New England Colonies
New England Colonies
The New England Colonies of British America included colonies of Massachusetts Bay Colony, Connecticut
Colony, Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations and Province of New Hampshire. They were part of the
Thirteen Colonies including the Middle Colonies and the Southern Colonies. These were early colonies of what
would later be the states in New England.[1] Captain John Smith, of Pocahontas fame, was the author of "The
Description of New England” published in 1616. The book was the first to apply the term “New England” to coastal
lands of North America from the Long Island Sound to Newfoundland.[2]
Early 17th century
There were several attempts early in the 17th century to colonize
New England by France, England and other countries who were
in often in contention for lands in the New World. French
nobleman Pierre Dugua de Monts (Sieur de Monts) established a
settlement on Saint Croix Island, Maine in June 1604 under the
authority of the King of France. The small St. Croiz River Island
is located on the northern boundary of present-day Maine. After
nearly half the settlers perished due to a harsh winter and scurvy,
they moved out of New England north to Port-Royal of Nova
Scotia (see symbol "R" on map to the right) in the spring of
1605.[3]
King James I of England recognizing the need for a permanent
mother in New England, granted competing royal charters to the
Plymouth Company and the London Company. The Plymouth
Company ships arrived at the mouth of the Kennebec River (then
called the Sagadahoc River) in August 1607 where they
established a settlement named Sagadahoc Colony or more well
known as Popham Colony (see symbol "Po" on map to the right)
to honor financial backer Sir John Popham. The colonists faced a
harsh winter, the loss of supplies following a storehouse fire and
mixed relations with the indigenous tribes.
After the death of colony leader Captain George Popham and a
The English royal charters granted land to the north to
decision by a second leader, Raleigh Gilbert, to return to England
the Plymouth Company, land to the south to the London
to take up an inheritance left by the death of an older brother, all
Company and the land between could be settled first by
either company
of the colonists decided to return to England. It was around
August 1607, when they left on two ships, the Mary and John and
a new ship built by the colony named Virginia of Sagadahoc. The 30-ton Virginia was the first English-built ship in
North America.[4]
Conflict over land rights continued through the early 17th century, with the French constructing Fort Petagouet near
present day Castine, Maine in 1613. The fort protecting a trading post and a fishing station was considered the first
longer term settlement in New England. The fort traded hands multiple times throughout the 17th century between
the English, French and Dutch colonists.[5]
In 1614, the Dutch explorer Adriaen Block sailed along the coast of Long Island Sound, and then up the Connecticut
River to site of present day Hartford, Connecticut. By 1623, the new Dutch West India Company regularly traded for
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New England Colonies
furs there and ten years later they fortified it for protection from the Pequot Indians as well as from the expanding
English colonies. They fortified the site, which was named "House of Hope" (also identified as "Fort Hoop", "Good
Hope" and "Hope"), but encroaching English colonization made them agree to withdraw in the Treaty of Hartford,
and by 1654 they were gone.[6]
Pilgrims and Puritans (1620s)
The Pilgrims arrived on the what is now known as the Mayflower from England and the Netherlands late in 1620 to
establish Plymouth Colony, which was the first successful British colony in New England to last over a year and one
of the first several colonies of British Colonial America following Jamestown, Virginia. Only around half of the one
hundred plus passengers on the Mayflower survived that first winter, mostly because of diseases contracted on the
voyage. The main reason the Pilgrims came was to practice religion freely and to be away from England including
the restrictions on religion.[7] A Native American named Squanto taught the colonists how to catch eel and grow
corn the following year (1621). His assistance was remarkable, considering that the Pilgrims were living on the site
his deceased Patuxet tribe had established as a village before they were wiped out from diseases brought over by
earlier traders from Europe.[8]
Although the Plymouth settlement faced great hardships and earned few profits, it enjoyed a positive reputation in
England and may have sown the seeds for further immigration. Edward Winslow and William Bradford published an
account of their adventures in 1622, called Mourt's Relation.[9] This book glossed over some of the difficulties and
challenges carving a settlement out of the wilderness, but it may have been partly responsible for erasing the memory
of the Popham Colony (aka Sagadahoc Colony) and encouraging further settlement.
