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New England &

Middle Colonies

1620-1700

(APUSH Explained)

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New England Colonies

Religious motives for colonization, male & female settlers, tight knit communities, mixed economy

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Plymouth Colony

  • Protestant Reformation sparked dramatic changes in Europe and lead to rise of Puritanism
  • Puritans wanted to purify the church
  • Pilgrims: Separatists who wanted to break away from the Anglican Church
  • Pilgrim’s sought to establish a colony: Land at Plymouth
  • Mayflower Compact signed prior to arrival: agreement established a basic government based upon majority rule
    • Established a basis of self government
  • Governor William Bradford
  • Local native leader Squanto helped the colony survive its early years

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Massachusetts

Bay Colony

  • In 1629 Puritan John Winthrop received a charter to est. the Massachusetts Bay Colony
  • Goal: Wanted to be as a “City Upon a Hill”
  • Religion was extremely important in the New England colonies ---education (Harvard)
  • Religious freedom was reserved ONLY FOR PURITANS
  • Church membership was a requirement for participation in politics
  • Town Hall Meeting became an important part of direct democracy in colonial America (all church going males could participate)
  • Economy: Mixed economy

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Religious Dissent

  • Roger Williams questioned Puritan leadership
  • Called for complete separation of church and state and criticized the colonies treatment of Native Americans
    • Banished from the colony
    • Founded Providence, Rhode Island
    • 1st colony with complete religious freedom
  • Anne Hutchinson challenged the accepted role of women within the church by openly speaking out against church leaders

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Conflict with Native Americans

  • Pequot War (1630’s): New England colonists wipe out Pequot tribe

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  • New England Confederation (1643): military alliance intended to defend the NE colonies against potential threats

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  • King Philip’s / Metacom’s War (1675-76): leader of the Wampanoags defeated by colonists
    • End of major Native resistance to the New England colonies

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Middle Colonies: Breadbasket

  • New York was originally a Dutch colony called New Amsterdam
  • Charles II sends a military expedition and grants area to his brother James the Duke of York (1664)
  • Pennsylvania (1681) founded by WIlliam Penn as a refuge for Quakers (“Holy Experiment”)
    • Very liberal colony - representative assembly
    • Treated Native Americans fairly
    • Religious toleration & freedom
    • Extended rights to women
  • Demographically, religiously, & ethnically diverse
  • Economics:wheat, corn (“breadbasket), trade, etc.

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Colonial Policy

  • Mercantilism: colonies to enrich the mother country
  • Salutary Neglect
  • Navigation Acts: 1) trade carried only in English or colonial ships. 2.) trade had to pass through English ports. 3.) Certain enumerated goods from the colonies could be exported only to England (tobacco, etc.)
    • Smuggling was a problem
  • Dominion of New England (1686): implemented to increase royal control over the colonies
    • Sir Edmund Andros appointed by the king
    • Very unpopular; enforced the Navigation Acts, limited town meetings, etc.
    • Ends with Glorious Revolution of 1688