E/MS Unit II: Building a New Society: Life in Colonial Massachusetts
Introduction
The English men and women who came to Massachusetts in the seventeenth century were seeking
to build communities that looked and worked like the ones they had left behind, with one major
exception: their established church would have none of the rituals, hierarchies, and erroneous beliefs that had caused them to reject the Church of England.
Essential Question
How did the English go about building what they considered a good society in colonial Massachusetts?
Frameworks
5.7: Identify some of the major leaders and groups responsible for the founding of the original colonies in North America.
5.9: Explain the reasons that the language, political institutions, and political principles of what
became the United States of American were largely shaped by English colonists even though other
major European nations also explored the New World.
5.10: On a map of North America, identify the first 13 colonies and describe how regional differences in climate, types of farming, populations, and sources of labor shaped their economies and
societies through the 18th century.
5.14: Explain the development of colonial governments and describe how these developments contributed to the Revolution.
Unit Lessons
Lesson A: The First English Settlements in the Massachusetts Bay
Colony
Organizing Idea
English colonists established the first settlements in the Massachusetts Bay Colony along
the coast or on rivers with easy access to the sea.
Key Questions
1. How did the first settlers decide where to establish towns?
2. How were additional towns established?
Related Mass Moments
April 7, 1630 “Puritans Leave for Massachusetts”
In 1630, approximately 1,000 Puritans came to Massachusetts under the leadership of
John Winthrop.
December 28, 1630 “Site for Cambridge Selected”
Colonists sited their first capital along the northern bank of the Charles River.
July 15, 1635 “William Pynchon Buys Land for Springfield”
Pynchon established a fur trading center on the Connecticut River.
May 6, 1635 “Marblehead Carved Out of Salem”
One by one, people in larger towns created or “seeded” new towns.
E/MS Unit II: Building a New Society
Primary Sources
Document E/MS II-1: Home Away from Home: Excerpts from John Winthrop’s Journal
Document E/MS II-2: “One of the Neatest Towns in New England”: Excerpt from
William Wood’s Description of Cambridge in 1634
Materials Bank
Massachusetts towns settled between 1630-74
Map of eastern Massachusetts showing town and county borders
Activities
Activity 1: Creating Big Maps Showing Early Towns
It is important that students understand that English colonists did not arrive in an
uninhabited land. Begin this lesson by mapping the areas where the Wampanoag,
Massachusett, Nipmuc, and other native tribes lived before England established colonies in
Massachusetts. [See Unit I, Activity A for instructions.]
Read aloud or share key points from the Mass Moment essay on John Winthrop and the
first Puritans to settle Massachusetts.
Print out and distribute copies of the excerpts from Winthrop’s journal that mention the
settlement of towns. Have students use different colors to map the towns that were settled
in 1630, between 1631 and 1640, and each decade up to 1675.
Note: The excerpts in Winthrop’s journal include just a few of the early towns. Also,
students need to be careful about not jumping to conclusions. The journal entries for 1631
and 1632 show that Dorchester and Medford existed by this date. They do not tell us when
they were founded. To get a complete picture, students should consult the list of early
Massachusetts towns in the Materials Bank.
E/MS Unit II: Building a New Society
Ask students:
1) Where did the English Puritans establish their first settlements in 1630? Why?
2) On what Indian tribes’ lands were these settlements located? [Unit I focuses on this
issue.]
3) If Winthrop does not mention a date for when a town was settled, how can we find
this information?
4) Where did Englishmen settle in the period 1630 to 1675? Why?
5) What was the pattern of settlement?
6) What areas remained unsettled by the English in this period? Why might this have
been so?
Read aloud the Mass Moment essay about the founding of Cambridge and then have
students read William Wood’s description of Newtowne.
Discuss:
1) What made Newtowne (later Cambridge) a good site for a town but not for the
capital?
2) What was the purpose of the fence? What does that tell us about the Cambridge
area at the time it was settled?
3) Why might settlers have been prohibited from building “beyond the palisade”?
4) In 1635, the General Court passed a law that “no new building should be built more
than half a mile from the meeting-house in any new plantation.” What purpose
would this regulation have served? How would this law affect the layout of a new
town?
Ask students to make a sketch or map of what they think Newtowne looked like in the
1630s.
Read aloud the Mass Moment that tells the story of the settlement of Springfield.
Ask
1) What about this location would have appealed to Pynchon? How was his choice
similar and how was it different from that of earlier town founders?
E/MS Unit II: Building a New Society
2) How did Agawam (later Springfield) differ from other Puritan towns?
3) Use the Big Map the class has created to examine how English settlement of the
Connecticut Valley progressed once Springfield was founded.
4) In what parts of Massachusetts did the English not establish towns in the
seventeenth century? What reasons might they have had?
Activity 2: Multiplying Towns
Read aloud the story of Marblehead. Do students see similarities between Marblehead and
another town about which they recently learned?
Ask
1. How does this information add to their understanding of what Puritan towns were
like?
