CHAPTERS 4 & 5

The Founding of New England
The Puritan Movement
James I succeeded Elizabeth I in 1603 and vowed to purge England of all radical Protestant reformers--the Puritans most Puritans were Presbyterians and Congregationalists; they both embraced Calvin’s ideas, but differed in the organizational aspects of church
Presbyterians: guided by higher governing bodies of ministers and laypersons
Congregationalist: led by the congregation; each congregation conducts its own affairs; independent from one another, no other authority
Puritans believed in the Calvinist philosophy of Predestination; that the saved, or Elect, were already chosen and good works did nothing to change one’s fate the Puritans strongly disagreed with English society, which they saw as too obsessed with gambling, theatergoing, drinking, ignoring religion.
Puritans felt that Predestination filled their lives with meaning the Puritans didn’t just let anybody have membership of the church, whereas all English citizens were included in the Anglican Church, even sinners
Puritans wanted only devoted followers in their Church; they wished to limit membership to only godly men and women
Separatists, Congregationalists, wished to leave behind the Church of England and find a new home for their religion, first, the Separatists left England to seek a new home in Holland, but found that their children began to pick up the culture of the area; this was a failure
- the Separatists settled on a new land: Virginia
1620: Puritans have organized into a Joint Stock Company (but do not get a charter from the Crown) and head to the New World aboard the Mayflower; their charting is inaccurate and the Puritans end up in northern territory, which was previously named “New England” by Captain John Smith they found themselves in November, 1620; 88 Separatist “Pilgrims” landed at Plymouth, on the coast of southeastern Massachusetts the Pilgrims were sick, weak with scurvy, malnutrition, and arrived during an unfortunately brutal season they had arrived too late to plant crops and were without an adequate supply of food by spring of 1621, half of the settlers had died
English merchants who had backed the expedition failed to send food and supplies, but the settlers found solace and well-treatment in natives four years before the settlers had arrived in the New World, a plague had wiped out up to ninety-percent of the native coastal population the Wampanoags dominated lands around Plymouth still suffering losses from the plague, they were eager to obtain trade goods and assistance against native enemies
Massasoit, the chief, agreed to help the colonists the peoples communicated via Squanto, a native who had been kidnapped by English sailors before the epidemic
Squanto had been taken to Europe, then made his way back to the New World in 1621, the natives and pilgrims shared a feast, which is remembered as the classic “First Thanksgiving” story the pilgrims governed the new colony according to the Mayflower Compact, which had been drawn before landfall; it decided that:
1. There would be a governor and several assistants to advise him.
2. The positions in government would be elected yearly by the adult men of Plymouth. problems at home prevented the Crown from objecting to the establishment of a new government in Plymouth the settlers focused on becoming farmers, unlike the merchants of Jamestown towns were social centers, surrounded by small farms
The Puritan Settlement at Massachusetts Bay founded by Non-Separatists; more numerous than the Separatists that had settled at Plymouth considered the Church of England still capable of its much needed reform
Charles I took away the hope that the Non-Separatists had that reform was coming they decided not to abandon England, but instead to regroup in the New World they formed the Massachusetts Bay Company in 1629 the members of the church were not humble peasants like the Separatists; the