1517 - Protestant reformation
1536 - John Calvin > Calvinism
- The elect
- Predestination
- Conversion
- Visible saints
- Puritans v. Separatists
1620 - Pilgrims/Mayflower > Plymouth
- Mayflower Compact > town meetings
- 1st Thanksgiving (1621)
- William Bradford > Governor ( Reelected 30x)
1630 - Great Puritan Migration > Massachusettes Bay Colony
- John Winthrop > Governor ( 19 years )
- Characteristics: p. 25
- General court
- Purposed of government was to enforce God's laws
- Protestant ethic > work!
- " Day of Doom "
- Persecution of Quakers
1635 - Roger Williams - an extreme separatist
- Condemned colony for taking Indian land without compensation
- Denied the authority of civil government to regulate religious behavior
- Banished
- Fled to Rhode Island (1636)
1636 - Rhode Island colony established by Roger Williams
- Characteristics: p. 26-27
- Complete freedom of religion
- No oaths or taxes to support a church
- Simple manhood suffrage
- Strongly individualistic/stubbornly independent
1638 - Anne Hucthinson > Antinomianism (against the law)
- Banished for heresy
1635 - Thomas Hooker > Hartford area (Connecticut River)
- Fundamental orders (Constitution - 1639)
1638 - New Haven established
- Merged with Hartford > Connecticut
1679 - New Hampshire separated from Massachusettes Bay Colony
1643 - New England Confederation > defense against the Indians, the French, & the Dutch
- Settled intercolonial problems
- First milestone on road to colonial unity
1660 - Charles I restored to English throne
- End of " Benign Neglect "
1686 - Dominion of New England created by royal authority
- Membership (map: p. 29 )
- Purpose: Colonial defense & administration of the English Navigation Laws
- Led by Sir Edmund Andros > Authoritarian rule
- Collapsed with the Glorious Revolution (1688-1689)
1623/ 24- New Netherlands established by the Dutch West India Company along the Hudson River valley for its fur trade
- New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island protected by a wall (Wall Street) against Indian attacks
- Aristocratic/Patroonships
- Cosmopolitan population
1664 - New Amsterdam surrenders to the Duke of York
- But the Dutch legacy continued (p. 34)
1681 - Pennsylvania established by William Penn as a refuge for the Quakers
- Quaker beliefs (p. 34)
- Penn: "First American advertising man"
- Liberal land policies attracted immigrants
- Philadelphia ("Brotherly Love")
- Representative Assembly elected by landowners
- No tax supported church
- Opposed war & slavery
- Rich mix of ethnic groups
1702 - East and West Jersey combined into New Jersey
1703 - Delaware (Lord de la Warr) granted its own Assembly
Characteristics of the Middle Colonies
- Fertile soil > "Bread Colonies"
- Broad rivers > Encouraged movement to the frontier
- Forests > Lumbering/Shipbuilding
- Deep harbors > Commerce/Seaports of New York and Philadelphia
- Intermediate landholdings
- Most ethnically mixed
- Unusual degree of religious toleration and democratic control
- More economic democracy
Similarities Among all the Colonies
- All basically English
- Some measure of self-government
- Some degree of religious toleration/educational opportunity
- Unusual advantages for economic and social self-development
- All separated from home authority by 3,000 miles