2. Why did the English create new towns out of old ones? Why did they also establish
other new towns further inland?
Display a map of eastern Massachusetts that shows town borders. Ask students to indicate
the area that was included in Newtowne in 1644. Have them do the same for Salem and
Concord, which were among the earliest and largest towns in the colony. Invite your town
historian or someone from the local historical society to visit the class and/or find books on
your town’s early history.
1) When was the town settled and when was it incorporated? What drew the first
settlers to the area?
2) If the town was settled very early, what were its original boundaries? When did they
change?
3) How many times has the town been subdivided? When and why did the divisions
occur?
4) If the town was once a part of another town, what town was it part of? Why did the
“new” town break away from the old one? (For example, if students live in Beverly,
this was once a part of Salem. If they live in Lexington, the town was originally part
of Cambridge.)
5) Did people from the students’ town establish one or more new towns? Where? How
did the new town(s) get their names?
E/MS Unit II: Building a New Society
Lesson B: Religious Intolerance in Seventeenth-Century
Massachusetts
Organizing Idea
The English men and women who came to Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Colonies
sought to practice their religion without interference, not to establish communities where
individuals were free to follow their own religious beliefs.
Key Questions
1. What were the early settlers’ religious goals?
2. How did the Puritans treat people who had different religious views from theirs?
3. Why were Puritans so intolerant of religious practices that were different from their
own?
Related Mass Moments
October 9, 1635 “Roger Williams Banished”
He spread new and dangerous religious ideas.
March 22, 1638 “Anne Hutchinson Banished”
She threatened the authority of the colony’s leaders.
May 26, 1647 “Massachusetts Bay Colony Bans Catholic Priests”
Priests were banned on penalty of death.
December 3, 1658 “Quakers Outlawed in Plymouth”
Quakers were considered instruments of the devil.
E/MS Unit II: Building a New Society
December 25, 1659 “Christmas Celebration Outlawed”
Celebrate Christmas and you’ll be fined five shillings.
Primary Sources
Document E/MS II-3: Setting an Example for the World: Excerpts from John Winthrop’s
Speech “A Modell of Christian Charity,” 1630
Document E/MS II-4: “We Sentence You to Depart”: Comments on Roger Williams’s
Views
Document E/MS II-5: Catholics Keep Out: Massachusetts Law of 1637
Document E/MS II-6: “She Troubles the Peace”: Excerpts from “The Examination of Mrs.
Anne Hutchinson at the Court at Newtown,” 1637
Document E/MS II-7: Mary Dyer Shall Hang: Nineteenth-century Painting of Mary
Dyer Walking to the Gallows
Suggested Links and Resources
Links
Online unit contains links to websites.
E/MS Unit II: Building a New Society
Activities
Activity 1: The Puritans’ Promise to God
Explain to students that although Puritans founded both Plymouth Colony (1620) and
Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630), the two groups had slightly different beliefs. The founders of Plymouth Colony were Separatists. They did not believe the Church of England
could be put back on the right path and so “separated” themselves from it. The people who
established Massachusetts Bay Colony, on the other hand, continued to believe that it was
possible to reform the Church of England from within. They tried to do that in England
but were harassed to the point where, finally, they decided to leave and build their ideal
society in the Americas.
Print out and distribute copies of the excerpts from John Winthrop’s speech, so that students can follow along as it is read aloud. Stop periodically to ask students what they think
Winthrop is telling his fellow Puritans. Make a list of his key points on the board. Does
this speech give us any hint as to how Puritans would respond to people who practiced a
different religion?
Activity 2: High Cost of Following Other Religious Beliefs
Have students work in groups of three or four. Each group will focus on one individual or
group whose religion was banned by the Puritans. Print out and distribute to each group
one of the following primary sources: Comments on Roger Williams’s views, the law banning Catholic priests, the excerpts concerning Anne Hutchinson, and the painting of Mary
Dyer on her way to be hanged. Students working on Mary Dyer should also read the Mass
Moment on the Puritans’ attitude toward Quakers.
Students reading about Mary Dyer should answer:
1) What was the Puritans’ attitude toward the Quakers?
2) What did Puritans do to prevent Quakers from becoming part of their communities?
3) What did Mary Dyer do that angered the Massachusetts authorities? How did the
authorities respond?
Have students answer the questions that appear with the copy of the painting.
E/MS Unit II: Building a New Society
After each group reports on the primary source it studied, have the whole class discuss:
1) What did they find surprising about the individual or religious group?
2) Were the Puritans’ actions in keeping with what they considered their covenant
(their agreement) with God? Why or why not?
3) Which attitude toward other religions is more common, that of the Puritans or that
of someone like Roger Williams? (Students may be surprised to learn that well into
the 1900s, Catholics were forbidden to enter any building of worship other than a
Catholic church.)
4) What is the relationship between the state legislature (still called the General Court)
and religion today?