Learning from the Pilgrims harsh
experiences of winter in the Plymouth
Colony, the Puritans first sent smaller
groups in mid-1620s from England to
establish colonies, buildings and food
supplies. In 1623, the Plymouth Council for
New England (successor to the Plymouth
Company) established a small fishing
village at Cape Ann under the supervision of
the Dorchester Company. The first group of
Puritans moved to a new town at the nearby
Naumkeag, after the Dorchester Company
dropped support and fresh financial support
was found by Rev. John White. Other
settlements were started in nearby areas,
however the overall Puritan population
Major boundaries of Massachusetts Bay and neighboring colonial claims in the
[10]
17th
century and 18th century. Modern state boundaries are partially overlaid for
remained small through the 1620s.
A
context.
larger group of Puritans arrived in 1630,
leaving England because they were unable
to change the Church of England, by their name to "purify" the church. The Puritans had very different religious
beliefs compared to the Pilgrims who were Separatists from the Church of England and their colonies were governed
independent of each other until the Massachusetts Bay Colony was reorganized in 1691 combining both colonies as
the Province of Massachusetts Bay. Prior to the formation of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, the Puritan leaders
used the government to enforce the strict religious rules that all Puritans were expected to follow. Early dissenters of
the Puritan laws were often banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Connecticut Colony was started after
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New England Colonies
a Puritan minister, Thomas Hooker, left Massachusetts Bay with around 100 followers in search of greater religious
and political freedom. Another Puritan minister, Roger Williams (theologian) left Massachusetts Bay founding the
Rhode Island Colony, while John Wheelwright left with his followers to a colony in present day New Hampshire and
shortly thereafter on to present day Maine. The Puritan beliefs of not having to directly pay for school also helped
shape the public school system today.[11]
Founding (1630s)
It was the dead of winter, January 1636, when Salem minister Roger Williams had been banished from the
Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Puritan leaders pushed him out because he preached that government and religion
should be separate and also believed the Wampanoag and Narragansett tribes had been treated unfairly. That winter,
the tribes would help Williams to survive and establish a new colony in present-day Rhode Island which he named
Providence as in the Divine Providence, for their new colony was unique in its day in expressly providing for
religious freedom and a separation of church from state. Roger Williams returned to England two times to prevent
the attempt of other colonies to take over Providence and to charter or incorporate Providence and other nearby
communities into the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. [12]
Later in 1636, Thomas Hooker left
Massachusetts with one hundred followers
and found a new English settlement just
north of the Dutch Fort Hoop that would
later become Connecticut Colony. The
community was first named Newtown then
shortly afterwards renamed to Hartford to
honor the English town of Hertford. One of
the reasons Hooker left was because only
admitted members of the church could vote
and participate in the government, which he
believed should include any adult male
owning property. The Connecticut Colony
was not the first settlement (Dutch were
A map of the Connecticut, New Haven, and Saybrook colonies.
first), or even the first English settlement
(Windsor would be first in 1633), Thomas Hooker would obtain a royal charter and establish Fundamental Orders,
considered to be one of the first constitutions in North America. Other colonies, including New Haven and Saybrook
would later be merged into the royal charter for the Connecticut Colony.[13]
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New England Colonies
Commerce
The earliest colonies in the New England Colonies were usually
fishing villages or farming communities along the more fertile land
along the rivers. While the rocky soil in the New England Colonies
was not as fertile as the Middle or Southern Colonies, the land
provided rich resources including timber that was valued for building
of homes and ships. Timber was also a resource that could be exported
back to England, where there was a shortage of timber. In addition, the
hunting of wild life provided furs to be traded and food for the table.
