Part III puritan new england

“Pilgrims” are people who make a journey for religious reasons. But for Americans the word has a special meaning. To them it means a small group of English men and women who sailed across the Atlantic Ocean in the year 1620. They are called the Pilgrim Fathers because they came to America to find religious freedom and are seen as the most important of the founders of the future USA.

In the 17th century Europe was torn by religious conflicts. For more than a thousand years Roman Catholic Christianity had been the religion of most of its people. By the 16th century however some Europeans had begun to doubt the teachings of the Catholic Church. They were also growing angry at the wealth and worldly pride of its leaders.

Early in the century a German monk named Martin Luther quarreled with these leaders. He claimed that individual human beings did not need the Pope or the priests of the Catholic Church to enable them to speak to God. A few years later a French lawyer named John Calvin put forward similar ideas. Calvin claimed that each individual was directly and personally responsible to God. Because they protested against the teachings and customs of the Catholic Church, religious reformers like Luther and Calvin were called “Protestants”. Their ideas spread quickly through northern Europe.

Few people believed in religious toleration at that time. In most countries people were expected to have the same religion as their ruler. This was the case in England. In the 1530s the English king Henry VIII formed a national church with himself as its head. In the later years of the 16th century many English people believed that this Church of England was still too much like the Catholic Church. They disliked the power of its bishops, its elaborate ceremonies and the rich decorations of its churches. They also questioned many of its teachings. Such people wanted the Church of England to become more plain and simple, or “pure”. Because of these they were called Puritans. The ideas of John Calvin appealed most strongly to them.

When James I became King of England in 1603 he warned the Puritans that he would drive them away from the land if they did not accept his views on religion. His bishops became fining the Puritans and putting them in prison. To escape this persecution, a small group of them left England and went to Holland in 1607, where the Dutch granted them asylum. Holland was the only country in Europe whose government allowed religious freedom at that time. However the English Puritans never felt at home there. They were restricted to mainly low-paid laboring jobs and grew dissatisfied with this discrimination. After much thought and much prayer they decided to move again. Some of them – the Pilgrims – decided to go to America.

But first they returned to England and persuaded the Virginia Company to allow them to settle in the northern part of its American lands. In 1620 a group of 101men, women and children left the English port of Plymouth and headed for America. Their ship was an old trading vessel, the Mayflower. For many years it had carried wine across the narrow seas between France and England. Now it faced a much more dangerous voyage, for sixty-five days it battled through the rolling waves of the Atlantic Ocean.

A storm sent them far north of the land granted by the Virginia Company and they landed in New England on Cape Code. The Pilgrims did not have enough food and water, and many were sick. They decided to land at the best place they could find and in December of 1620 they rowed ashore to set up camp at a place they named Plymouth. It was a violent winter with cruel and fierce storms and the Pilgrims’ chances of surviving were not very high. Before spring came, half of a hundred settlers were dead. But the Pilgrims were determined to succeed. The fifty survivors built better houses and learnt how to fish and hunt. Friendly Amerindians gave them seed corn and showed how to plant it.

Soon other English Puritans followed the Pilgrims to America. In 1630 a large group of almost a thousand colonists settled nearby in what became the Boston area. These people left England to escape the rule of a new English King, Charles I. Charles was even less tolerant than his father James had been of people who disagreed with his policies in religion and government. The Boston settlement prospered from the start, its population grew quickly as more and more Puritans left England to escape persecution. Many years later, in 1691, it combined with the Plymouth colony under the name of Massachusetts.

The ideas of the Massachusetts Puritans had a lasting influence on the American society. One of their first leaders, John Winthrop, said that they should build an ideal community for the rest of mankind to learn from: “We shall be like a city on a hill, the eyes of all people are upon us.” To this day many Americans continue to see their country in this way, as a model for other nations to copy.

The Puritans of Massachusetts believed that governments had a duty to make people obey God’s will. They passed laws to force people to attend church and laws to punish drunks and adulterers. Even men who let their hair grow long could be in trouble.

Roger Williams, a Puritan minister in a settlement called Salem, believed that it was wrong to run the affairs of Massachusetts in this way. He objected particularly to the fact that the same men controlled both the church and the government. Williams believed that church and state should be separate and that neither should interfere with the other.