Activity 3: Religious Diversity Today
Ask students to guess how many different religions are practiced in the Commonwealth
today; then consult the Pluralism Project website for the answer. (www.pluralism.org)
Have students make a list of the places of worship in town. Which ones are in their neighborhood? Which ones do they pass on their way to school? Have students look in the local
yellow pages to add to or confirm their list.
Ask students how freedom of religion affects our lives. How is freedom of religion protected in the United States?
Activity 4: How the Puritans Celebrated Christmas
Ask students how they think the Puritans celebrated Christmas. Then read aloud or share
key points from the Mass Moments essay “Christmas Celebration Outlawed.”
What in the essay surprised students?
E/MS Unit II: Building a New Society
Lesson C: A Young Colony Faces Challenges
Organizing Idea
The English who settled the Massachusetts Bay Colony faced numerous challenges, from
clearing land to persuading people back home to join them in New England. These challenges are more easily understood than the ease with which colonists enslaved Indians and
Africans and the almost universal belief in the existence of witches.
Key Questions
1. How did the New England colonies meet the need for workers?
2. What English beliefs persisted among colonists?
3. What happened to the colony’s first newspaper?
Related Mass Moments
February 26, 1638 “First Slaves Arrive in Massachusetts”
By 1640, a few people in Massachusetts owned slaves.
May 5, 1643 “Winthrop Buys Passage for Ironworkers”
Massachusetts Bay Colony had a shortage of skilled labor.
May 13, 1675 “Jury Finds Mary Parsons Not Guilty of Witchcraft”
The belief in witches was widespread.
September 25, 1690 “First Newspaper Published in the Colonies”
Authorities quickly suppressed the first newspaper.
Primary Sources
Document E/MS II-8: Finding Cheap Labor: Excerpt from a Letter Written in 1645
Document E/MS II-9: Punishable by Death: Capital Laws in Effect in Seventeenth-Century Massachusetts
Document E/MS II-10: Guilty of Witchcraft: Excerpt from John Winthrop’s Journal
Document E/MS II-11: New England News! Excerpts from Publick Occurrences, Both
Foreign and Domestick, Boston, Thursday Sept. 25, 1690
E/MS Unit II: Building a New Society
10
Suggested Links and Resources
Links
Online unit contains links to websites.
Books
The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England, by Carol Karlsen
(W.W. Norton, 1998).
Entertaining Satan: Witchcraft and the Culture of Early New England, by John Putnam
Demos (Oxford University Press, 2004).
Everyday Life in Colonial America, From 1607-1783, by Dale Taylor
(Writer’s Digest Books, 1997).
Hunting for Witches, by Frances Hill (Commonwealth Editions, 2002).
Activities
Activity 1: The Need for Labor
Read aloud or share key points from the Mass Moments essay on the first slaves in Massachusetts and share information from the essay on the Saugus ironworks.
Discuss:
1. Why was there such a need for labor in the early colonies?
2. Why didn’t more English people come to the new colonies?
3. How did the New England colonies meet the need for labor?
Explain that another way the English settlers addressed the labor shortage was by encouraging individuals to come to the colonies as indentured servants. Men and women, many of
them still in their teens, who had no means of support and few prospects at home would
agree to emigrate and work for a period of about seven years in exchange for the cost of
their passage, room, and board.
Print out and distribute copies of the 1645 letter. Remind students that in 1641 Massachusetts adopted a “Body of Liberties.” This document guaranteed many civil rights, but at the
same time it made it legal to enslave individuals “taken in just wars, [or who] willingly sell
themselves or are sold to us.” Read the letter aloud, stopping to discuss the meaning of each
sentence.
E/MS Unit II: Building a New Society
11
1) How does this letter confirm what students have learned from other sources?
2) What new information does it provide?
3) What is the letter writer’s attitude toward black slaves?
Make the most complete list possible of the different strategies Massachusetts colonists
used to deal with the labor shortage.
Activity 2: Threats to the Community
Have students read over the first page of the document listing Capital Laws in effect in the
early years of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
1) What issues do the first three laws address?
2) What does it tell us when these three appear at the top of the list, ahead of murder?
3) Look at the second law, regarding “Witch-craft.” What does the wording in the law
tell us about people’s belief in the presence of witches?
Define “defendant,” “plaintiff,” and “deposition.” Have half the class read John Winthrop’s
journal entry that describes the evidence against a convicted witch, and the other half read
the Mass Moment about Mary Parsons. Both groups should answer:
1. What evidence was presented in court as proof of witchcraft?
2. How did the case get resolved?
3. What factors may have helped or hurt the accused person?
Have the students exchange information about their reading. Then discuss:
1. What appears to have been a big part of these accusations?
2. The evidence of witchcraft seems ridiculous to us today. Why did people in the seventeenth century apparently take it so seriously?
3. The Puritans believed that everything good that happened was a result of God’s
blessing. How did they explain unfortunate things such as storms, illness, death,
and accidents?
E/MS Unit II: Building a New Society
12
4. What are alternative explanations for these events?
5. Do local histories mention any case(s) of suspected witchcraft in the students’ home
town? If so, what can they find out about it?
