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US History notes

The document discusses the social and religious dynamics in New England during the 17th century, highlighting key figures such as Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson who challenged Puritan norms. It details the establishment of Rhode Island as a haven for dissenters, the conflict with Native Americans exemplified by the Pequot War, and the economic motivations behind settlement in New England. Additionally, it touches on the evolution of Puritan society and governance, including the introduction of the Half-Way Covenant.

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4 views

US History notes

The document discusses the social and religious dynamics in New England during the 17th century, highlighting key figures such as Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson who challenged Puritan norms. It details the establishment of Rhode Island as a haven for dissenters, the conflict with Native Americans exemplified by the Pequot War, and the economic motivations behind settlement in New England. Additionally, it touches on the evolution of Puritan society and governance, including the introduction of the Half-Way Covenant.

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pigmr66
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We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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HSAS Gabriel Pucha

10/30/23 HUS61H-2
I. A. 1. a. I)
B.New Englanders Divide
a. In the closely knit towns of New England, residents carefully monitored
one another's behavior and chastised or expelled those who violated
communal norms.
1. Roger Williams
a. The first sustained criticism of the existing order came from the young
minister Roger Williams, who arrived in Massachusetts in 1631 and soon
began to insist that its congregations withdraw from the Church of
England and that church and state be separated."Soul liberty”, Williams
believed, required that individuals be allowed to follow their consciences
wherever they led.

b. For the government to "molest any person, Jew or Gentile, for either
professing doctrine or practicing worship" violated the principle that
genuine religious faith is voluntary.
2. Rhode Island and Connecticut
a. Banished from Massachusetts in 1636, Williams and his followers
moved south, where they established the colony of Rhode Island, which
eventually received a charter from London.

b. It (Rhode Island) became a haven for Dissenters (Protestants who


belonged to denominations other than the established church) and Jews
persecuted in other colonies.

c. In 1636, the minister Thomas Hooker established a settlement at


Hartford. Its system of government, embodied in the Fundamental Orders
of 1639, was modeled on that of Massachusetts-with the significant
exception that men did not have to be church members to vote.
3. The Trial of Anne Hutchinson
a. More threatening to the Puritan establishment, both because of her
gender and because she attracted a large and influential following, was
Anne Hutchinson.

b. What set Hutchinson apart was her charge that nearly all the ministers
in Massachusetts were guilty of faulty preaching for distinguishing "saints"
from the damned on the basis of activities such as church attendance and
moral behavior rather than an inner state of grace.

c. Their critics denounced Cotton and Hutchinson for Antinomianism (a


term for putting one's own judgment or faith above both human law and
the teachings of the church).
I. A. 1. a. I)
4. Puritans and Indians
a. In Puritan eyes, they resembled Catholics, with their false gods and
deceptive rituals.

b. In 1642, the Connecticut General Court set a penalty of three years at


hard labor for any colonist who abandoned "godly society" to live with the
Indians. To counteract the attraction of Indian life, the leaders of New
England also encouraged the publication of captivity narratives by those
captured by Indians.

c. They (Puritans) generally saw Indians as an obstacle to be pushed


aside.
5. The Pequot War
a. But as the white population expanded and new towns proliferated
conflict with the region's Indians became unavoidable.

b. A force of Connecticut and Massachusetts soldiers, augmented by


Narragansett allies, surrounded the main Pequot fortified village at Mystic
and set it ablaze, killing those who tried to escape.

c. By the end of the Pequot War a few months later, most of the Pequots
had been exterminated or sold into Caribbean slavery.

d. The colonists' ferocity shocked their Indian allies, who considered


European military practices barbaric.
6.The New England Economy
a. Most Puritans came to America from East Anglia, an internationally
renowned cloth-producing region.

b. One of the most economically advanced areas of England East Anglia


in the 1620s and 1630s was suffering from a series of poor harvests and
the dislocations caused by a decline in the cloth trade.

c. They sought in New England not only religious liberty but also
economic advancement--if not riches, then at least a "competency”, the
economic independence that came with secure landownership or craft
status.

d. But the economy centered on family farms producing food for their own
use and a small marketable surplus.
I. A. 1. a. I)
e.while religious divisions spawned new settlements, the desire for land
among younger families and newcomers was the major motive for New
England's expansion.

7. The Merchant Elite


a. Per capita wealth in New England lagged far behind that of the
Chesapeake, but it was much more equally distributed.

b. By the 1640s, Massachusetts had repealed many of its early economic


regulations.

c. Eventually, the Puritan experiment would evolve into a


merchant-dominated colonial government.
8. The Half-Way Covenant

a. The Half-Way Covenant of 1662 tried to address this problem by


allowing for the baptism and a kind of subordinate, or "half-way,"
membership for grandchildren of those who arrived during the Great
Migration.

b. These warnings, called "jeremiads" after the ancient Hebrew prophet


Jeremiah, interpreted crop failures and disease as signs of divine
disapproval and warned of further punishment to come if New Englanders
did not mend their ways.

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