Puritans, Pilgrims, and Colonial New England History Explained

foreign before we dive in let's recall what we discussed at the start of this series

that history is mainly a series of choices and decisions some of those decisions are made in how we honor and

remember the past other decisions are made in the moment shaping and forming the past as it happens and everyone

we've discussed so far made choices choices that literally made history some of those choices constrain certain

people like the women in Colonial New England will learn about today other choices had entirely unintended

consequences think of it this way maybe you didn't wake up intending to watch this video instead you only intended to

buy a latte but at the coffee shop you saw someone studying for the bar exam which led you to remember you have an

exam coming up in colonial American history and eventually you stumble across maybe you didn't intend to watch

this video when you decided you wanted a latte yet here you are the point is we live in a world of unintended

consequences so without further Ado let's jump into today's topics Puritans pilgrims and the New England colonies

I'm Dr Danielle Bainbridge and this is study hall U.S history to 1865. [Music]

the first English settlers to arrive in New England were the pilgrims the pilgrims were Radical and no not because

they listened to Heavy Metal the pilgrims wanted to separate entirely from the church of England which they

believe was still far too much like the Catholic Church the pilgrims also didn't care about anyone following their lead

they just wanted to do their thing and worship as they pleased so in 1607 the pilgrims set out for Poland yeah America

wasn't exactly the Pilgrim's first choice but the pilgrims had a problem a problem parents have been dealing with

forever Teen Angst the pilgrims kids were more interested in assimilating into Dutch

culture than Keeping the Faith and let's just say the parents weren't too happy with their kids coming home with wooden

clogs alongside other complaints about Dutch life in 1620 the pilgrims packed their bags and set out for the Americas

they leased out a fairly unknown and unimportant boat called the mayflower to sail across the Atlantic while on board

the Mayflower the pilgrims also drafted the Mayflower Compact basically the 41 signers of the Mayflower Compact agreed

to create just an equal loss once they got to America and while their piety might have been on point their

navigation was not the pilgrims were trying to get to the Virginia company's land where other English settlers had

been for a few years instead the pilgrims landed in Massachusetts which if you take I-95 is about a 10 hour

drive or 600 miles from Jamestown Virginia oh and the pilgrims landed in Plymouth in December with few livestock

and little food and as you can imagine the Christian pilgrim rooms were not too keen on using their Bibles as firewood

but the pilgrims weren't the only English in New England in 1629 the Massachusetts Bay Colony was chartered

by the Puritans and unlike the pilgrims the Puritans were okay staying with the church of England

just wanted to do things their way although they kind of thought everyone else would be better off doing things

their way too before we go any further let's make sure we know the difference between the Puritans and the pilgrims

the Puritans wanted to practice Christianity their own way but were willing to compromise to some degree as

long as they weren't persecuted for their beliefs the pilgrims on the other hand were separatists they believe the

Church of England was beyond reform and split off from it entirely the Puritans believed that members of the church

should make decisions about leadership and worship rather than a singular Archbishop like in the Church of England

because of this belief the Puritans actually call themselves congregationalists not Puritans in fact

Puritan was a derogatory word used by their opponents anyway unlike the pilgrims the Puritans wanted all eyes on

them John Winthrop a Puritan leader of the Massachusetts colony explained the Puritans should try to build a city on a

hill that others would look to as a shining example of worship and organization the idea was spelled out in

his famous sermon model of Christian charity and argued that as long as the Puritans work together and cared for one

another giving excesses to the poor and needy then the Puritans would Thrive if it sounds like Winthrop is advocating

early social welfare that's because it is early social welfare but it's one thing to talk about building a super

cool City on a Hill it's another thing to do it for starters you need a hill but more than that you need to be

prepared and the Puritans like the pilgrims weren't exactly prepared for life in New England because New England

was nothing like old England for one it was much colder and let's face it while those Puritan and Pilgrim hats are cool

they're totally lacking in ear muffs and unlike the Chesapeake which had tobacco there was no cash crop widely grown in

New England nor was there any gold or silver but one thing that the Puritans had that those in the Chesapeake Colony

didn't was a much better male female ratio most of the Puritan migrants came over as family units and those family

units did what the good Lord asks be fruitful and multiply by 1720 the Massachusetts colony had at least 30 000

more people than the Chesapeake even though thousands more people immigrated to the Chesapeake region so yeah they

multiplied see always something here for you math fans in New England the wealth was spread out much more than in the

Chesapeake there were rich and poor but unlike the Chesapeake there was also a group known as the middling sort what we

might now think of as the middle class because there was no main cash crop Society also looked a lot different in

