Dr. Robert Owens Chronicles the History of the Future

New England February 5, 2025

Originally it was considered the northern part of Virginia and after a few unsuccessful attempts a colonization that froze and starved their way to failure it was considered an undesirable place to attempt a colony.  Then Captain John Smith of Jamestown fame made a voyage there and published a popular travelogue including a map and a new name, “New England” which enticed colonists into believing it was a fair approximation of Old England across the pond, and it became an enduring success.

The English Puritans were followers of the Protestant reformation.  They believed that the Church of England which had been founded by King Henry VIII when he was unable to obtain a divorce from the Pope retained too much of the rights and rituals of the Catholic Church.  They might be called purists.  They wanted simple services and plain churches.  The Church of England retained statues, stained glass windows, golden crosses, ministers they called “Priests” and “Father” adorned in splendid vestments.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the Church of England was the “Established’ church.  Meaning it was a part of the state.  The King or Queen was (and is) the head of the church no matter how worldly they were or even if they didn’t believe in God.  They appointed the Archbishop of Canterbury and all the other Bishops.  Every citizen was required to support and attend the church.  The clergy were paid by the state.  The church courts were often used by the state to punish people that the government suspected of disloyalty to the crown.  As in all countries with established churches the ideas of heresy and treason became confounded. 

Many puritans wanted to remain active members of the established church and reform it from within.  Other wanted to immediately separate and form their own pure congregations, these were known as separatists, and they were the object of sporadic and often horrendous persecution.  Some of the separatists left the country, many finding sanctuary in Holland where the religious toleration allowed them to worship as they wished.

Socially the Puritans believed in what they saw as the Biblical principles of thrift, diligence and hard work.  They were mostly from the middleclass and had much more than most Englishmen who were struggling just to get by.  When persecution rose to a crescendo in the 1620s and 1630s the Puritans were finally spurred to action.  The Massachusetts Bay Company was founded in London by people who had remained in the Church of England and were able to operate within the legal structure of the day.  They sought and received a royal charter to found a colony in the New World.  This is where they did something entirely different than the Virginia Company which maintained itself in England as a limited liability company which had shareholders and used its resources to send out expeditions and settlers hoping for a profit.  Instead of operating after the model previously established by the Virginia Company the Massachusetts Bay Company relocated to the new World thus establishing itself as self-governing colony with only nominal connection to the royal government.

Landing in an area where a great plague of European diseases had swept away the Native population the Puritans were able to move into deserted villages and plant in abandoned fields.   They saw it as the providence of God.  The Natives obviously saw it as something altogether different.  The Puritan colonists were by nature hardworking and frugal and so had a much easier time establishing a self-sufficient colony than did the indolent and wealth seeking colonists in Virginia.  In addition, there was a huge influx of people, men, women and children, whole families that not only added to the population but were also able to multiply it quickly.  Within a few decades, by 1640 they were already spreading out and founding secondary colonies such as Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire.

Land was granted to groups of people who banded together to find towns.  These lands were then held in common and divided among the families according to the wishes of the town.  The colony would outline the town’s area but they left it up to the towns to decide upon their internal policies.  The land needed clearing and tending.  The livestock needed pasture and each village divided the land and managed as they saw fit.  Women were accorded equal status in religious matters except the posts of leadership, teaching and preaching, which means they were able to be saved, join the church and work but only men could lead.  However, women in New England had more rights and privileges than women in the Chesapeake Colonies.

When the Great Migration ended in the 1640s an economic depression followed the cessation of this constant infusion of new people and money.  And this is when the commerce which was to make New England famous around the world began to manifest itself.  First the fishing banks of the coast were exploited for local consumption as well as for export to Europe.  Next the great and developing agricultural surplus was soon being shipped to Europe as well. Building upon the abundant resources shipbuilding was soon an expanding industry building both ships for the coastal trade and ocean going vessels.

The Bible Commonwealth

The Puritans saw their earthly mission to build God’s kingdom on earth.  The Puritans followed the beliefs of the other reformers that everyone should read and know the Bible for themselves.  Therefore, printing was an early and an important industry for there was a constant call for more Bibles and other study materials.  There were many more churches and more preachers in New England than in Virginia.  Since church attendance and hearing the educated preachers was a major source of the education of the day when combined with the higher level of literacy required to read the Bible for themselves the level of education was consequently much higher in New England than in the Chesapeake Colonies.

The insular aspects of the Puritan colonies led to disputes with the non-Puritans who were inevitably drawn to a successful colony.  The purity of the colony was diluted by those who came after.  The laws had to be loosened to fit the changing circumstances and there were also those who just had different ideas.  There were Baptists and Quakers, Anglicans and Catholics all of which were attracted by the material success but who wanted a more inclusive vision.  Nontraditional leaders such as Anne Hutchinson, one of the founders of Rhode Island and occurrences such as the witchcraft trails combined to split the once unified and relatively homogeneous New England into competing visions for a fractious future.

It may have faltered as a shining city on a hill and it certainly didn’t create heaven on earth but it was a successful model for a flourishing colony.  Materially prosperous and politically independent New England held out a promise that the New World could become something that really was new.