Activity 3: The Printed Word
How do students think seventeenth-century colonists received local news? How might they
have learned about what was happening in England and the rest of Europe? Read the Mass
Moment about the first newspaper in the colonies.
1. Does it surprise students that a newspaper was not published until 60 years after the
colony was established?
2. Can it be explained by what they have learned about labor, tools, and machinery in
early Massachusetts?
3. Why did officials put a stop to the publication of Publick Occurrences?
4. What might happen if there were freedom to print any news?
Divide the class into small groups; have each group read an excerpt from Publick Occurences
and answer the questions at the end of the document. (Students can see an image of the
original paper on the Massachusetts Historical Society website.)
Ask each group to report to the class on their reading.
1. What do these passages tell us about the concerns of the colonists in 1690?
2. How do the news items compare to what is covered in newspapers today?
Activity 4: Creative Extension
Ask students to make a list of what they would include in a four-page, monthly paper with
the title Publick Occurrences: Both Foreign and Domestic published today. If the class wants
to produce the paper, some students can work on layout and production, others on art or
writing. Students responsible for art can create cartoons or take photographs of newsworthy subjects and write captions for them. Alternately, after students have completed all
the lessons in Unit E/MS II, they can use what they have learned to produce an issue of
Publick Occurrences dated sometime in the 1690s.
E/MS Unit II: Building a New Society
13
Document E/MS II-1: Excerpts from John Winthrop’s journal
John Winthrop was the first governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony. He kept a journal from
1630 until he died in 1649. It is among the best written records that exists of the early years of
the colony.
Saturday, June 12, 1630 About 4 in the morning we were near our port [of Salem]….As
we stood towards the harbor, we passed through the narrow strait between Bakers Island
and Kettle Isle and came to an anchor a little within the islands.
Thursday, June 17, 1630 We went to Mattachusettes to find out a place for our sitting
down [settling]. We went up Misticke River about 6 miles.
November 10, 1630 [A settler] of Watertown had his wigwam burnt.
December 6, 1630 The governor and most of the assistants and other met at Rockesburie,
and there agreed to build a town fortified upon the next between this and Boston…
December 21, 1630 We met again at Watertown and there, upon view of a place a mile
beneath the town, all agreed it a fit place for a fortified town, and we took time to consider
further about it.
January 1631 A house at Dorchester was burned down.
February 7, 1632 The governor…and others went over Mystic River at Medford, and going
about 2 or 3 miles they came to a very great pond with they called Spott Ponde. They went
all about it upon the ice.
March 1633 The governor’s son, John Winthrop ( Jr.) went with 12 more to begin a plantation at Agawam, after called Ipswich….
May 6, 1635 A General Court was held at Newtown…. At this General Court some of the
chief of Ipswich desired leave to remove to Quascacunquen to begin a town there, which
was granted them and it was named Nueberrye. Also, Watertown and Roxbury had leave
to remove whither they pleased so [long] as they continued under this governor. The occasion of their desire to remove was for that all towns in the Bay began to be much straitened
by their o’er nearness one to another, and their cattle being so much increased…
Quoted in The Journal of John Winthrop 1630–1649 (abridged), ed. by Richard S. Dunn
and Laetitia Yeandle (The Belknap Press, 1996).
E/MS Unit II: Building a New Society
14
VOCABULARY for Document E/MS II-1
assistants—officials
chief— leading male residents
fortified— built with a defense
General Court— meeting of the men in authority; later, the name for the
Massachusetts legislature
plantation— [in this context] town
remove— move
strait— passage of water
straitened— squeezed
E/MS Unit II: Building a New Society
15
Document E/MS II-2: “One of the Neatest Towns in New
England”: Excerpt from William Wood’s description of
Cambridge in 1634
William Wood came to New England with his father in 1629 when he was 23; he returned four
years later and produced a report for the English Puritans on their colony in Massachusetts Bay.
The full title is a long one: “New England’s Prospect. A true, lively, and experimental description
of that part of American, commonly called New England; discovering the state of that Countrie,
both as it stands to our new-come English Planters; and to the old Native Inhabitants. Laying
downe that which may both enrich the knowledge of the mind-travelling Reader, or benefit the
future Voyager.”
By the side of the [Charles] River is built Newtown, which is three miles by land from
Charlestown and a league and a half by water. This place was first intended for a city, but
upon more serious considerations it was not thought so fit, being too far from the sea being
the greatest inconvenience it hath. This is one of the neatest and best compacted towns in
New England, having many fair structures, with many handsome contrived streets. The
inhabitants, most of them, are very rich and well stored with cattle of all sorts, having many
hundred acres of ground paled in with one general fence which is about a mile and a half
long, which secures all their weaker cattle from the wild beasts. On the other side of the
river lieth all their meadow and marshground for hay.
Quoted in New England’s Prospect by William Wood, ed. by Alden T. Vaughan (University
of Massachusetts Press, 1977).
