| English Settlement and Religious Diversity (1606-1768) |
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Sections:- The Mayflower Compact (November 11, 1620)
- The Charter of New England: 1620
- The Migration of Massachusetts Puritans
- John Winthrop: City Upon a Hill (1630)
- Richard Mather: The Cambridge Platform (1648)
- The Salem Witch Trials: The Case of Sarah Good (1692)
- Father Andrew White, S.J.: On Settlement in Maryland
- The Maryland Toleration Act (1649)
- The First Virginia Charter (April 10, 1606)
- Instructions for the Virginia Colony (1606)
- Laws and Documents Relating to Religion in Early Virginia, 1606-1660
- Religion in Early Virginia: July 30 and August 4, 1619
- Religion in Early Virginia: March 5, 1624; October 16, 1629; February 24, 1632
- Religion in Early Virginia: 1640-1649
- Religion in Early Virginia: April 10 and November 20, 1606
- Religion in Early Virginia: March 2, 1643
- Religion in Early Virginia: 1643
- Religion in Early Virginia: November 3, 1647
- Religion in Early Virginia: December 1, 1656
- Religion in Early Virginia: March 13, 1660
- The 18th Century Back Country (1731-1768)
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| Historical Context
On November 11, 1620, the Pilgrims got their first look at the New World when they saw Cape Cod. The Pilgrim group had permission to settle in the northern part of Virginia (which in those days reached to present day New York). When the "Mayflower" turned south, however, it ran into rough, shallow waters and became in danger of tipping over and sinking. It was quickly decided to head back to the deeper, safer waters off the tip of Cape Cod. But now a decision had to be made. Was this where they should stay?
The next thing that happened was very important indeed. Since Cape Cod was outside the area they were supposed to settle in, the group agreed to write a "compact" or "self-governing" agreement. This agreement became known as the Mayflower Compact. It called for the election of a governor from amongst the members of their group (something they were already comfortable with from their church practices). This was the first act of European self-government in the New World.
Attached Documents
The first document is the text of the Mayflower Compact.
The second document is an artist's representation of the signing of the Mayflower Compact.
Questions to Consider:
1)If the Puritans had settled in Virginia how might the history of Virginia been different? What sort of tensions would they have encountered there?
2)What are the reasons they list for the settlement of a colony?
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| Historical Context
In 1620 King James I authorized the formation of two colonies in the New World. These colonies would allow English subjects to found plantations.
Attached Documents
Below is a short excerpt from the Charter of New England issues by King James I of England in 1620. This portion of the charter outlines the establishment of two colonies in New England, establishes a ruling council, and grants certain rights therein. The image is a representation of the Plymouth settlement.
Questions to Consider:
1)What does the charter state will be accomplished by the establishment of these two colonies?
2)Who is establishing each colony?
3)How many people shall make up the ruling council? Where is the council based?
4)What sort of powers does the council hold?
5)What does the charter say about religion?
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| Historical Context
No group has played a more pivotal role in shaping American values than the New England Puritans. The seventeenth-century Puritans contributed to our country's sense of mission, its work ethic, and its moral sensibility. Today, eight million Americans can trace their ancestry to the fifteen to twenty thousand Puritans who migrated to New England between 1629 and 1640. (Source:http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=674)
Attached Documents
Below is a map showing the origins of the Massachusetts Puritans.
Questions to Consider
1) From which areas of England did the Puritans come?
2) Why do you think they come from these areas rather than those futher west?
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John Winthrop was a Puritan Englishman whose attempts to purify the Church of England ended in disappointment. The Puritans felt that separating from the Church should be a last resort as they wanted to remain loyal to the crown. Winthrop saw the endeavor of the Massachusetts Bay Company to establish a colony as an opportunity to leave England and worship God in a way that was pleasing to Him. Leaving his expecting wife and his first son in England for the first year, Winthrop joined the first group of settlers on their way to the New World.
Attached Documents
While onboard the ship, he wrote “City upon a Hill,” which was the Puritan vision of the New World.
Questions to Consider
1) What does this writing state about the functionality of the community?
2) What does he mean by “wee must Consider that wee shall be as a City upon a Hill”?
3) What does Winthrop say will happen if they fail to please God?
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| Historical Context
Richard Mather (1596-1669), minister at Dorchester, Massachusetts, 1636-1669, was a principal spokesman for and defender of the Congregational form of church government in New England. In 1648, he drafted the Cambridge Platform, the definitive description of the Congregational system. Mather’s son, Increase (1639-1723), and grandson, Cotton (1663-1728), were leaders of New England Congregationalism in their generations.
