THE PURITANS
PURITANS LEAVE ENGLAND
Between 1630 and 1640, a religious group called the Puritans left England to escape religious persecution by the king.Unlike the Separatist, who wanted to break away from the Church of England, the Puritans wanted to reform, or “purify” the church’s practices. Led by John Winthrop, thousands of Puritans would leave England, many of which went to Massachusetts Bay Colony. Their leaving became known as the Great Migration.
The Puritans arrived well prepared to start their new colony. They brought large amounts of tools and livestock with them. As a result, few Puritans died and the did well. By 1691, the Massachusetts Bay Colony had expanded to include the Plymouth Colony.
RELIGION AND GOVERNMENT IN NEW ENGALND
The Massachusetts Bay Colony created a General Court to help run the colony. The Puritans used this court as a type of self-government to represent the needs of the people. Each town sent two or three delegates to the Court.
Politics and religion were closely linked in Puritan New England. Government leaders were also church members and ministers often had a great deal of power in the community. Male church members were the only colonists who could vote. Colonists became members of the church by being chosen. Reaching this status was a difficult process. Individuals had to pass a public test to prove that their faith was strong.
In 1636 minister Thomas Hooker and his followers left Massachusetts to help found Connecticut, another New England colony. There they wrote the Fundamental Orders. The Orders expanded voting rights to male non-church members and the idea of representative government.
CHALLENGES TO PURITAN LEADERSHIP
Not all Puritans shared the same religious views. Minister Roger Williams did not agree with Massachusetts leaders. He opposed forced attendance at church. He also opposed taking land from the Indians without paying them.
Puritan leaders worried that Williams’s ideas might hurt the unity of the colony, so the General Court banished him from the colony. Williams took his supporters south and founded the colony of Rhode Island. There he practiced the idea of separation of church and state, the idea that the church and the government should be separated. He also believed in religious tolerance for all members of the community.
In Boston, an outspoken woman also angered Puritan church leaders. Anne Hutchinsonbelieved people could worship God without the help of the church, or its ministers. She held discussions in her home that challenged church authority.
Hutchinson’s views alarmed Puritan leaders. They put her on trial for her ideas. The court decided to force her out of the colony. With a group of followers, Hutchison left and settled in Rhode Island.
Both the views of Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson help in the development of religious freedom in the colonies.