VOCABULARY
compacted: built close together
contrived laid out according to a plan
fair structures: attractive buildings
league: about three miles
lieth: lies
Newtown: original name for Cambridge
paled in: surrounded by
E/MS Unit II: Building a New Society
16
Document E/MS II-3: Excerpts from John Winthrop’s speech
“A Model of Christian Charity,” 1630
We do not know exactly when John Winthrop, the first governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony,
gave the famous speech “A Model of Christian Charity” to the men and women who sailed with
him on the Arabella. Most likely it was on board the ship.
Note: The spelling has been modernized.
We are a company professing ourselves fellow members of Christ…we ought to [consider]
ourselves knit together by this bond of love… It is by mutual consent, to seek out a place
[where we will live together] under a due form of government both civil and ecclesiastical.
In such cases as this, the care of the public must oversway all private respects… The end is
to improve our lives to do more service to the Lord;…that ourselves and posterity may be
the better preserved from the common corruptions of this evil world to serve the Lord…
We must bear one another’s burdens. We must not look only to our own things, but also
on the things of our brethren….
We are entered into a Covenant with Him [God] for this work…. The Lord has given us
leave to draw our own articles….We have [asked] Him [for His] blessing. Now if the Lord
shall please to hear us, and bring us in peace to the place [New England] we desire, then he
has ratified this covenant…and will expect a strict performance of the articles contained in
it…
[The only way to do the work of the Lord], and to provide for our posterity, is… to do
justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with our God. For this end, we must be knit together
in this work as one man….We must delight in each other; make other’s conditions our
own; rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our
eyes our commission and community in the work, as members of the same [group]….The
Lord will be our God, and delight to dwell among us, as his own people, and will command
a blessing upon us in all our ways….
For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon
us….
Full text is on the Winthrop Society website, http://www.winthropsociety.org/doc_
charity.php
E/MS Unit II: Building a New Society
17
VOCABULARY for Document E/MS II-3
articles
rules
brethren brothers, friends
burdens troubles
civil
not religious
commission
duty
consent agreement
corruptionstemptations
Covenant— formal agreement
due
proper
dwell
live
ecclesiastical
religious
knit r
joined
oversway be more important than
posterity future generations
preserved protected
professing thinking of
ratified
agreed to
respects issues
E/MS Unit II: Building a New Society
18
Document E/MS II-4: “We Sentence You to Depart”:
Comments on Roger Williams’s Views
In October 1635, the General Court of Massachusetts Bay Colony tried to convince Roger
Williams that his beliefs were wrong. When he refused to change his opinions, the court ordered
him to leave the colony.
From the records of the General Court:
Whereas, Mr. Roger Williams, one of the elders of the Church of Salem, hath broached
and divulged divers new and dangerous opinions against the authority of magistrates and
. . . it is therefore ordered, that the said Mr. Williams shall depart out of this jurisdiction
within six weeks now ensuing.
Roger Williams’s “dangerous opinions” included the belief
“That we have not our land by patent from the King, but that the natives are the true
owners of it, and that we ought to repent of such a receiving of it by patent [and] that the
civil magistrate’s power extends only to the bodies and goods, and outward state of men. . . “
Because winter was approaching when the General Court banished Roger Williams, he
was allowed to stay in Salem until the spring. Despite instructions that he not preach,
Williams held meetings in his home. The governor and his assistants notified Williams that
he should come to Boston so they could ship him back to England. He said he would not,
so the authorities went “to apprehend him and carry him aboard the ship, but when they
came at his house they found he had been gone three days before, but whither they could
not learn.”
In his 1644 work, The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution, for Cause of Conscience, Roger
Williams wrote:
God requireth not an uniformity of Religion to be enacted and enforced in any civil state,
which uniformity (sooner or later) is the greatest occasion of civil war…and of hypocrisy
and destruction of millions of souls….true civility and Christianity may both flourish in a
state or kingdom…either of Jew or Gentile.
He also wrote:
Forced worship stinks in God’s nostrils.
E/MS Unit II: Building a New Society
19
VOCABULARY for Document E/MS II-4
apprehend arrest
broached
expressed
civility
[in this case] civilization
divers variety of
divulged announced publicly
flourish prosper
hypocrisy — pretending to believe something you don’t really believe
jurisdiction [in this case] Massachusetts Bay Colony
magistrates judges
patent authority
repent feel deep sorrow, great sadness
tenent
opinion, idea held by a group
uniformity
when something is the same from place to place
E/MS Unit II: Building a New Society
20
Questions: for Document E/MS II-4
1.
Why was Roger Williams called before the magistrates?
2.
What was the first thing the authorities tried to do?
3.
After they banished Williams, what happened?
4.
What were some of Roger Williams’s beliefs?
5.
Why did the Massachusetts authorities consider Williams so dangerous that he should
be banished from the colony?
E/MS Unit II: Building a New Society
21
Document E/MS II-5, From General Laws and Liberties of
Massachusetts, 1637
In 1637 the Massachusetts General Court passed a set of laws including this one barring Catholic priests from the colony.
