Notes:BC1.AH.New England - the Great Emigration - Revision history

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2014-06-24T20:54:28Z

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 :*In every case cited by Channing, the dissenters were vanquished even though they enjoyed a level of influence for some time.
 It was largely by Massachusetts dissenters that the southern New England colonies that became Rhode Island and Connecticut were founded.  The story is continued in [[Southern New England|''Southern New England'']].
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@@ Line 86: / Line 86: @@
 *Leadership at Boston and at Plymouth represented the preponderance of public opinion in their settlements.
 ::And that opinion, for the most part, followed the vision of John Winthrop for a "Bible Commonwealth" and a "particular church."
 *There was no middle ground.  Toleration was not an option at that point in time.  And either the dissenters were to be tolerated and allowed to proselytize and criticize authority, or they were to be banished.
 *Leadership held the power and won the struggles presented by the likes of Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson, and Robert Child.
@@ Line 95: / Line 96: @@
 :*It should be realized that even at that time (1640s), success and survival in the colonies were not a sure thing, and it can be expected that order was valued above almost all else.
 :*In every case cited by Channing, the dissenters were vanquished even though they enjoyed a level of influence for some time.
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@@ Line 85: / Line 85: @@
 *There were dissenters, some of them articulate and influential for brief periods.  But they were out of the mainstream.
 *Leadership at Boston and at Plymouth represented the preponderance of public opinion in their settlements.
 *There was no middle ground.  Toleration was not an option at that point in time.  And either the dissenters were to be tolerated and allowed to proselytize and criticize authority, or they were to be banished.
 *Leadership held the power and won the struggles presented by the likes of Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson, and Robert Child.

@@ Line 80: / Line 80: @@
 (Title taken from Channing Vol. I, chapter XIII<ref name="Channing I"/>)
-Channing writes an interesting chapter about the more interesting and significant dissenters in Massachusetts Bay.  Summarizing it here is beyond the purpose of the site, but we have posted a photocopy of the chapter [[Maryland's Dissenters and Exiles|here]] for the curious.
+Channing writes an interesting chapter about the more interesting and significant dissenters in Massachusetts Bay.  We give a very brief summary of its lessons below as we judge them relevant to American civic heritage.  We have posted a photocopy of the chapter [[Maryland's Dissenters and Exiles|here]] for the curious.
 Channing makes a few points (some subtle and some overt) about authoritarian leadership at that time in America's history