Williams’ repeated criticism made the Massachusetts leaders angry. In 1635 they sent men to arrest him. But Williams escaped and went south, where he was joined by other discontented people from Massachusetts. On the shores of Narragansett Bay Williams and his followers set up a new colony called Rhode Island. Rhode Island promised its citizens complete religious freedom and separation of church and state. To this day these ideas are very important to Americans.

By the end of the 17th century a string of English colonies stretched along the coast of North America. More or less in the middle was Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1681 by William Penn. Under a charter of the English king, Charles II, Penn was the proprietor, or owner, of Pennsylvania. Penn was a wealthy man and belonged to a religious group, the Society of Friends, commonly called Quakers. Quakers refused to swear oaths or to take part in wars. Their customs had helped to make them very unpopular with the English governments. When Penn promised his fellow Quakers that in Pennsylvania they would be free to follow their own ways, many of them emigrated there. Penn’s promise of religious freedom, together with his reputation for dealing fairly with people, brought settlers from other European countries to Pennsylvania. From Ireland came settlers who made new farms in the western forests of the colony. Many Germans came also, most were members of small religious groups who left Germany to escape persecution. They were known as the Pennsylvania Dutch. This was because English people at that time called most north Europeans “Dutch”.

New York had previously been called New Amsterdam. It had first been settled in 1626. In the 1620s settlers from Holland founded a colony they called New Netherlands along the banks of the Hudson River. At the mouth of the Hudson lies Manhattan Island, the present site of New York City. An Amerindian people called the Shinnecock used the island for hunting and fishing, although they did not live on it. In 1626 Peter Minuit, the first Dutch governor of the New Netherlands, “bought” Manhattan from the Amerindians. He paid them twenty-four dollars’ worth of cloth, beads and other trade goods. But like all Amerindians, the Shinnecock believed that land belonged to all men. They thought that what they were selling to the Dutch was the right to share Manhattan with themselves. But the Dutch, like other Europeans, believed that buying land made it theirs alone. These different beliefs about land ownership were to be a major cause of conflict between Europeans and Amerindians for many years to come. And the bargain price that Peter Minuit paid for Manhattan Island became part of American folklore. In 1664 the English captured it from the Dutch and re-named it New York. A few years later, in 1670, the English founded the new colonies of North and South Carolina. The last English colony to be founded in North America was Georgia, settled in 1733.

DISCUSSION

1. What is a pilgrim? Why does this word have a special meaning for Americans?

2. What was the religion of most Europeans in the 17th century? Why did some people begin to doubt it?

3. What were the ideas of Martin Luther and John Calvin?

4. What kind of people were Puritans? What did they protest against?

5. Why did some Puritans leave England for Holland in 1607? Did they feel at home there?

6. What do we learn about the Mayflower ship that carried Pilgrim Fathers across the Atlantic?

7. Did all the Pilgrims survive through their first winter in the New World? Who helped their colony to last?

8. What do we learn about the Boston settlement? What colony did it form together with Plymouth?

9. How was the colony of Massachusetts ruled? Why did some people criticize its government?

10. What do we learn about a Puritan minister named Roger Williams?

11. In what ways did Rhode Island differ from Massachusetts?

12. Whom was Pennsylvania established by? What do we learn about this man?

13. Why did Pennsylvania attract people from many European countries?

14. Whom was the city of New York founded by?

15. Why did Manhattan Island become a major cause of conflict between the Dutch and Amerindians?

GUIDED TALK

Develop the following points and use the words given below.

1. The first Europeans to arrive in North America were the Norse.

a sea-going people, to found a settlement, to land, to explore smth., a piece of evidence

2. The geographical discovery made by Christopher Columbus was unexpected.

to set sail from smth., a trade route, to step ashore, an error in navigation, a mistaken idea

3. Columbus was followed by many Spanish adventurers searching for gold in North America.

a conquistador, to search for smth., a significant exploration, to lead the expedition, in search of smth.