This court, taking into consideration, the great wars, combustions and divisions which
are this day in Europe; and that the same are observed to be raised and fomented chiefly
by the secret underminings and solicitations of those of the Jesuitical order, men brought
up and devoted to the religion and court of Rome, which has occasioned diverse states to
expel them from their territories; for prevention whereof among ourselves, it is ordered and
enacted by the Authority of this Court,
That no Jesuit, or spiritual or ecclesiastical person ordained by the authority of the Pope
or the Sea of Rome shall henceforth at any time repair to, or come within this jurisdiction;
And if any person shall give just cause of suspicion that he is one of such society or order
he shall be brought before some of the Magistrates, and if he cannot free himself of such
suspicion he shall be committed to prison or bound over to the next Court of Assistants, to
be tried or proceeded with by Banishment as the Court shall see cause: and if any person so
banished shall be taken a second time within this Jurisdiction upon lawful trial and conviction he shall be put to death. Provided this law shall not extend to any such Jesuit, spiritual
or ecclesiastical person as shall be cast upon our shores, by ship wreck or other accident, so
as he continue no longer than till he have opportunity of passage for his departure…
E/MS Unit II: Building a New Society
22
VOCABULARY for Document E/MS II-5
banishment forced removal
combustion
violent commotion or disturbance
Court of Assistants
colony’s highest court, became Supreme Judicial Court
Court of Rome
Pope and his circle of advisers
ecclesiastical church-related
expel force to leave
fomented stirred up bad opinions
Jesuit
priest belonging to Jesuitical order
Jesuitical order Catholic priests devoted to religious education
jurisdiction — [in this case] Massachusetts Bay Colony
magistrates`
judges
ordained
given religious authority
order
group of priests or nuns
opportunity of passage for his departure
chance to leave
occasioned caused
repair to come to
Sea of Rome
Pope and his circle of advisors
solicitation
urging
underminings
arguments against
E/MS Unit II: Building a New Society
23
Questions: for Document E/MS II-5
1.
To whom did this law apply?
2.
Why did Massachusetts officials believe it was necessary?
3.
What did the law say would happen the first time someone broke it?
4.
What would happen the second time?
5.
What exception was written into the law?
E/MS Unit II: Building a New Society
24
Document E/MS II-6: Excerpts from “The Examination of
Mrs. Anne Hutchinson at the Court at Newtown” (1637)
The men who governed the Massachusetts Bay Colony kept excellent records. The following
excerpts are from original court documents that have been preserved for almost 370 years.
Mr. [ John] Winthrop, Governor: Mrs. Hutchinson, you are called here as one of those that
have troubled the peace of the commonwealth and the churches here; ...you have spoken
divers things, as we have been informed, very prejudicial to the honour of the churches and
ministers thereof, and you have maintained a meeting and an assembly in your house that
hath been condemned by the general assembly as a thing not tolerable nor comely in the
sight of God nor fitting for your sex, and notwithstanding that was cried down you have
continued the same.
Gov.: Why do you keep such a meeting at your house as you do every week upon a set day?
Mrs. H.: It is lawful for me to do so, as it is all your practices, and can you find a warrant
for yourself and condemn me for the same thing?… it was in practice before I came. Therefore I was not the first.
Deputy Governor, Thomas Dudley: ...About three years ago we were all in peace. Mrs.
Hutchinson, from that time she came hath made a disturbance, and some that came over
with her in the ship did inform me what she was as soon as she was landed. I being then in
place dealt with the pastor and teacher of Boston and desired them to enquire of her, and
then I was satisfied that she held nothing different from us. But within half a year after, she
had vented divers of her strange opinions and had made parties in the country... But now
it appears by this woman’s meeting that Mrs. Hutchinson hath so forestalled the minds of
many by their resort to her meeting that now she hath a potent party in the country. Now
if all these things have endangered us as from that foundation...why, we must take away the
foundation and the building will fall.
Mrs. H.: If you please to give me leave I shall give you the ground of what I know to be
true. Being much troubled to see the falseness of the constitution of the Church of England, I had like to have turned Separatist... I bless the Lord, he hath let me see which was
the clear ministry and which the wrong. ... Now if you do condemn me for speaking what
in my conscience I know to be truth I must commit myself unto the Lord.
Online at Anne Hutchingson website http://www.annehutchinson.com/anne_hutchinson_trial_001.htm
E/MS Unit II: Building a New Society
25
VOCABULARY for Document E/MS II-6
clear ministry
the right thing to preach
comely attractive
condemned disapproved of
divers variety of
forestalled tricked
made parties convinced people to support her cause
potent strong and influential
prejudicial harmful
vented publicly complained about
warrant reason
E/MS Unit II: Building a New Society
26
Questions: for Document E/MS II-6
1.
What were the authorities accusing Mrs. Hutchinson of doing?
2.
Where did the illegal or troublesome behavior take place?
3.
Why did they believe this behavior was wrong?
4.
How did Anne Hutchinson answer the accusations made against her?