The Cambridge Platform is a declaration of principles of church government and discipline, forming a constitution of the Congregational churches. It was adopted by a church synod at Cambridge, Mass., and remains the basis of the temporal government of the churches. It had little to do with matters of doctrine and belief. The Congregationalists of Connecticut later subscribed (1708), in the Saybrook Platform, to a more centralized church government, resembling Presbyterianism.
Attached Documents
The first document is a portion of the Cambridge Platform.
The second file is a portrait of Richard Mather.
The third file is a portrait of Cotton Mather.
Questions to Consider
1)What justification is used in forming a Church government? Why would they want to make such a justification clear? (Consider the hierarchy within the Catholic Church.)
2)How does this document define a saint? How does this differ from the Catholic definition?
3)How large is a church supposed to be?
4)What, according to this document, is the source of the church’s power? Within the church, who is able to exercise what kinds of power?
5)What were the duties of the church elders?
6)What rights (or lack thereof) did a church member have in regards to leaving the church? What are the acceptable reasons for leaving the church?
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| Historical Context
From June through September of 1692, nineteen men and women, all having been convicted of witchcraft, were carted to Gallows Hill, a barren slope near Salem Village, for hanging. Another man of over eighty years was pressed to death under heavy stones for refusing to submit to a trial on witchcraft charges. Hundreds of others faced accusations of witchcraft; dozens languished in jail for months without trials until the hysteria that swept through Puritan Massachusetts subsided.
Attached Documents
The following documents represent the case of Sarah Good as her case is representative of others as well.
The Examination of Sarah Good (March 1, 1692)
The examination of Sarah Good below is representative of the kind of questioning that was going on during the Witch Trials. Make note of how, despite her protestations, the examiners have seemingly assumed her guilt due to her spitefulness.
Questions to Consider
1)Is this a fair examination? Why or why not?
2)What does Good claim she mutters as people leave her home?
3)Do the examiners appear to be listening to her answers?
4)Compare this style of questioning with transcripts of the McCarthy Hearings. How are they similar? How are they different? What has replaced “witches” in the mid 20th century?
Records of the Trial and Execution of Sarah Good
During her trial, a number of witnesses came forth to testify against Sarah Good for various offences. Below is just a sample of some of this testimony.
Questions to Consider
1)What types of offences is Good being accused of?
2)What kind of evidence is used to support these claims?
3)How would a case like this be handled in a modern court? Even if the defendant were found guilty of harming the children in some way, what would a modern punishment be?
4)After reading through this, albeit brief, transcription of her trial, and knowing she was executed, do you think she was tried fairly? Now place yourself in the shoes of the scared Puritans of Salem who were afraid for the very lives of their children. How would you answer differently?
Ergot of Rye
One possible explanation of the witch craze that led up to the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 is ergot poisoning. Ergot is a fungus which grows on rye, which was commonly used for bread at that time. To the untrained eye, the ergot fungus looks like a natural part of the plant. The symptoms of ergot poisoning are similar to those described during the Salem Witch Trials.
Questions to Consider
1)What are some of the symptoms of convulsive ergotism?
2)How has ergotism been connected to witchcraft?
3)What are some of the arguments against ergotism in the case of the Salem witch Trials?
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| Historical Context
The "Apostle to Maryland," Father Andrew White (1579-1656), described the celebration of the first mass upon the arrival of the Ark and the Dove, "We celebrated mass for the first time . . . . This had never been done before in this part of the world. After we had completed the sacrifice, we took upon our shoulders a great cross that we had hewn out of a tree, and advancing in order to the appointed place . . . we erected a trophy to Christ the Savior, humbly reciting, on our bended knees, the Litanies of the sacred Cross, with great emotion." This is the only known seventeenth-century image of Father White. The palm trees depicted in the background reveal the artist's ignorance of conditions in Maryland.
