Pilgrims &Puritans:
Coming to America
Seeking Religious
Freedom
The Pilgrims and Plymouth Colony
Pilgrims aka “The Saints” were Religious Separatists
seeking a new land to establish themselves and
practice their faith on their terms
• The Pilgrims sought to leave behind (literally) the corruption of the
Church of England and the authority of the King
• America was seen as a place where they could practice their faith
freely -- without fear of prejudice or bias
John Cotton’s Sermon, as the
Pilgrims leave for America,
encapsulates their hopes
“that they may dwell in a
place of their own, and
move no more…
neither shall the children
of wickedness afflict them
any more, as beforetime.”
Plymouth
The Pilgrims Landing at Plymouth
The Plymouth Colony
The Root of Self-Government in America:
The Mayflower Compact
November 1, 1620
Modern version of the Mayflower Compact
In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the loyal
subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of
Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, defender of the Faith, etc.
Having undertaken, for the Glory of God, and advancements of the
Christian faith and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first
colony in the Northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents, solemnly and
mutually, in the presence of God, and one another, covenant and combine
ourselves together into a civil body politic; for our better ordering, and
preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to
enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts,
constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet
and convenient for the general good of the colony; unto which we promise
all due submission and obedience.
In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod
the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord King
James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the
fifty-fourth, 1620.
Life at Plymouth
• Brutal 1st winter
• Common House
• Indian help – Squanto
(planting and fishing)
• 1621 1st Thanksgiving 
Peace Treaty with
Indians
• Growth to 2000 people
by 1630
• Merged with Mass Bay
Colony in 1691
The Puritans and Mass Bay Colony
The Seal of the
Royal Charter
that established
the Massachusetts
Bay Company
Puritans: a whole other kind of Protestant
•
Unlike the Pilgrims, the Puritans
choose to stay in the Church of
England and reform it (purify) it
from the inside.
•
Like the Pilgrims, the Puritans left
England to seek religious freedom
and to create a community where
their “pure” form of Christianity
was the foundation for ALL
aspects of communal life .
•
Biblically Fundamental, Strict,
Rigid, Serious, Uncompromising,
Rules-oriented, Punitive and
Intolerant of Dissent
•
Strict Gender roles and Class
Structure
17 ships with 1000 settlers, livestock, and provisions left
England in 1630 to settle in America.
John Winthrop – 1st Governor of
Massachusetts Bay
The Puritans desired
to establish a “Shining
City on a Hill” or a
“Beacon” – drawing
all men closer to God
through the Colony
and its community
rules.
Boston – the Center of the Colony
Life in Massachusetts Bay Colony
Work Hard
Pray Hard
Preach Hard
Punish Hard and Publically