E/MS Unit II: Building a New Society
27
Document E/MS II-7: Mary Dyer Shall Hang: 19th-century
Painting of Mary Dyer Walking to the Gallows
After reading the background essay for the Mass Moment “Quakers Outlawed in Plymouth,” answer these questions:
1. What was the Puritans’ attitude toward Quakers? Why?
2. What actions did Puritans take to try to prevent Quakers from becoming part of
their communities?
3. What did Mary Dyer do and how did Puritan authorities respond?
Now look at the painting done about 200 years after Dyer was hanged and answer the following questions:
1. Describe the appearance of Mary Dyer.
2. Describe the appearance of the crowd.
3. Decide whether you agree with how the artist shows them? If not, why not?
Image credit:
Mary Dyer being led to execution on the Boston Common, 1 June 1660
Color engraving.
Copyprint Nineteenth Century
Library of Congress
E/MS Unit II: Building a New Society
28
Document E/MS II-8: Finding Cheap Labor: Excerpt from a
Letter Written in 1645
Emanuel Downing, a London lawyer and the brother-in-law of Massachusetts Bay Colony’s
governor, John Winthrop, came to visit the colony. In a 1645 letter to Winthrop, he explained
his view of the slave situation in Massachusetts.
If upon a just war the Lord should deliver [the Pequot Indians] into our hands, we might
easily have men, women and children enough to exchange for Moores [black Africans],
which will be more gainful pillage for us than we conceive, for I do not see how we can
thrive until we get into a stock of slaves sufficient to do all our business, for our children’s
children will hardly see this great Continent filled with people, so that our servants will
still desire freedom to plant for themselves and not to stay but for very great wages. And I
suppose you know very well how we shall maintain 20 Moores cheaper than one English
servant. The ships that shall bring Moores may come home laden with salt which may bear
most of the charge, if not all of it….
Quoted in “Notes on the History of Slavery in Massachusetts,” by George H. Moore (D.
Appleton & Co., 1866).
VOCABULARY for Document E/MS II-8
conceive
think
gainful
profitable
laden
loaded
pillage
robbing
plant
farm
thrive
do well
E/MS Unit II: Building a New Society
29
Questions: for Document E/MS II-8
1. How does this letter confirm what you have learned from other sources?
2. What new information does it provide?
3. What is the letter writer’s attitude toward black slaves?
E/MS Unit II: Building a New Society
30
Document E/MS II-9: Punishable by Death: Capital Laws in
Effect in Seventeenth-century Massachusetts
E/MS Unit II: Building a New Society
31
Document E/MS II-10: Excerpt from John Winthrop’s Journal, May 1648
John Winthrop was the first governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony. He kept a journal from
1630 until he died in 1649. It is among the best written records we have of the early years of the
colony.
At this Court one Margaret Jones of Charlestown was indicted and found guilty of witchcraft and hanged for it. The evidence against her was 1. that she was found to have such
a malignant touch as many persons (men, women, and children) whom she stroked or
touched with any affection of displeasure or, etc., were taken with deafness, or vomiting,
or other violent pains, or sickness; 2. she practicing physic, and her medicines being such
things as (by her own confession) were harmless, as aniseed, licorice, etc., yet had extraordinary violent effects; 3. she would use to tell such as would not make use of her physic that
they would never be healed, and accordingly their diseases and hurts continued… 4. some
things which she fortold came to pass accordingly; other things she could tell of (as secret
speeches, etc.) which she had no ordinary means to come to the knowledge of; 5. she had
(upon search) an apparent teat in her secret parts as fresh as if it had been newly sucked…
upon a second search [it was found] that [it] was withered, and another began on the opposite side; 6. in prison in the clear daylight there was seen in her arms…a little child which
ran from her into another room, and the officer following it, it was vanished; the like child
was seen in 2 other places… Her behavior at her trial was very intemperate, lying notoriously, and railing upon the jury and witnesses, etc., and in the like distemper she died. The
same day and hour she was executed there was a very great tempest in Connecticut, which
blew down many trees, etc…
Margaret Jones was hanged June 14, 164, in Boston. She was one of four women executed for
witchcraft in New England between 1647 and 1648.
Quoted in The Journal of John Winthrop 1630–1649 (abridged), ed. by Richard S. Dunn
and Laetitia Yeandle (The Belknap Press, 1996).
E/MS Unit II: Building a New Society
32
VOCABULAR for Document E/MS II-10Y
accordingly
as a result
aniseed
seed-like fruit
distemper
disturbed state of mind
fortold
predicted
indicted
accused
intemperate
lacking in control
malignant
evil; harmful
notoriously
widely known
physic
healing
railing upon
screaming at
teat
a nipple, [in this case] possibly a mole of some kind
tempest
storm
with any affection of displeasure
when in a bad mood
E/MS Unit II: Building a New Society
33
Document E/MS II-11: Excerpts from Publick Occurrences,
Both Foreign and Domestick, Boston, Thursday Sept. 25,
1690
Publick Occurrences, Both Foreign and Domestick was the first paper published in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Note: Spelling has been modernized, but the capitalization and use of italics has not.