Maryland was the last major English colony to be established on the continent of North America before the English civil war temporarily brought colonization to a halt. The promotional efforts leading to the establishment of Maryland differed significantly from those employed to establish Virginia or New England. Where the promoters of Virginia had been merchants and the promoters of New England the colonists themselves, the promoter of Maryland was a single nobleman, Lord Baltimore. The land on which Maryland took root had been granted by the king to Lord Baltimore to use as he saw fit. In becoming the proprietor and organizing the colony as his own feudal domain, Lord Baltimore designated it as a refuge for Catholics, who, being a minority in England like the Puritans, also felt restricted by the Church of England. The proprietor granted land to persons who would finance colonists to come to the New World, reserving for himself an annual quitrent from the land. Like New England, Maryland held out to prospective colonists the prospect of wider freedoms than they enjoyed in England and a potentially higher standard of living.
Attached Documents
The following document was written to entice people to join Lord Baltimore in the venture.
Questions to Consider
1)How did the establishment of the Maryland Colony differ from New England and Virginia?
2)Who was Maryland to be a refuge for? How do you think the influence the naming of the colony?
3)Who is the “Most Noble Baron?”
4)How much land was allotted for the colonists? How much did it cost for a colonist to receive this land?
5)How does this document depict the Native Americans in regard to Christianity? How does this compare with the charters and intentions of other colonies?
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| Historical Context
In 1649, Catholics in the Maryland Assembly passed an act stipulating that no Trinitarian Christian "shall from henceforth be any waies troubled, molested, or discountenanced, for, or in respect of his or her religion nor in the free exercise thereof within this Province." Though this act was not as inclusive as similar ones in Rhode Island and Pennsylvania, which brought theists within their purview, it was another in a series of progressive measures taken by early American colonists to emancipate themselves from the European belief in enforced religious uniformity.
Attached Documents
The two images are of a small church in Maryland.
Questions to Consider
1)What was the penalty for those who spoke out against the Holy Trinity?
2)What was the penalty for “reproachfull words or Speeches concerning the blessed Virgin Mary?” Why would this be a concern for the settlers of Maryland specifically?
3)What does this document say about other Christians who are not Catholic? How does this differ from the attitudes about Catholics in other colonies?
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| Historical Context
From the outset the Virginia Company was granted the authority to govern its own colony. A ruling council in England, composed of members of the joint-stock company who were usually merchants of great distinction, was formed immediately after King James I granted the charter of 1606. The councilors were appointed ostensibly by the king, but in reality were nominated by the membership, or more often, by the inner executive group of the company. The council in England issued instructions to the first settlers appointing a colonial council to make daily decisions. This group proved ineffective, and a governor, Lord Delaware, was eventually appointed. Acting under the council in England, the governor had absolute power. The authority to establish or alter a government in Virginia was based upon the charter granted by the king; in this sense, the king delegated some of his power to others.
Attached Documents
Virginia received three charters, one in 1606, another in 1609, and the third in 1612. The differences among the three charters lie primarily in the territorial jurisdiction of the company, not in the right to govern the colony. In 1609, the "sea to sea" provision was inserted, and in 1612 jurisdiction was extended eastward from the Virginia shores to include islands, such as Bermuda, in the Atlantic.
The image is a portrait of King James I.
Questions to Consider
1)Who is the English King who wrote this charter?
2)Where are the new colonies to be established? How many colonies are to be formed?
3)What is the intended function of the colonies?
4)What religion are they supposed to propagate in the colonies? Given that this order came from the King of England, what form or denomination of the religion do you suppose he meant?
5)What are the colonies to be called?
6)How will the colonies be governed locally? What is the role of the “Counsell of Virginia” in England? Why is this type of local control so important?
7)How was mining to be handled? Who got to keep the precious metals? How much did the King want? What did this charter grant the colonists permission to do with the metals to make exchange easier?
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| Historical Context
In the first decade of the seventeenth century England began a second round of colonizing attempts. This time joint-stock companies were used as the vehicle to plant settlements rather than giving extensive grants to a landed proprietor such as Gilbert or Raleigh, whose attempts at colonization in the 1570s and 1580s had failed.
The founding of Virginia marked the beginning of a twenty-five year period in which every colony in the New World was established by means of a joint-stock company. A variety of motives intensified the colonizing impulse - international rivalry, propagation of religion, enlarged opportunity for individual men - but none exceeded that of trade and profit. The companies were created to make a profit; their in vestments in the colonies were based on this assumption.
Attached Documents
In these instructions for the Virginia Company, the power of Spain and the fear derived from past failures invade every line. The detail and precision of the instructions reflect the work of experienced men; Richard Hakluyt, the younger, for example, probably had a hand in writing them.
The image is a portrait of Captain Christopher Newport.
Questions to Consider
1)What was the first thing the settlers of Virginia were to look for? Why would this be important?
