New England Colonies
New England Colonies | ||
---|---|---|
1620–1776 | ||
Providence Plantations | 1636 | |
• New England Confederation formed | 1643 | |
1686-1689 | ||
1776 | ||
• Reorganized as part of the United Colonies | 1776 |
The New England Colonies of British America included Connecticut Colony, the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Massachusetts Bay Colony, Plymouth Colony, and the Province of New Hampshire, as well as a few smaller short-lived colonies. The New England colonies were part of the Thirteen Colonies and eventually became five of the six states in New England, with Plymouth Colony absorbed into Massachusetts and Maine separating from it.[1]
In 1616,
Arriving in America
England, France, and the Netherlands made several attempts to colonize New England early in the 17th century, and those nations were often in contention over lands in the New World. French nobleman
Colony leader Captain
Conflict over land rights continued through the early 17th century, with the French constructing Fort Pentagouet near Castine, Maine in 1613. The fort protected a trading post and a fishing station and was the first longer-term settlement in New England. It changed hands multiple times throughout the 17th century among the English, French, and Dutch colonists.[6]
In 1614, Dutch explorer
Establishing the New England Colonies
A group of Puritans commonly called
The Plymouth settlement faced great hardships and earned few profits, but it enjoyed a positive reputation in England and may have sown the seeds for further immigration.
The Puritans in England first sent smaller groups in the mid-1620s to establish colonies, buildings, and food supplies, learning from the Pilgrims' harsh experiences of winter in the Plymouth Colony. In 1623, the
A larger group of Puritans arrived in 1630, leaving England because they desired to worship in a manner that differed from the Church of England. Their views were in accord with those of the Pilgrims who arrived on the Mayflower, except that the Mayflower Pilgrims felt that they needed to separate themselves from the Church of England, whereas the later Puritans were content to remain under the umbrella of the Church. The separate colonies were governed independently of one another until 1691, when Plymouth Colony was absorbed into the Massachusetts Bay Colony to form the Province of Massachusetts Bay.
Spreading out
The Puritans also established the American public school system for the express purpose of ensuring that future generations would be able to read the Bible for themselves, which was a central tenet of Puritan worship.[12] However, dissenters of the Puritan laws were often banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. John Wheelwright left with his followers to establish a colony in New Hampshire and then went on to Maine.
It was the dead of winter in January 1636 when
Commerce
The earliest colonies in New England were usually fishing villages or farming communities on the more fertile land along the rivers. The rocky soil in the New England Colonies was not as fertile as the Middle or Southern Colonies, but the land provided rich resources, including lumber that was highly valued. Lumber was also a resource that could be exported back to England, where there was a shortage of wood. In addition, the hunting of wildlife provided furs to be traded and food for the table.
The New England Colonies were located along the Atlantic coast where there was an abundance of marketable sea life. Excellent harbors and some inland waterways offered protection for ships and were also valuable for freshwater fishing. By the end of the 17th century, New England colonists had created an Atlantic trade network that connected them to the English homeland as well as to the Slave Coast of West Africa, plantations in the West Indies, and the Iberian Peninsula. Colonists relied upon British and European imports for glass, linens, hardware, machinery, and other items for the household.
The Southern Colonies could produce tobacco, rice, and indigo in exchange for imports, whereas New England's colonies could not offer much to England beyond fish, furs, and lumber. Inflation was a major issue in the economy. During the 18th century, shipbuilding drew upon the abundant lumber and revived the economy, often under the direction of the British Crown.[14]
In 1652, the Massachusetts General Court authorized Boston silversmith John Hull to produce local coinage in shilling, sixpence, and threepence denominations to address a coin shortage in the colony.[15] The colony's economy had been entirely dependent on barter and foreign currency, including English, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, and counterfeit coins.[16] In 1661, after the restoration of the monarchy, the English government considered the Boston mint to be treasonous.[17] However, the colony ignored the English demands to cease operations until at least 1682, when Hull's contract expired as mint master, and the colony did not move to renew his contract or appoint a new mint master.[18] The coinage was a contributing factor to the revocation of the Massachusetts Bay Colony charter in 1684.[19]
Indian slavery in the New England Colonies
American Indians who were captured during various conflicts in New England, such as the Pequot War (1636–1638) and King Philip's War (1675–1678), were sometimes sold into slavery.[20] Utilizing captured prisoners of war as a source of forced labor was common in Europe; during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, prisoners of war were frequently indentured and transported to plantations in Barbados and Jamaica.[21]
Plymouth Colony ranger Benjamin Church spoke out against the practice of enslaving Indians in the summer of 1675, describing the practice as "an action so hateful... that [I] opposed it to the loss of the goodwill and respect of some that before were good friends." However, Church was not opposed to black slavery, owning black slaves like many of his fellow colonists.[22] During King Philip's War, some captured Indians were enslaved and transported aboard New England merchant ships to the West Indies, where they were sold to European planters. Various colonial councils decreed that "no male captive above the age of fourteen years should reside in the colony."[23] Margret Ellen Newell estimates that hundreds of Indians were enslaved during the colonial conflicts,[24] while Nathaniel Philbrick estimates that at least 1,000 New England Indians were sold into slavery during King Philip's War, with more than half coming from Plymouth.[25]
Education
In the New England Colonies, the first settlements of Pilgrims and the other Puritans who came later taught their children how to read and write in order that they might read and study the Bible for themselves. Depending upon social and financial status, education was taught by the parents home-schooling their children, public grammar schools, and private governesses, which included subjects from reading and writing to Latin and Greek and more.
