Pur itan n ew e n g la n d

Second Mayflower

A second ship called the Mayflower 2 made a voyage from London to Plymouth Colony in 1629 carrying 35 passengers, many from the Pilgrim congregation in Leiden that organized the first voyage. This was not the same ship that made the original voyage with the first settlers. This voyage began in May and reached Plymouth in August. This ship also made the crossing from England to America in 1630, 1633, 1634, and 1639. It attempted the trip again in 1641, departing London in October of that year under master John Cole, with 140 passengers bound for Virginia. It never arrived. On October 18, 1642 a deposition was made in England regarding the loss.

The Virginia Company refers collectively to a pair of English joint stock companies chartered by James I on 10 April 1606 with the purposes of establishing settlements on the coast of North America. The two companies, called the "Virginia Company of London" (or the London Company) and the "Virginia Company of Plymouth" (or Plymouth Company) operated with identical charters but with differing territories. An area of overlapping territory was created. Within the area of overlap, the two companies were not permitted to establish colonies within one hundred miles of each other. The Plymouth Company never fulfilled its charter, and its territory that later became New England was then also claimed by France.

The charters of the companies called for a local council for each, but with ultimate authority residing with the King through the Council of Virginia in England.

"Pilgrims" aTC people who make a journey fo r

rd i~iolls reasons. Bur for Arnericaus the word has a

spec ial meaning. To th em it means a small RWUP of

English men and women who sailed;l(TOS,> the

Atlant ic Ocean in rhc p:ar 1620. The group's

members came (0 be called the Pilgrims because they

went [0 America to find r elig IOUS freedom.

So nwtimcs Americans call them the Pilgrim Fath ers.

T his is b..-causc thcv sec them as th e most important

ofthe founders ofthe futu re United Su rC'S o f

America.

T he Europe that the Pilgrims lett behin d them was

tom by religious qua rrels. For more than a thou sand

years Roman Ca tholic Ch ristianity had been the

religion o f mosr ofits peo ple. By the sixt eenth

centu ry, however. some Europeans h;1(1begu ll to

doub t the teachings of rhc Catho lic Churc h. T h... y

were also growing angr y at [he wealth and worldly

pride ofits leaders.

E:lTly in the ccnr urv a German monk named Martin

Luther qua rreled with these leaders. l ie claimed that

ind ivid ual human beings did nor need the Pope or the

priests ofthe Catholic Church to enable them to

speak to God. A few years later a French lawyer

»amcd john Calvin put forward similar ideas. Cal vin

claimed th at each indi vidual W J.S dir ectl y and

pers onally responsible to God. Bccausc rhcv

protested against the rcach ings and custo ms o f rhe

Catholic Church. relig ious refo rmers like Lut her and

Calvin wer e called " Prot estJ llts.·· T heir ideas spread

qu ickly th rough nor thern Europe.

Pew people believed III religious toleration at this

rime. In most count ries peo ple were expected to ha vc

the same religion JS their ruler. T his was the case in

England. In the I530s the English king. Hcnrv VIII,

formed a national church wi th himself as its head. In

the later years ofthe sixteenth cen tury many English

people believed th at this Church of Eng land was still

too much like the Catholic C hurch. They di sliked the

powl"r;o f its bishops. They dislik ed its elaborate

n'remon ies and th e rich decorarions ofits churc hes.

l"11l'Y also qucsri oucd many o f irs teachings. Such

people wanted the Ch urc h of England to become more plain and simple, or "pure. " Because of rhis

th ey wer e called Purit ans. The ideas of j ohn Calvin

app ealed particularly strongly to them.

Whellj ames I became King of Ellgland in 1603 he

wa rned the Puritans th at he: would dri ve them from

the land if they did not accept his ideas on religion.

I lis bisho ps bega n fining the Puritans and pu tting

them III prison. T o escape this per secution. a sma ll

group ofthem lett England and wcnr to Hol land.

Holland wa s th e only coun try in Europe whose

governme nt allowed religious freedom at rhis time.

The people o fl lo lland welcomed the little group of

ex ile... But the Puritans never felt at ho me the re.

After much tho ught and much prayer they decided to

move again. Some of the:m- the Pilgrims - decided to

go to America.

First they returned bridiy [0 England. Here they

persuaded the Virginia Company to allow rhcm to

settle in [he northern pan ofits American lands. On

September 16. 1620. the Pilgrim s lcf rhc English port ofPlymouth and headed fo r America. They

were accompanied by a number ofother emigrants

they called "Strangers."

The Pilgrims' ship was an old trading vessel. the

.\laY.11oll'cr. f or years th e .\ I<1y.fl(lU'f'T had car ried wine

across th e nar row seas betv..-een Fran ce and England.

Now it la ced a mu ch more dangerous voyage. For

sixty-five days the AI<1 y.f1(1l1'rTbattled th rough the

rolling waves ofthe no rth Arlami c O cean. At last, 0 11

No vem ber 9. 1620. it reached Cape Cod. a sandy

hook ofland in what is now th e sta te o f

Massachusett s.

