The beginning of Puritan America

12.3.1. English migrants came to America for two main reasons. The first reason was tied to the English Reformation. Through a series of political and religious twists and turns, the new Church of England developed a Protestant theology. Within the Church of England appeared a new brunch representatives of which were called Puritans. Puritans became willing to immigrate to America. The second reason for English colonization was that land in England had become scarce. The population of England doubled from 1530 to 1680. The result was a growing number of young, poor, underemployed, and often desperate English men and women. It was from their ranks that colonizers recruited most of the English population of the mainland colonies.

12.3.2. New England began as a refuge for religious radicals. The first English settlers were the Pilgrims. They sailed for the New World in 1620 on the ship Mayflower. After difficult early years, they established a community of farms at Plymouth that was ultimately absorbed by the Massachusetts Bay Company. But t he Pilgrim Fathers, who established their colony at Plymouth in 1620 were not trained and prepared to cope with life on the new continent in the wilderness. The climate is very harsh. Du­ring their first winter the Pilgrims suffered very much. Hard work, diseases, bitterly cold weather, bad food killed about half of them.

12.3.3. On a spring morning in 1621 an Indian walked into the little village of Plymouth. He introduced himself in a friendly way and offered help. They gave food and gifts to the Pilgrims. The Indians did much to help the white settlers: they taught them how to hunt in the new country, to fish, grow crops which they had never seen before. They showed the Pilgrims how to use fish for ferti­lizer when growing corn, pumpkins and beans. This help was very impor­tant and because of it the Pilgrims raised good crops and had a good har­vest. Governor William Bradford, who was the first elected governor in Ply­mouth, decided to follow an old tradi­tion in the autumn of 1621. On that day the Pilgrims decided to thank God for his kindness to them. That was the beginning of celebrating Thanksgiving Day.

12.3.4. The king of England granted a charter to the Massachusetts Bay Company, a group of businessmen interested in trade in the colony. Puritans soon dominated the company. The community grew into a town later renamed Boston. The port dominated the West Indian shipping business. By 1700 it was the third busiest port of the British Empire and the leading seaport for trade with the British American colonies. Boston was an educational forerunner, as the city established the first free public school in 1635 and the first public library in 1653. Boston has continued to be a leader in education with more than 65 colleges and universities in the metropolitan area. Boston’s cultural heritage also includes American literature. Essayists Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, and novelists Harriet Beecher Stowe and Nathaniel Hawthorne all lived there. Boston has a rich cultural life, too.

Дата добавления: 2014-01-07