Massachusetts than other English settlements for starters enslaved persons made up much less of the total

population slavery certainly existed in New England as did indentured servitude and child labor but new englanders also

relied on their own labor as well in New England church was the center of social life and often literally the center of

town as such religious authorities usually had some sort of political influence as well because Society was so

tied to religion everyone knew each other from church that allowed people to keep tabs on their neighbors reinforcing

the strict religious moral code on that note all of the religious authorities that were talking about were men for all

their talk of working together and just in equal laws the New England pilgrims and Puritans were a strictly patriarchal

society though they imagined that fathers should be kind but Stern leaders women were forbidden from serving as

Church ministers and were not allowed to sign a new Town's founding Charter women sought and often found Authority even

within this model some even challenged it as we'll see in a moment because religion was so ingrained in their

society the Puritans and pilgrims believed literacy was hugely important this goes back well before Puritans and

pilgrims way back to the actual Protestant Reformation itself one of the biggest complaints Protestants had with

the Catholic church was how inaccessible the Bible was to commoners the Bible and Catholic Services were in Latin not

local colloquial languages I as part of the Reformation the Bible was translated into English and other languages so the

Puritans and pilgrims wanted to make sure as many people as possible were taught to read mainly so they could

participate fully in church services the task of training children to read fell on women this meant women were literally

teaching their children the religion that would guide their entire social existence but women were also quickly

reminded of their place when they dared challenge religious Authority for instance Anne Hutchinson Let's Explore

her story Ann Hutchinson was born in England but sailed to Massachusetts in 1634 with her 11 children she was a

devout Puritan and also worked as a midwife in the colony she began combining her interests in religion with

her connections to women hosting women in her home for in-depth discussions on the weekly sermons over time more and

more people attended her weekly discussions including men soon Hutchinson's discussions became more

critical of the Puritan authorities she openly challenged the Puritans teach and even claimed that God spoke directly to

her to the male religious authorities Hutchinson's growing popularity was a real threat she'd taken the logic of

puritanism which rejected most religious leaders to its natural conclusion why submit to any religious leadership

Massachusetts religious leadership did not like this they especially didn't like it because they had trouble arguing

against it and because huckinson was a woman so in 1637 she was tried for false beliefs found guilty and banished from

Massachusetts she eventually settled in New Netherland in 1642 the next year in 1643 Hutchinson was killed by Native

Americans who were fighting with Europeans in New Netherlands because of Keith's War which we discussed in our

lesson on Dutch colonies the ever Charming John Winthrop called Hutchinson's death Divine judgment

against someone who dared challenge Church Authority and Hutchinson's fate is a prime example of the oppression

women faced in Colonial New England they were expected to train the Next Generation in but only in ways approved

by the church straying from that job could have dire consequences given their increasing population the New England

colonies were always looking to expand but the New England colonies expanded differently than the Chesapeake this

happened because up in Massachusetts the colonies granted land to groups of men who wish to form towns not just wealthy

Planters some newly formed towns establish Farms others like those North of Boston built up thriving fishing and

trading communities and you know what they say the more time you spend catching fish on the dock the less time

you spend in the Pew because folks in these new towns were spending less time in church they were often accused of

being ungodly and since God was the basic organizing structure of these towns being ungodly men sure being

downright treasonous not ideal it's important to remember that when the Puritans and pilgrims arrived in New

England they didn't just Waltz ashore some Untamed uninhabited landscape quite the contrary Southern New England was

home to the Algonquian people we learned before that the Algonquian weren't a single tribe but rather a language

grouping the Algonquian tribes that lived in Southern New England included the Mohegan Pequot Narragansett and

Massachusetts unlike in the Chesapeake Colony the tribes were each divided into their own smaller groups and there

wasn't any sort of chief of chiefs like Powhatan in 1636 war broke out between the Puritans and their allies and the

Pequot tribe the conflict which lasted two years was called the Pequot War in one of the most violent episodes of the

war Puritan soldiers surrounded a Pequot settlement lit it on fire and killed anyone who tried escaping the Flames

some Puritans both in Massachusetts and back in England were horrified by what they learned of the violence their

response was not to question the justice of staying in New England but to try harder to convert indigenous people to

Christianity for the Puritans Church wasn't just something done on Sunday it was an entire lifestyle so the Puritans

expected the converted natives to live just like them some natives especially those from smaller or less centralized

bands did in fact convert others moved to praying towns set up by the colonists for indigenous peoples to practice

Christianity the Puritans pilgrims and natives living in New England all lived in a world of choices and decisions and

each of those decisions made New England but they also made history so the next time you're sipping that latte just ask

yourself do I have an exam today thanks for watching study hall U.S history to 1865 which is part of the study hall

project a partnership between ASU and crash course if you like this video and want to keep learning with us be sure to

subscribe you can learn more about study hall and the videos produced by crash course and ASU in the links in the

description see you next time