If the Church Warden caught any person truant from church services without illness or permissible excuse, the truant was pilloried and the truant's ear was nailed to the wood. Additionally, all colonists were legally required to attend austere Puritan church services. For example, John Cotton, a leading Massachusetts cleric, implemented a law that no man could vote unless he was both a Puritan church member and a property owner (non-Puritans were dispossessed of their private property). In their new home, the Puritans implemented many of the same onerous legal restrictions upon religious liberty that had vexed them while living in England. Modern Massachusetts is much more a reflection of Boston than of Plymouth. The Massachusetts Bay Colony in the modern Boston area eventually came to dominate the economy, politics, legal system, and educational system of the Massachusetts Commonwealth. John Winthrop, a trained lawyer and former government official in England, presided over the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Massachusetts Bay leaders were not elected, but were considered emissaries of God who were not to be second-guessed by commoners. The Massachusetts Bay Colony did not wish to separate from England or the Church of England, but instead advocated internal institutional reform. In contrast, the much larger Massachusetts Bay Colony was constituted of more affluent, educated people who identified with high church culture, professional clergy, and English political philosophy. The Plymouth colony had only a small population. They had no professional clergy, their leaders were elected, and their leadership was considered bound by the rules of the Mayflower Compact. Pilgrims wanted to separate from the Church of England. For example, the Plymouth Pilgrims, headed by Governor William Bradford, tended to be of the working class. The Puritan movement (in Massachusetts and elsewhere) had some internal variations based upon theology, geography, local group organization, and colonial culture. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was located where Boston now stands, and along with Plymouth formed the first two colonies of Massachusetts. From about 1630 onward, other Puritans organized the much larger Massachusetts Bay Colony under the auspices of the Massachusetts Bay Company. Subsequently the Pilgrims sailed to what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts. Puritans believed that all institutions, including government, schools, families, communities, and the Church of England, should be "purified" by cleansing away all cultural characteristics regarded by the Puritans as ungodly.Īfter the Pilgrim Puritans encountered religious persecution in England, they fled to Holland. The Puritan movement denoted a loose collection of religious beliefs, not a particular denominational sect. Covering American history from the founding of Jamestown through present day, these volumes explore far beyond the dates and events of a historical chronicle to present a moving illumination of the ideas, opinions, attitudes, and tribulations that led to the birth of this great nation.The Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620, were a small religious group that was part of a larger Puritan movement (the Puritans preferred to describe themselves as "the godly," not as the "Puritans"). History is dramatic - and the renowned, award-winning authors Christopher Collier and James Lincoln Collier demonstrate this in the compelling Drama of American History series aimed at young readers. ![]() ![]() The authors examine a number of issues that arose in the new society that was founded and the rise and fall of the "city on a hill." The narrative follows various groups of settlers from their departure from England through arrival in the New World and their often violent conflicts with the native peoples of the Americas. The book recounts the religious, political, and social history of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and its influence on our lives today. In Pilgrims and Puritans, the authors begin in the year 1620 in England and end in New England in the year 1676.
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