@@ Line 45: / Line 45: @@
 ::It was a mild Fall, but a ferocious Winter.  The settlement would have failed had not Winthrop had the foresight to send one of the ships back to England to return with supplies.  It reached the colony in the middle of February 1931 with more passengers and needed supplies.  Another ship arrived from Virginia with corn.
 ::Boston had their own hard times, but it was nothing like what the first Virginian's had suffered.
 }}
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@@ Line 71: / Line 77: @@
 }}
 {{Section
-|HasArticleText===Rapid growth==
+|HasArticleText===Dissenters and Exiles==
-In 1633 the tide of emigration rose.  In May, 1634, Winthrop estimated the population of Massachusetts at 4 thousand people.  The pace of emigration alarmed some English authorities who feared that it would harm the economy at home.  But they could not stem the tide.  They had larger issues on other fronts.
+(Title taken from Channing Vol. I, chapter XIII<ref name="Channing I"/>)
-:*Massachusetts outgrew all other colonies.
-::In the summer of 1633, almost 40 ships arrived at Massachusetts.
+Channing writes an interesting chapter about the more interesting and significant dissenters in Massachusetts Bay.  Summarizing it here is beyond the purpose of the site, but we have posted a photocopy of the chapter [[Maryland's Dissenters and Exiles|here]] for the curious.
-::In 1643, Massachusetts Bay had a population of over 16,000 and had more people than the rest of the English colonies combined.<ref>''Estimates of Population''. American Antiquarian Society's ''Proceedings''.  1887</ref>
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← Older revision	Revision as of 20:33, 3 April 2016
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← Older revision	Revision as of 18:25, 11 January 2015
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 :*In 1629, control of the company was secured by the Nonconformists whose objectives were to plant a colony based on their religious objectives.
-It is interesting to ponder why a government would insist on uniformity in religion.  Some historians (Edward Channing, for example<ref name="Channing I">Channing, Edward. ''History of the United States Volume I, The Planting of a Nation in the New World, 1000 - 1660''. New York. The MacMillan Company. 1909.</ref>) attribute the reason to the need at the time to protect religion from foreign control.  This can be understood by understanding the society and customs of the times.  Religion had a larger influence over the actions of people than it does today and could turn a segment of society against the government and cause adherents to plot the overthrow of its leadership.  Religion has to loosen its grip on society for toleration to exist.
+It is interesting to ponder why a government would insist on uniformity in religion.  Some historians (Trevenlyan and Channing, for examples<ref name="Channing I">Channing, Edward. ''History of the United States Volume I, The Planting of a Nation in the New World, 1000 - 1660''. New York. The MacMillan Company. 1909.</ref><ref name=Trevelyan">Trevelyan,G.M. ''History of England''. London. Doubleday. 1926, 3rd Edition 1945.</ref>) attribute the reason to the need at the time to protect religion from foreign control.  This can be understood by understanding the society and customs of the times.  Religion had a larger influence over the actions of people than it does today and could turn a segment of society against the government and cause adherents to plot the overthrow of its leadership.  Religion has to loosen its grip on society for toleration to exist.
 ::But the pursuit of such uniformity came at the cost of freedom of conscious and freedom of action.  So, given the English tradition of ever expanding freedom for the individual and group, it is no surprise that toleration had to come.  But such a thing does not happen over night.  The adventuresome people that came to America for religious reasons to found their own societies did not have toleration in mind.  The early seekers of religious freedom came to secure the freedom of their own consciences and not to establish a haven for the religiously persecuted.  They came, in the words of John Winthrop, to establish a "particular church" (Channing, Vol I page 329<ref name="Channing I" />
@@ Line 45: / Line 45: @@
 ::It was a mild Fall, but a ferocious Winter.  The settlement would have failed had not Winthrop had the foresight to send one of the ships back to England to return with supplies.  It reached the colony in the middle of February 1931 with more passengers and needed supplies.  Another ship arrived from Virginia with corn.
 ::Boston had their own hard times, but it was nothing like what the first Virginian's had suffered.
 }}
 {{Section
-|HasArticleText===Freemen, representation, and control of religion==
+|HasArticleText===Freemen, religion and representative government==
 The most precious commodity to the efforts to settle America and establish a critical mass of commerce was people.  A colony charter might be granted to a group of highly principled company leaders who had their own vision of how to govern and which form of church was to be established in within their grant, but they encountered the problem of having to bend to the wishes of the settlers on numerous occasions.
 :Otherwise, people would not emigrate in sufficient numbers, or, in the case of those already in America, they might pick up and move to a neighboring colony that suited them better.  This was the case on Massachusetts Bay.
@@ Line 70: / Line 69: @@
 :*The colonial government seated in Boston seems to be the first truly representative colonial government.
 ::Nonetheless, and contrary to the charter, Winthrop and associates exercised much personal authority by discouraging (sometimes by imprisonment) appeals to England and banished those they considered a threat to their "Bible Commonwealth."
 }}
 {{Section
 |HasArticleText===Rapid growth==
-In 1633 the tide of emigration rose.  In May, 1634, Winthrop estimated the population of Massachusetts at 4 thousand people.  The pace of emigration alarmed some English authorities who feared that it would harm the economy at home.  but they could not stem the tide.  They had larger issues on other fronts.
+In 1633 the tide of emigration rose.  In May, 1634, Winthrop estimated the population of Massachusetts at 4 thousand people.  The pace of emigration alarmed some English authorities who feared that it would harm the economy at home.  But they could not stem the tide.  They had larger issues on other fronts.
 :*Massachusetts outgrew all other colonies.
 ::In the summer of 1633, almost 40 ships arrived at Massachusetts.

