puritans turned into critics of the English government, when King James I refused to attack these "besetting evils". The King would not have this, and he set forth intending to get these people out of England. A small number of the Puritans, who became known as Separatists, fled England.

In 1608, one Separatist congregation at Scrooby decided to flee to Holland. These were humble people, and in Holland, they only found low-paying jobs. Some left the Separatists group for other religions.

In 1620, close to 100 Separatist "Pilgrims" left the Mayflower, at a place that was named Plymouth, on the coast of what is now southeastern Massachusetts. Unfortunately, problems came with the Separatists to the New World. The hardships of crossing the ocean and inadequate supplies left many hungry that winter. Local Indian tribes helped the Plymouth Colony, and they survived.

By the 1620's King Charles I, the son of King James I, was on the throne. More Puritans, still in England, became interested in colonization. In 1629, a group of merchants, gentlemen, and lawyers organized the Massachusetts Bay Company. The Massachusetts Bay Company received a royal charter confirming its title to most of present-day Massachusetts and New Hampshire,and securing its rights to govern the region.

The stockholders voted to transfer the company to Massachusetts Bay. They soon elected their first governor, John Winthrop. Winthrop was a Puritan lawyer and gentleman. He sailed from England in 1630.

New England was settled in a short time, about twelve years, by about twenty-one thousand settlers. Known as The Great Migration, the years 1630 to 1642 saw a huge movement of middle class English families come to the New World.

These immigrants built towns around Massachusetts Bay. Receiving separate charters from Charles II in the 1660s, others settled in Rhode Island and Connecticut. Massachusetts successfully claimed New Hampshire in the 1640's, and it did not become a separate colony until 1679. In 1658, the colonists along the coast of present-day Maine were also ruled by the Massachusetts Bay colony.

The New England Colonists divided the land up between them. Families had about 150 acres. As heirs divided the family's lands over the coming years, a growing number of young families moved on to western Massachusetts, Maine, and New Hampshire.

Family life in New England was headed by the men. They sought strict obedience from their children, even after they had become adults. Wives were also to be submissive to their husbands. The law of the time said that married women surrendered any property they possessed before marriage to their husbands. Divorce was nearly impossible until the late eighteenth century. Women could not vote in elections held in the colonies. The only women that held the same legal rights as men were the single women and widows.

Each town had a group of leaders, known as the town fathers. Usually these were educated or skilled men. The heirs of these men often inherited the positions. The colonies used town meetings as their self-government. The town meetings required the unanimous agreement of all of the town's men.

The church was a very important part of the colonies. Churches were being founded as fast as the towns were being built up. Ministers had much power and influence over the public and private lives of the people, but they usually did not hold any government offices. The churches answered to no one, each virtually ran itself. Colonists were legally required to attend church on Sunday, and to help support the ministers in each of the colonies except for Rhode Island. Near the end of the seventeenth century, church membership was falling, more so from the men.

The harmony in New England was not to be. As immigrants arriving from English villages began to settle in the New England area, disagreements began to pop up over various issues, such as the correct way to distribute land, regulate livestock, and plant crops. Over the years, other disagreements arose. As the towns grew and became overcrowded, many families moved to outlying districts and then wanted to create schools and churches of their own or to split off as a separate town.

Religion still was the most troubling subject amongst the colonists. Most of the people who settled in New England considered themselves to be Puritans, but there were no uniform beliefs across the colonies. The Pilgrims of Plymouth believed that religious purity required renouncing the Church of England, but most other New England Puritans hoped there would be reform in England. During the earliest years, religious differences led to the spread of settlements beyond Massachusetts Bay.

In 1636, Thomas Hooker established the first English outpost in Connecticut. Rhode Island served as a haven for the most radical religious outcasts from Massachusetts Bay. Among this group was its founder, Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson and some of her followers, and many members of the Society of Friends, known as Quakers.

Because each church had no one to answer to, even in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the colonists differed in their religious beliefs. After the 1730's divisions became even more pronounced because of the first Great Awakening, a major religious revival. While this was welcomed by some people, others disliked it. Some upset conservative types deserted to the Anglicans and Quakers, and some formed separate churches or joined the Baptists.

New England had become more commercialized with a diverse society of people by the mid 1800's. However, most of the inhabitants lived their lives as they and those before them had, in rural areas, with family and church, maintaining a basic religious outlook on life.