Cape C od is far to th e no rth ofthe land granted to the

Pilg rims by till' Virgmia Company. But th e Pilgrims

did not ha ve enoug h food and wa ter, and many were

sick. They decid ed to land at th e best place they cou ld

find. a ll December 21. 1620. th ey rowed ashore and

set up camp at a place th ey named Plymouth.

"The season it was wint er," wrote one ofth eir

leaders. "and those who know the winters ofthat

country know them to be sha rp and violent with

crud and fierc e storms;" T he Pilgr ims' chances of

surviving were no t high. The frozen ground and the

deep snow made it diffi cuh fo r th em to build hou ses.

TIley had very linle food. Befo re sp ring came. half of

the litt le group of a hundred set tlers we re dead.

But rhc Pilg rims were determined to succeed. The

fifty su rvivors built better houses. They learned how

to fish and hunt. Friendly Amerin dians gave them

seed com and showed th em how to plant it. It was

not the end oftheir hardships. but when a ship

arrived in Plymouth in 1622 and offered to take

passenge rs back to England. not one o f'rhc Pilgrims

accepted.

O ther English Puritans followed the Pilgrims to

America. T en years later a much larger group o f

alm ost a thousand colo nists settled nearby in what

becam e rhc Boston area. These people left England [0

escape th e rul e ofa new king. Charles I. C harles was

even less tolerant than his fathe r j ames had been of

people who disagreed with his poli cies in religion and

govc nuucnr.

The Boston settlement prospered from the starr. Its

population grew quickly as more and more Puritans

left England to escape persecutio n. Many years later.

in 169 1. it combined v....irh th e Plymouth colony

under th e name of Massachusett s.

The ideas ofth e Massachusetts Puri tans had a lastin g

influence on American so ciety. One o f their fir st

leaders. Jolm Winthro p, said that they should build

an ideal community for th e rest ofmankind to learn

from. " We shall be like a city on a hill. " said Winthrop. 'The eYl'S ofall people are upo n us." To

this day man y Ameri cans cont inue to sec th eir

count ry in this way. as a mod el for other nat ion"

to co py,

The Puritans of'Massach uscn s believed that

governments had a dut y to nub: people obey God's

wi ll. They passed laws to for ce people [0 at tend

church and lavv·s [0 punish dru nks and adu ltere rs.

Even men who let their hair grow lon g could be in

trouble.

Hoger Williams. a Puritan minister in a settlement

called Salem. believed th at it was wrong to run the

affairs o f Massach usetts III thi s way. I Ic objected

part icularl y to the fact rhar the same men con t rolled

both th e chur ch and the government. William s

believed th at church and Slate should be se parate and

rhnr neit her should interfere with the othe r.

Williams ' repeated cri ticisms made the Massachusetts

leade rs angry. In 1535 they Sl'!H men to arrest him.

But Williams escaped and Wl'!H so ut h. where he

was joined by othe r discourcutcd people fr om

Massachusetts. O n the sho res ofNarraganse tt Uay

William s and his followers set up a nov v co lon y called

Rho de Island, Rho de Island promised its citizens

comple te religio us freedom and separatio n of church

and state. To this day these ideas arc still vny

Impo rtant to Ameri cans.

T Ill' leade rs ofMassachusens coul d no r forgive the

people ofRhode Island for thinking so differ ently

from th em selves. They called rhc brea kaway colony

"the land of the opposite-minded."

By the end of thc seventeen th Cl'ntury a strl ng of

Englis h colo nies stretched along the eas t roast of

North Amer ica. More or less in the middle was

Penn sylvan ia. This was fou nded III 16HI by Wilham

Penn. Under a charter from the English king.

C harles II, Pen n was the proprieto r. o r owner, of

I'enllsylvallia.

Penn belo nged to a religiou s group, the SO('il't y of

l-ricnds, common ly called Quakers. Quak ers refused

to swear oat hs o r to lake pan ill wars. These customs

had helped to make th em 'Try unpopular wi th

English governments. When Penn promised his

fellow Quakers that in l'cnuvvlvau ia they would

he free 10 follow their own ways. many ofthem

emigrated there,

Penn's promise o f religious freedom. together with

his rcputariou for dealing fairly with people. brought

settlers from ot her European co untries to

l'cnns ylvan ia. Prom Ireland came sett lers who ma de

new f.1tIl1 S in the western for ests ofthe colony, Man y

Germans carne also. M OSI we re members ofsllIall

religious groups who had left Germany to escape

persecution. T hey were known as the Pennsylv ani a

I jurch. T his was beca use English people at rhis time

called most no rth European, " Dutch,"

New York had previously been called New

Amsterdam, h had first been set tled ill 162(,. In J()64

the English captured it from the IJurch and re-named

it New York. A few years t iler. in 1670, rhc English

foun ded the new colonies of North and South

Ca rolin a. Th e last English colony to be foun ded in

North America was Georgia. scnlcd III 173.1.

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