4. Like other European nations the British also tried to colonize territories in the New World.

to establish a settlement, off the coast, to run out of smth , to make enemies with smb., to be deserted

5. Jamestown became the first successful British colony in North America.

to pay the cost of the expedition, to divide up profits, to be unequipped, to die of starvation, to collapse, to enforce discipline

6. It was not strict discipline that saved Virginia, but a plant – tobacco.

a native plant, to produce new variety of smth., a shipment, a merchant, to become chief source of revenue

7. In the 17th century Europe was torn by religious conflicts.

to doubt/ to question the teaching, to put forward an idea, to spread an idea, religious toleration

8. Pilgrim Fathers made quite a dangerous voyage to North America to escape religious persecution.

to head for smth., a trading vessel, to raw ashore, a chance of surviving, a survivor, to be determined to succeed

9. The ideals of the Massachusetts Puritans had a strong influence on American society.

to have a lasting influence on smb./ smth., to build an ideal community, a model to copy, to obey God’s will, to pass a law

10. Manhattan Island used to belong to Amerindians, called the Shinnecock.

to use for hunting and fishing, the present site of smth., the right to share smth, land ownership, to be major cause of conflict, to capture

SUPPLEMENTARY ACTIVITIES

Listen to a special program from Voice of America – an intermediate listening comprehension course.

Fill in the blanks while you listen. Then answer the questions.

HOW A DESIRE FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM OR LAND,

OR BOTH, LED TO COLONIES

VOICE ONE:

This is Rich Kleinfeldt.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Sarah Long with the MAKING OF A NATION, a VOA Special English program about the history of the United States.

(MUSIC)

Today, we tell about the movement of European settlers throughout northeastern America. And we tell how the separate colonies developed in this area.

VOICE ONE:

The Puritans were one of the largest groups from England to settle in the northeastern area called Massachusetts. They began arriving in sixteen thirty. The Puritans had formed the Massachusetts Bay Company in England. The king had given the company an … … … (1) between the Charles and Merrimack rivers.

The Puritans were Protestants who did not … … … … … (2). The Puritans wanted to change the church to make it more holy. They were able to live as they wanted in Massachusetts. Soon they became the largest religious group. By sixteen ninety, fifty thousand people were living in Massachusetts.

Puritans thought their religion was the only … … (3) and everyone should believe in it. They also believed that church leaders should lead the local government, and all people in the colony should pay to support the Puritan church. The Puritans thought it was the job of government leaders to tell people … … … (4).

Some people did not agree with the Puritans who had become leaders of the colony. One of those who disagreed was a Puritan minister named Roger Williams.

VOICE TWO:

Roger Williams believed as all Puritans did that other European religions were wrong. He thought the Native Indian religions were wrong too. But he did not believe in trying to force others to agree with him. He thought that it was a sin to punish or kill anyone … … … … … (5). And he thought that only church members should pay to … … … (6).

Roger Williams began speaking and writing about his ideas. He wrote a book saying it was wrong to punish people for having different beliefs. Then he said that the European settlers were stealing the Indians' land. He said the king of England had no right to permit people to … … … (7) that was not his, but belonged to the Indians.

The Puritan leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony forced Roger Williams to leave the colony in 1636. He traveled south. He bought land from local Indians and … … … (8), Providence. The Parliament in England gave him permission to establish a new colony, Rhode Island, with Providence as its capital. As a colony, Rhode Island accepted people of all religious beliefs, including Catholics, Quakers, Jews and even people who denied the existence of God.

Roger Williams also believed that governments should have no connection to a church. This idea of … … … … (9) was very new. Later it became one of the most important of all America's governing ideas.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Other colonies were started by people who left Massachusetts to … … (10). One was Connecticut. A group led by Puritan minister Thomas Hooker left Boston in sixteen thirty-six and went west. They settled near the Connecticut River. Others soon joined them.

Other groups from Massachusetts traveled north to … … … (11). The king of England had given two friends a large piece of land in the north. The friends divided it. John Mason took what later became the colony of New Hampshire. Ferdinando Gorges took the area that later became the state of Maine. It never became a colony, however. It remained a part of Massachusetts until after the United States was created.

VOICE TWO:

The area known today as New York State was settled by the Dutch. They called it New Netherland. Their country was the Netherlands. It was a … … … (12), with colonies all over the world. A business called the Dutch West India Company owned most of the colonies.

