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
Orders expanded voting rights to male nonchurch 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.
The Massachusetts Bay Colony created a
General Court to help run the colony. The
Puritans used this court as a type of selfgovernment to represent the needs of the
people. Each town sent two or three delegates
to the Court.
In Boston, an outspoken woman also angered
Puritan church leaders. Anne Hutchinson
believed people could worship God without the
help of the church, or its ministers. She held
discussions in her home that challenged church
authority.
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.
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.
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
Both the views of Roger Williams and Anne
Hutchinson help in the development of religious
freedom in the colonies.