2)What do the instructions say about the natives of the area?
3)After the locations of settlement are established, how many groups are the men to be divided into? What will be the duties of each group?
4)How are incidences of conflict with natives and illness to be handled?
5)How are they to identify safe areas to plant?
6)What do the instructions say about faith and religion?
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When historians write about the earliest days of English settlement in North America, it is common for them to portray Puritan New England as being fundamentally different from Virginia. The religious zeal of the New Englanders, it is believed, was far greater than that of the settlers of Virginia. This is undoubtedly true to a certain extent. Most people immigrated to Virginia to make money or seek a fresh start, not to find religious freedom. But it would be a mistake to conclude that because Virginia was more secular than New England that it was without significant religious influences and institutions. From its earliest days, religion played a vital role in the colony of Virginia.
Its first charters enjoined the colonists to spread the Christian religion to the native inhabitants of the land and to remain faithful to it themselves, on threat of imprisonment. Ministers came with the first boatloads of Englishmen, and based on their writings and actions, it is difficult to question the piety of the first settlers. After some years, the first Virginia Assembly, writing that "men’s affairs doe little prosper where God’s service is neglected," enacted a number of laws mandating observance of the Sabbath, weekly church attendance, and taxes for the support of church and clergy.
Attached Documents
The following nine sections contain documents which deal directly with religion in the early Virginia settlements from 1606 - 1660.
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| Historical Context
The representatives who gathered for the initial meetings of the first representative assembly in the New World dealt extensively with religion. The very first order of business for this group of leading Virginians was a prayer. Later in this session, legislation was passed relating to religious expression that makes clear the extensive ties between church and state in the early years of settlement. According to historian Perry Miller, the assembly "enacted a series of religious laws that are a match for anything to be found in Puritan societies." [Perry Miller, "Religion and Society in the Early Literature of Virginia," Errand into the Wilderness (Cambridge, Mass., 1956), 105.]
Attached Documents
These are laws describing relationship between church and state and regulating religious expression.
Questions to Consider
1)What do these documents reveal about the religious attitude of the Virginians?
2)What type of Christianity are the clergy supposed to follow? How would this differ from the Puritans of New England?
3)What are some of the “skandalous offenses” the ministers of the church are expected to deal with? How are the offenders to be dealt with?
4)How often were the settlers expected to go to church? What happened if they did not meet this obligation?
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Throughout the first half of the seventeenth century, many laws relating to religion, some quite severe, were passed by the Jamestown assembly. All show clearly the extent to which religion played a central role in the government of Virginia.
Attached Documents
These are laws relating the extent to which religion played a central role in the government of Virginia.
The image is of the remains of the old church in Jamestown, Virginia.
Questions to Consider
1)What facility must every plantation have in regards to worship?
2)What was the penalty for missing church services? This penalty continues to be reiterated in later laws. What does that indicate?
3)How long may a minister be absent from his church?
4)What was the penalty for falsely accusing a minister of impropriety? What does this say about the status of ministers in the colony?
5)What sort of oath are all Church Wardens to take? Again, what problem is this indicative of?
6)What are the kinds of offenses the Church Wardens must swear to deal with?
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These are laws establishing the role of Ministers in education. In the following piece of legislation, the ministers of the colony are bound to "examine, catechise, and instruct the youth" based on the Book of Common Prayer, a collection of prayers for use in Anglican ceremonies. Of course, Puritans and other dissenters in Virginia were unwilling to consent to such a regulation. Puritans in the early seventeenth century wished to rid the Church of England of such things as its Episcopal structure and its formal prayers and litanies, such as the Book of Common Prayer. Their refusal to obey this and similar laws resulted in numerous religious conflicts in the 1640s.
The image is of a 17th Century Puritan worship service.
Questions to Consider
1)What is the minister supposed to teach to the “youth and ignorant persons of his parrish?”
2)In what types of behavior were the ministers not allowed to partake? With what were they supposed to occupy their time?
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These are laws regulating basic religious observances, attendance, and tithing.
The first image is a Virginia colonist's representation of a local Native American.
The second image is a later, and idealized, representation of the baptism of Pocahontas.
Questions to Consider
1)How are the religious views of the natives depicted? What role was Christianity to play in the settlement and in settler – native relations?
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| Historical Context
There were numerous laws enacted by the General Assembly in Jamestown relating to the establishment of the Anglican Church. In many cases, adherents to other religions were explicitly prohibited from worshipping. Catholics were among the first to be singled out by the Jamestown government.