The Dutch … … … (13) because of explorations by Henry Hudson, an Englishman working for the Netherlands. The land the Dutch claimed was between the Puritans in the north and the Anglican tobacco farmers in the south.

The Dutch were not interested in settling the territory. They wanted to earn money. The Dutch West India Company built … … (14) on the rivers claimed by the Netherlands. People in Europe wanted to buy goods made from the skins of animals trapped there.

In sixteen twenty-six, the Dutch West India Company bought two islands from the local Indians. The islands are Manhattan Island and Long Island. Traditional stories say the Dutch paid for the islands with some trade goods worth about twenty-four dollars.

The Dutch West India Company tried to find people to settle in America. But few Dutch wanted to leave Europe. So the colony … … (15) from other colonies, and other countries. These people built a town on Manhattan Island. They called it New Amsterdam. It was soon full of people who had arrived on ships from faraway places. It was said you could hear as many as eighteen different languages spoken in New Amsterdam.

In sixteen fifty-five, the governor of New Netherland … … (16) of a nearby Swedish colony on Delaware Bay. In sixteen sixty-four, the English did the same to the Dutch. The English … … (17) of New Amsterdam and called it New York. That ended Dutch control of the territory that now is the states of New York, New Jersey and Delaware.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Most of the Dutch in New Amsterdam did not leave. The English permitted everyone to stay. They let the Dutch have religious freedom. The Dutch … just not … … (18) any more.

The Duke of York owned the area now. He was the brother of King Charles the Second of England. The king gave some of the land near New York to two friends, Sir George Carteret and Lord John Berkeley. They called it New Jersey, after the English island where Carteret was born.

The two men wrote a plan of government for their colony. It created an assembly that represented the settlers. It … … … … … (19) . Men could vote in New Jersey whatever their religion. Soon, people from all parts of Europe were living in New Jersey. Then King Charles took control of the area. He sent a royal governor to rule. But the colonists were permitted to … … … … (20) through the elected assembly.

The king of England did the same in each colony he controlled. He collected taxes from the people who lived there, but permitted them to govern themselves.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

One religious group that was not welcome in England was the Quakers. Quakers call themselves Friends. They believe that each person has an inner light that leads them to God. Quakers believe they do not need a religious leader to tell them what is right. So, they had no clergy.

Quakers believe that all people are equal. The Quakers in England refused to recognize the king as more important than anyone else. They also refused to … … (21) to support the Anglican Church. Quakers believe that it is always wrong to kill. So they would not fight even when they were forced to … … … (22). They also refuse to promise loyalty to a king or government or flag or anyone but God.

The English did not like the Quakers for all these reasons. Many Quakers wanted to leave England, but they … not … (23) in most American colonies. One Quaker changed this. His name was William Penn.

VOICE ONE:

William Penn was not born a Quaker. He became one as a young man. His father was an Anglican, and a good friend of the king.

King Charles borrowed money from William's father. When his father died, William Penn asked that the debt be paid with land in America. In sixteen eighty-one, the king gave William Penn land which the King's Council named Pennsylvania, meaning Penn's woods.

The Quakers now had their own colony. It was between the Puritans in the north and the Anglicans in the south. William Penn said the colony should be a place where everyone could live by Quaker ideas.

That meant treating all people … … (24) and honoring all religions. It also meant that anyone could … … (25). In most other colonies, people could believe any religion, but they could not vote or hold office unless they were a member of the majority church. In Pennsylvania, all religions were equal.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

This MAKING OF A NATION program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Sarah Long.

Questions:

1. What does the program say about English Puritans?

2. Why did they disagree with the Anglican Church? Did they believe that church and government should be separated?

3. What were the ideas of Roger Williams? What were his views upon relations with Amerindians? What did he do after being forced to leave Massachusetts?

4. Who was Connecticut founded by?

5. What does the program say about John Mason and Ferdinando Gorges?

6. What gave the Dutch the right to claim land in North America? What territory did they claim? What kind of business did they develop?

7. What does the program say about the history of New Jersey? What do we learn about the government of this territory?

8. What kind of ideas did Quakers stick to? Was this religious group welcome in Britain and British colonies?

9. Why was William Penn given land in America by King Charles?

10. William Penn said Pennsylvania should be a place where everyone could live by Quaker ideas. What did that mean?