Lesson 2.02: Establishing New England

• Introduction
• New England
• Thanksgiving
• Practice
• Discuss
• Summary & Tasks

Following successful completion of this lesson, students will be able to: Discuss the reasons why the Puritans left England in the case of the Plymouth Colony and the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Identify key figures in the success of the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Colonies. Identify the differences between the Separatist and the Non-Separatist Puritans and their views regarding the Church of England. The above objectives correspond with the following Alabama Course of Study Objectives: IContrast effects of economic, geographic, social, and political conditions before and after European explorations of the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries on Europeans, American colonists, and indigenous Americans., IB1Contrasting European motives for establishing colonies Examples: religious persecution, poverty, oppression , IB3Explaining how the institution of slavery developed in the colonies, IICompare various early English settlements and colonies on the basis of economics, geography, culture, government, and Native American relations., IIB1Identifying tensions that developed between the colonists and their local governments and between the colonists and Great Britain,and IIB3Explaining the role of the House of Burgesses and New England town meetings on colonial society

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Overview

While the lure of gold and treasure led many people to the New World, religious freedom encouraged citizens from England to take a look at North America as an option for colonization. The Protestant Reformation and England's divorce from the Roman Catholic Church, left many English Protestants only wanting more reform of the new Church of England.

One such group, the Puritans, known for their Calvinist ideals, wanted to purify the Church of England of it Catholic practices. Discouraged by slow reform, one group of Puritans decided to "separate" from the church. In 1603, Puritan tensions were further heightened upon James I succession to the English throne. King James pressured the Puritan Separatists, to conform. After refusing to comply, the Separatists departed for Holland and after twelve years, decided to transplant their English customs to the New World. They arrived in Plymouth Bay in 1620 with approximately 100 settlers to colonize Plymouth, Massachusetts, the second permanent English settlement.

In 1630, the Non-Separatist Puritans in England, who had tried to reform the Anglican Church from within, felt religious pressure from the new crown, King Charles I. Nearly 1,000 settlers formed the Massachusetts Bay Company and headed for New England. Between 1630 and 1640, thousands left England in what is today known as "The Great Migration."