Composition
Coat of Arms/Seal | Name | Capital | Year(s) | Colony type | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plymouth | Plymouth | 1620–1686 1689–1691 |
Self-governing | Merged into the Dominion of New England in 1686, reformed in 1689, and then merged into Massachusetts in 1691 | |
Massachusetts Bay | 1628–1686 1689–1691 |
Self-governing | Merged into the Dominion of New England in 1686, reformed in 1689, and then dissolved in 1691 | ||
Saybrook | Saybrook | 1635–1644 | Self-governing | Absorbed by the Connecticut Colony in 1644 | |
None | New Haven | New Haven | 1638–1664 | Self-governing | Absorbed by the Connecticut Colony in 1664 |
Connecticut River | Hartford | 1636–1776 | Self-governing | Declared independence and reconstituted as the State of Connecticut in 1776
| |
New Hampshire | Portsmouth Exeter |
1629–1641 1679–1686 1689–1776 |
Self-governing | At various times absorbed by and/or governed by the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Province of Massachusetts Bay, declared independence in 1776 | |
Rhode Island and Providence Plantations |
Providence Newport |
1636–1686 1689-1776 |
Self-governing | Declared independence from Great Britain in 1776 and reorganized as the State of Rhode Island
| |
Dominion of New England | Boston | 1686-1689 | Direct rule government | Dissolved as a result of the Glorious Revolution in 1689 | |
Royal Seal Congress Seal |
Province of Massachusetts Bay | Boston (de jure) Salem Concord Cambridge Watertown (1774-1776 de facto) |
1691–1780* | Self-governing (1691–1774) Direct rule colonial government (1774–1775) Provisional government (1775–1780) |
*From 1776-1780 the Province of Massachusetts Bay existed as a state of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1780.
|
1680-1686
1689-1692
Saco
Scarborough
Provincial arms
Royal arms
Royal arms
Royal arms
See also
- Middle Colonies
- Southern Colonies
- Chesapeake Colonies
- Thirteen Colonies
- History of Massachusetts
- Historical outline of Massachusetts
- British Colonial America
- New England
- History of New England
- Dominion of New England
- New England Confederation
Notes
- ^ Gipson
- ^ Bisceglia
- ^ Smith
- ^ St. Croix Celebration. "St. Croix Island History". Archived from the original on 2001-08-03. Retrieved 2008-12-21.
- ^ "Maine's First Ship: Historic Overview". Maine's First Ship. Retrieved 22 July 2013.
- ^ "New France Forts". New France New Horizons. Retrieved 2009-01-10.
- ^ New York Historical Society, p. 260
- ^ Deetz, Patricia Scot; James F. Deetz. "Passengers on the Mayflower: Ages & Occupations, Origins & Connections". The Plymouth Colony Archive Project. Retrieved 2008-11-10.
- ^ NativeAmericans.com. "Squanto (The History of Tisquantum)". Archived from the original on June 5, 2007. Retrieved September 20, 2014.
- ^ Bradford, William (1865). Mourt's Relation, or Journal of the Plantation at Plymouth. Boston: J. K. Wiggin. Retrieved 2008-12-23.
- ^ Young, Alexander (1846). Chronicles of the First Planters of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, 1623-1636. Boston: C. C. Little and J. Brown. p. 26. Retrieved 2008-12-23.
- ^ The Library of Congress Web Site (4 June 1998). "America as a Religious Refuge: The Seventeenth Century". Library of Congress. Retrieved 2008-11-11.
- ^ Roger Williams, Family Association. "Biography of Roger Williams". Retrieved 2009-02-07.
- ^ . N.p.. Web. 20 Aug 2013. <https://www.boundless.com/u-s-history/britain-and-the-settling-of-the-colonies-1600-1750/settling-new-england/commerce-in-the-new-england-colonies/>.
- ^ Barth 2014, p. 499
- JSTOR 359931.
- ^ Barth 2014, p. 500
- ^ Barth 2014, p. 514
- ^ Barth 2014, p. 520
- ISBN 978-0-8014-5648-0.
- ^ Nathaniel Philbrick. Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War (Viking 2006) p. 253
- ^ Nathaniel Philbrick. Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War (Viking 2006) pp 253, 345
- ^ Nathaniel Philbrick. Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War (Viking 2006) p. 345
- ISBN 978-0-8014-5648-0.
- ^ Nathaniel Philbrick. Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War (Viking 2006) p. 332
Sources
- Barth, Jonathan Edward (2014). "'A Peculiar Stampe of Our Owne': The Massachusetts Mint and the Battle over Sovereignty, 1652-1691". The New England Quarterly. 87 (3): 490–525. S2CID 57571000.
- Bisceglia, Michael (12 February 2008). "John Smith: The man who named New England". Sea Coast Online. Retrieved April 28, 2013.
- Gipson, Lawrence. The British Empire Before the American Revolution (15 volumes) (1936-1970). Knopf.
- Collections of the New York Historical Society. New York: H. Ludwig. 1841.
- Smith, John (1616). Royster, Paul (ed.). "A Description of New England (1616): An Online Electronic Text Edition". Electronic Texts in American Studies (Paper 4).