A. Editorial introduction
It is designed, that the Country shall be furnished once a month (or if any glut of Occurrences happen oftener), with an Account of such considerable things as have arrived unto
our Notice.
In order hereunto, the Publisher will take what pains he can to obtain a faithful Relation
of all such things; and will particularly make himself beholden to such Persons in Boston
whom he knows to have been for their own use the diligent Observers of such matters….
B. news item
The Christianized Indians in some parts of Plimouth, have newly appointed a day of
Thanksgiving to God for his Mercy in supplying their extream and pinching Necessities
under their late want of Corn & for His giving them now a prospect of a very Comfortable
Harvest. Their Example may be worth Mentioning.
C. news item
While the barbarous Indians were lurking about Chelmsford, there were missing about
the beginning of this month a couple of Children belonging to a man of that Town, one
of them aged about eleven, the other aged about nine years, both of them supposed to be
fallen into the hands of the Indians.
D. news item
Epidemical fevers and Agues grow very common in some parts of the Country, whereof,
tho many die not, yet they are sorely unfitted for their employments; but in some parts a
more malignant Fever seems to prevail in such fort that it usually goes through a Family
where it comes, and proves Mortal unto many.
The Small-pox which has been raging in Boston, after a manner very Extraordinary is now
much abated. It is thought that far more have been sick of it than were visited with it when
it raged so much twelve years ago, nevertheless it has not been so Mortal. The number of
them that have died in Boston by this last Visitation is about three hundred and twenty,
which is not perhaps half so many as fell by the former. The time of its being most General
was in the Months June, July, and August, then ‘twas that sometimes in some one Congregation on a Lord’s day there would be Bills desiring prayers for above a hundred Sick. It
E/MS Unit II: Building a New Society
34
seized upon all sorts of people that came in the way of it, it infected even Children in the
bellies of Mothers that had themselves undergone the Disease many years ago; for some
such were now born full of the Distemper. ‘Tis not easy to relate the Trouble and Sorrow
that poor Boston has felt by this Epidemical Contagion….
E. news item
Although Boston did a few weeks ago, meet with a Disaster by Fire, which consumed
about twenty Houses near the Mill-Creek, yet about midnight, between the sixteenth and
seventeenth of this instant, another Fire broke forth near the South-Meeting-House, which
consumed about five or six houses and had almost carried the Meeting-house it self, one
of the fairest Edifices in the Country, if God had not remarkably assisted the Endeavours
of the People to put out the Fire. There were two more considerable Circumstances in the
calamities of this Fire, one was that a young man belonging to the house where the Fire
began, unhappily perished in the Flames; it seems that tho’ he might sooner awake than
some others who did escape, yet he some way lost those Wits that should have taught him
to help himself. Another was that the best furnished PRINTING-PRESS, of those few
that we know of in America was lost, a loss not presently to be repaired….
The paper goes on to give extensive reports on the French and Indian War.
F. news item
Another late matter of discourse has been an unaccountable destruction befalling a body
of Indians, that were our Enemies. This body of French Indians had a Fort somewhere far
up the River, and a party of Maqua’s returning from the East Country, where they have at a
great rate pursued and terrified those Indians which have been invading of our North East
Plantations, and Killed their General Hope Hood among the rest; resolved to visit this
Fort; but they found the effort ruined, the Canoes cut to pieces, and the people all either
Butchered or Captive…
G. news item
Two English Captives escaped from the hands of the Indians and French at Piscadamoquady, came into Portsmouth on the sixteenth Instant and say, That when Capt. Mason
was at Port Real, he cut the faces, and ripped the bellies of two Indians, and threw a third
Over board in the fight of the French, who informing the other Indians of it, they have in
revenge barbarously Butchered forty Captives of ours that were in their hands….
E/MS Unit II: Building a New Society
35
VOCABULARY for Document E/MS II-11
A.
beholden
grateful
considerable
important
diligent
hard working
faithful
accurate, truthful
furnished
published, provided
relation
report
B.
appointed
chosen
extream and pinching
absolute
prospect
promise
want of
lack of
C.
barbarous
uncivilized, very cruel
lurking
sneaking around
D.
abate
become less severe
agues
high fever
contagion
infectious disease
distemper
disease, disturbed state
epidemical
widespread
malignant
harmful
mortal
fatal
unfitted for their employment
visitation
outbreak of disease
visited with
infected by
unable to work
E/MS Unit II: Building a New Society
36
E.
calamities
tragedies; difficulties
edificesbuildings
endeavours
efforts
instant
of this month
perished
died
F.
discourse
discussion
plantations
towns
unaccountable
unexplained
G.
barbarously
with extreme cruelty
instant
of this month
Questions for Document E/MS II-11:
1.
What is the topic of the news item?
2.
What information is given about the topic?
3.
bias.
Is the writing impartial and unbiased? If not, underline the words that suggest a
E/MS Unit II: Building a New Society
37