The Plymouth Colony

The New England Colonies Protestants, called Puritans, wanted to reform the Church of England. One sect wanted to separate from the Church. They were called separatists and punished by English leaders. These separatists became known as Pilgrims. First they went to the Netherlands in 1608. In 1620, they decided to establish a colony in Virginia. Later, more separatists leave England and join the Pilgrim colonies. They have strong ideas driven by their religious beliefs. As time went on, these settlers became very culturally rigid due to their strong belief system.

The New England Colonies The Pilgrims fled Europe to establish Plymouth in 1620. •Their foundational document, the “Mayflower Compact”, is seen by many as one of the precursors to the U.S. Constitution. It was signed by the male passengers and was designed to create fair laws to protect the general good. •A replica of the Mayflower (right), the small former whaling vessel that brought the Pilgrims to America is now part of the restored Plymouth Colony site in Massachusetts.

Early hardships 102 passengers were on the Mayflower. During the two month journey, one crewman and one child died from disease. Three of the women passengers were pregnant. One gave birth during the voyage – the other two after the voyage. Mayflower landed in Massachusetts in late 1620 Half the Pilgrims died from cold and sickness during the first winter. