Chapter 3: Settling the Northern Colonies 1619-1700

Great Migration

1630-1642 migration of 70k refuses from England to the North American colonies primarily New England and he Caribbean, the 20k migrants who came to Massachusetts largely shared a common sense of purpose- to establish a model Christian settlement in the New World

salutary neglect

1688-1763 unofficial policy of relaxed royal control over colonial trade and only weak enforcement of Navigation Laws. Lasted from the Glorious revolution to the end of the French and Indian war in 1763

Dominion of New England 1686

Administrative union created by royal authority, incorporating all of New England, New York, and East and West Jersey. Placed under the rule of Sir Edmund Andros who curbed popular assemblies, taxed without consent, and strictly enforced the Navigation Laws. Its collapse after the Glorious Revolution in 1689 demonstrated colonial opposition to strict royal control.

Mayflower Compact 1620

Agreement to form a majoritarian government in Plymouth, signed aboard the Mayflower. It created a foundation for self government in the colony

Anne Hutchinson

Antinomian religious dissenter brought to trial for heresy in Massachusetts Bay after arguing that she need not follow God's laws or man's, and claiming direct revelation from God. Banished from the Puritan colony, she moved to Rhode Island and then New York, where she and her family were then killed by indians

English Civil War 1642-1651

Armed conflict between royalists and parliamentarians, resulting in the victory of pro-Parliament forces and the execution of Charles I

predestination

Calvinist doctrine that God has foreordained some people to be saved and some to be dammed. Though their fate was irreversible, Calvinists, particularly those who believed they were destined for salvation, sought too lead sanctified lives in order to demonstrate to others that they were in fact members of the "elect"

Duke of York

Catholic English monarch who reigned as James II from 1685 until he was deposed during the Glorious Revolution in 1689. When the English seized New Amsterdam in 1664, they renamed it in the Duke's honor to commemorate his support for the colonial venture

Massachusetts Bay Colony 1630

Colony established by non-separating Puritans, that soon grew to be the largest and most influential of the New England colonies

Peter Stuyvesant

Director general of Dutch New Netherland from 1645 until the colony fell to the British in 1664. Known as the man with the wooden leg

Calvinism

Dominant theological credo of the New England Puritans based off the teachings of John Calvin. The belief in predestination, that only "the elect" were destined for salvation

Fundamental Orders 1639

Drafted by settlers in the Connecticut River Valley, this document was the first modern constitution, establishing a democratically controlled government. Key fetters of the document were borrower for Connecticut's colonial charter, and later, its state constitution.

Puritans

English Protestant reformers who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic rituals and creeds. Some of the most devout believed that only the "visible saints" should be admitted to church membership. These reformers believed in predestination

Henry Hudson

English explorer who ventured into New York Bay and up the Hudson River for the Dutch in 1609 in search of a Northwest Passage across the continent

William Bradford

Erudite leader of the Separatist Pilgrims who left England for Holland, and eventually sailed the Mayflower to establish the first English colony in Massachusetts. His account of the colony's founding, "Of Plymouth Plantation", remains a classic of American literature and an indispensable historical source.

John Winthrop

First governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony. An able administrator and devout Puritan who helped ensure prosperity of the colony and enforce Puritan orthodoxy, taking a had line against religious dissenters like Anne Hutchinson

John Calvin

French Protestant reformer who's religious teachings formed the basis for Puritanism, Scottish Presbyterianism, French Huguenots, and members of the Dutch Reformed Church. He argued in his "Institutes of the Christian Religion" 1536 that humans were inherently weak and wicked, and believed in an all knowing, all powerful God, who predestined select individuals for salvation.

Martin Luther

German friar who began the Protestant Revolution in 1517 with his 95 Thesis being nailed to the Catholic Wittenberg Cathedral

Charles II

He assumed the throne with the restoration of the English monarchy in 1660. He sought to establish firm control over the colonies, ending the period of relative independence on the American mainland.

Institutes of the Christian Religion 1536

John Calvin's basic Latin doctrine that described his protestant views, including God the all powerful, weak and wicked humans, and predestination

blue/sumptuary laws

Laws designed to restrict personal behavior in accord with a strict code of morality. These laws were passed across the colonies, particularly in Puritan New England and Quaker Pennsylvania

Sir Edmund Andros

Much loathed administrator of the Dominion of New England, which was created in 1686 to strengthen imperial control over the colonies. He established strict control, got rid of town meetings and popular assemblies, and taxed the people without their consent. When word of the Glorious Revolution reached the colonists, they promptly dispatched him back to England

William Penn

Prominent Quaker activist who founded Pennsylvania as a haven for fellow Quakers in 1681. He established friendly relations with neighboring Indian tribes and attracted a wide array of settlers to his colony with promises of economic opportunity, and ethnic and religious toleration. Known as "the first American advertising man"

William III and Mary II

Protestant rulers of the Netherlands that dethroned the unpopular and despotic Catholic James II in England during the Glorious Revolution in 1689

John Cotton

Puritan Citadel educated at Cambridge University who emigrated to Massachusetts Bay to avoid persecution and devote his time to learn to defend the government's duty to enforce religious rules

Glorious (or Bloodless) Revolution 1688

Relatively peaceful overthrow of the unpopular Catholic monarch James II, replacing him with dutch William III of Orange and Mary II (James II's daughter). William and Mary accepted increased Parliamentary oversight and new limits on monarchial authority.

Roger Williams

Salem minister who advocated a complete break from the Church of England and criticized the Massachusetts Bay Colony for unlawfully taking land from the Indians. Banished for his heresy, he established a small community in present day Rhode Island, later acquiring a charter for the colony from England.

King Phillip's War 1675-1676

Series of assaults by Metacom (King Phillip) on English settlements in New England. The attacks slowed the westward migration of New England settlers for several decades.

Metacom (King Phillip)

Wampanoag chief (son of Massasoit) who led a brutal campaign against Puritan settlements in New England between 1675 and 1676. Though he himself was eventually captured and killed, and his wife and son sold into slavery, his assault halted New England's westward expansion for several decades.

Massasoit

Wampanoag chieftain who signed a peace treaty with Plymouth Bay settlers in 1621 and helped them celebrate the First Thanksgiving

freemen

adult males who belonged to the Puritan Congregations, which in time came to be called he Congregational Church. Only Puritans, the visible saints, were considered ____ and were eligible for church membership

antinomianism

belief that the elect need not obey the law of either God or man; most notably despised in the colonies by Anne Hutchinson

conversion

intense religious experience that confirmed an individual's place among the "elect" or the "visible saints". Calvinists who experienced this were then expected to lead sanctified lives to demonstrate their salvation.

"Day of Doom" 1662

poem written by clergyman Michael Wigglesworth who described the fate of the dammed and was popular among the Puritans

Pequot War 1636-1638

series of clashes between English settlers and Pequot Indians in the Connecticut River valley. Ended in the slaughter of the Pequots by the Puritans and their Narragansett Indian allies

Navigation Laws

series of laws passed, beginning in 1651, to regulate colonial shipping; the acts provided that only English ships would be allowed to trade in English and colonial ports. and that all goods destined for the colonies would first pass through England

Separatists

small group of Puritans who sought to break away entirely from the Church of England; after initially settling in Holland, a number of English Separatists made their way to Plymouth Bay, Massachusetts in 1620

patroonships

vast tracts of land along the Hudson River in New Netherlands granted to wealthy promoters in exchange for bringing fifty settlers to the property