Attached Documents
This law established the Anglican Church as the official religion of the colony and prohibiting other religions.
Questions to Consider
1)How are Catholics singled out in this law?
2)How long is a Catholic priest allowed to stay in the colony?
NOTE: Although the laws against Catholics were not as strict in colonial Virginia as they were in England and Scotland (depicted in the image below), this image does show the general attitude of those coming from England towards Catholicism. |
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In 1643, after Sir William Berkeley became governor of the colony, a group of Puritan settlers in Nansemond County petitioned the New England Puritans, then led by Governor John Winthrop, for pastors to minister to them. The Puritans arrived in 1643, but the Jamestown government was unwilling to tolerate any divergence from the practices of the Church of England.
Attached Documents
The following law was passed in an attempt to expel the dissenting pastors from Virginia.
The first image is a portrait of Sir William Berkeley.
The second image is a portrait of John Winthrop.
Questions to Consider
1)To what standards were pastors supposed to conform?
2)What was the penalty for those who diverged?
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By 1647, the pastors from New England had been forced to leave, but the Puritan residents of Nansemond and Lower Norfolk Counties were still worshipping as they saw fit, and thereby not abiding by the canons of the Church of England. Characteristic of their practices, the Book of Common Prayer was not used in religious services, a direct violation of Virginia law. Interestingly, by this time, the Book of Common Prayer had been banned in England by the Puritans in Parliament.
Attached Documents
The following law was passed as a means of tightening the legal restrictions on the dissenters.
Questions to Consider
1)From what book are Pastors supposed to read at every Sunday service?
2)How are the parishioners of an “unconformist” pastor supposed to act? How would this effect the pastor?
3)This type of conformity is reiterated in numerous laws. What does this indicate?
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| Historical Context
Throughout the seventeenth century, there was a shortage of ministers in the Chesapeake region. According to both contemporaries and historians, probably only about one in five parishes was supplied with a minister in the mid-seventeenth century.
Attached Documents
In 1656, a law was passed establishing a financial reward for bringing a man of God into the colony.
Questions to Consider
1)Why were ministers needed in Virginia at this time? How could previous laws have contributed to this shortage?
2)What was the set reward for bringing a minister to the colony?
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In 1660, Sir William Berkeley regained his position at the head of the Jamestown government, having retired from political life during the rule of Virginia by the Commonwealth government appointed from England. After the Restoration, Berkeley was reinstated. Immediately the government began to take steps to eliminate the latest threat to its established church, the Society of Friends, better known as the Quakers.
The image is of a Quaker meeting.
Questions to Consider
1)In what types of activities did the Quakers engage that were against the doctrine and practices of the Anglican Church?
2)Who is named as the first line of defense against the importation of Quakers into the colony? What was the penalty for failing to prevent such importation?
3)What is to happen to Quakers? After their third offence, how are they deemed?
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| | Charles Woodmason’s Account of his Visits to the Carolina Backcountry (1768)
Historical Context
As a recently ordained Anglican minister, Charles Woodmason (b.c. 1720) departed from Charleston, South Carolina in 1761 and set out on a six-year trek through the Carolina back country. As a traveling minister, Woodmason attempted to spread the established church to untouched areas. When he reached the people of the frontier, he, a believer in traditional British morality and religion, was appalled at their immoral behavior and their lack of religious doctrine. At the same time, he was angry at the colony’s elite who seemed to have little concern for the backcountry population.
Attached Documents
Woodmason noted that backcountry Tar Heels increasingly considered the landed gentry, Anglican Church, and royal government in Eastern North Carolina as hostile enemies interfering in their freedoms. Once he returned to coastal civilization, Woodmason became adamant in his support of the Regulator movement, a frontier revolt that wanted to wrest a greater voice and more rights for backcountry residents from the coastal elites.
This map displays the major townships in South Carolina and the backcountry areas in the mid 18th century.
Questions to Consider
1. How does Woodmason describe his first sermon at Flatt Creek? How does he characterize the people in attendance? How did the people behave afterwards?
2. How do the people react to Woodmason’s attempts to make know the governor’s proclamation? Why do you think they behave this way?
3. What difficulties does Woodmason encounter during his travels?
4. What is Woodmason’s opinion about Irish Presbyterians?
5. How are the people clothed? What is their opinion about this?
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