@@ Line 11: / Line 11: @@
 :*In 1629, control of the company was secured by the Nonconformists whose objectives were to plant a colony based on their religious objectives.
 It is interesting to ponder why a government would insist on uniformity in religion.  Some historians (Edward Channing, for example<ref name="Channing I">Channing, Edward. ''History of the United States Volume I, The Planting of a Nation in the New World, 1000 - 1660''. New York. The MacMillan Company. 1909.</ref>) attribute the reason to the need at the time to protect religion from foreign control.  This can be understood by understanding the society and customs of the times.  Religion had a larger influence over the actions of people than it does today and could turn a segment of society against the government and cause adherents to plot the overthrow of its leadership.  Religion has to loosen its grip on society for toleration to exist.
 ::But the pursuit of such uniformity came at the cost of freedom of conscious and freedom of action.  So, given the English tradition of ever expanding freedom for the individual and group, it is no surprise that toleration had to come.  But such a thing does not happen over night.  The adventuresome people that came to America for religious reasons to found their own societies did not have toleration in mind.  The early seekers of religious freedom came to secure the freedom of their own consciences and not to establish a haven for the religiously persecuted.  They came, in the words of John Winthrop, to establish a "particular church" (Channing, Vol I page 329<ref name="Channing I" />
 John Winthrop lead the emigration that founded Boston as part of the Massachusetts Bay Company.  Winthrop recorded his reasons for emigrating.
 :*He wanted to establish a "bulwark against the kingdom of anti-Christ which the Jesuits labor to rear up in those parts."
@@ Line 28: / Line 28: @@
 More important to the success of the Boston settlement was Winthrop's preparations.  He made himself aware of the reasons for the failures and near tragic hardships of earlier settlements and planned against such an end as best he could.
-===The Cambridge Agreement===
+===The Cambridge Agreement and the grant===
 Mathew Craddock, the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company, proposed to the shareholders that government and control of the company should be transferred to those who were to emigrate to the colony.  This was both different and far sighted.
 :*4 weeks later a dozen men of substance met at Cambridge pledging that they were ready to emigrate on the condition that the government be legally turned over to them.
 ::This was done and John Winthrop was elected the new governor.
 ::*This agreement gave the management and government of the company to these dozen men.  It did not establish a democratic colony. But that was to come
 ===The first fleet sails===
@@ Line 41: / Line 46: @@
 ::Boston had their own hard times, but it was nothing like what the first Virginian's had suffered.
-===Freemen, representation, and control of religion===
+}}
 The most precious commodity to the efforts to settle America and establish a critical mass of commerce was people.  A colony charter might be granted to a group of highly principled company leaders who had their own vision of how to govern and which form of church was to be established in within their grant, but they encountered the problem of having to bend to the wishes of the settlers on numerous occasions.
 :Otherwise, people would not emigrate in sufficient numbers, or, in the case of those already in America, they might pick up and move to a neighboring colony that suited them better.  This was the case on Massachusetts Bay.
@@ Line 49: / Line 56: @@
 ::"Freeman" referred to a member of the company.  The governor, assistants and freemen, possessed by grant from the king, the authority to govern the rest.
 ::They had voted themselves the authority to act as magistrates.  They had no laws prepared for Massachusetts Bay, but they had knowledge of English Common Law and Mosaic law and elected to govern using those.  (Channing (page 340) quotes ''Massachusetts Colony Records''.)<ref name="Channing I"/>  This proved effective enough, but the law of the wilderness took somewhat immediate effect.
-*In 1630, 109 applied to the Great and General Court (the ruling body of the Company) for admission to the freedom of the corporation.<ref name="MBrecords">''Massachusetts Colony Records''</ref>
+*In 1630, 109 applied to the Great and General Court (the ruling body of the Company) for admission to the freedom of the corporation.<ref name="MCR"/>
 :The problem for Winthrop and the Company was how to satisfy the request (which they thought necessary lest they loose people to New England to the north or New Plymouth to the south) without relinquishing too much control lest they dilute their purpose to establish their "particular church".  According to Channing (page 341)<ref name="Channing I"/>, they saw themselves in the roles of Moses and Aaron.
 :*They granted the request in 1631 with limitations:
 ::The added freemen could elect assistants but not participate in governing directly.  The number of assistants was to be kept small in the belief that only leading men would be elected - probably a safe bet in those days.
 ::In future, only men that were members of the churches in the colony would be granted these privileges.
-About the same time,
+*The new freemen requested a copy of the grant and discovered that the governor and assistants had reserved more authority for themselves and granted less to them than was written down.  This changed the game somewhat.
-===Rapid growth===
+}}
 In 1633 the tide of emigration rose.  In May, 1634, Winthrop estimated the population of Massachusetts at 4 thousand people.  The pace of emigration alarmed some English authorities who feared that it would harm the economy at home.  but they could not stem the tide.  They had larger issues on other fronts.
 :*Massachusetts outgrew all other colonies.
@@ Line 65: / Line 82: @@
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