The New England Colonies were located near the ocean where there
Whaling in small wooden boats with hand
was an abundance of whales, fish and other marketable sea life.
harpoons was a hazardous enterprise, even when
Excellent harbors and some inland waterways offered protection for
hunting the "right" whale.
ships and were also valuable for fresh water fishing. The Puritans of
the Massachusetts Bay Colony named the settlement on the Shawmut Peninsula as Boston. For most of the early
years, Boston was the largest city in all of the British Colonial America.[14] By the end of the seventeenth century,
New England colonists had tapped into a sprawling Atlantic trade network that connected them to the English
homeland as well as the West African slave coast, the Caribbean's plantation islands, and the Iberian Peninsula.
Colonists relied upon British and European imports for glass, linens, hardware, machinery, and other items found
around a colonist's household. In contrast to the Southern Colonies, which could produce tobacco, rice, and indigo in
exchange for imports, New England's colonies could not offer much to England beyond fish, and furs, respectively.
Inflation was a major issue in the economy.
Education
In New England Colonies, parents believed their kids should be taught avidly about Christianity. There were also
grammar schools, which taught Latin and math.
References
[1] Gipson, Lawrence. The British Empire Before the American Revolution (15 volumes) (1936-1970), Pulitzer Prize; highly detailed discussion
of every British coloy in the New World
[2] Smith, John. "A Description of New England (with annotations)" (http:/ / digitalcommons. unl. edu/ cgi/ viewcontent. cgi?article=1003&
context=etas). . Retrieved 2008-12-21.
[3] Internet Archive. "St. Croix Island History" (http:/ / web. archive. org/ web/ 20041010233349/ http:/ / www. stecroix2004. org/ en/ history.
htm). Archived from the original (http:/ / www. stecroix2004. org/ en/ history. htm) on 2004-10-10. . Retrieved 2008-12-21.
[4] Thompson, Jack; John Bradford. "Maine’s First Ship: Historic Overview" (http:/ / www. mainesfirstship. org/ history. html). U.S. National
Parks Service. . Retrieved 2008-12-21.
[5] New France New Horizons, Foundation. "New France Forts" (http:/ / www. champlain2004. org/ html/ 06/ 0603_e. html). . Retrieved
2009-01-10.
[6] Wikipedia. "History of Connecticut" (http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ wiki/ History_of_Connecticut). . Retrieved 2009-01-10.
[7] Deetz, Patricia Scott; James F. Deetz. "Passengers on the Mayflower: Ages & Occupations, Origins & Connections" (http:/ / www. histarch.
uiuc. edu/ plymouth/ Maysource. html). The Plymouth Colony Archive Project. . Retrieved 2008-11-10.
[8] NativeAmericans.com. "Squanto (The History of Tisquantum)" (http:/ / www. nativeamericans. com/ Squanto. htm). . Retrieved 2008-11-11.
[9] Bradford, William (1865). Mourt’s Relation, or Journal of the Plantation at Plymouth (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=xb3coQS13NYC). Boston: J. K. Wiggin. . Retrieved 2008-12-23.
[10] Young, Alexander (1846). Chronicles of the First Planters of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, 1623-1636 (http:/ / books. google. com/
books?id=9HEFAAAAQAAJ& pg=PA26& lpg=PA26). Boston: C. C. Little and J. Brown. p. 26. . Retrieved 2008-12-23.
[11] The Library of Congress Web Site. "America as a Religious Refuge: The Seventeenth Century" (http:/ / www. loc. gov/ exhibits/ religion/
rel01-2. html). . Retrieved 2008-11-11.
[12] Roger Williams, Family Association. "Biography of Roger Williams" (http:/ / www. rogerwilliams. org/ biography. htm). . Retrieved
2009-02-07.
[13] Wikipedia. "History of Hartford, Connecticut" (http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ wiki/ History_of_Hartford,_Connecticut). . Retrieved 2009-02-10.
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New England Colonies
[14] Boston History & Innovative Collaborative. ""Growth" to Boston in its Heyday, 1640's to 1731's" (http:/ / www. bostonhistorycollaborative.
org/ pdf/ Era2. pdf). . Retrieved 2008-11-12.
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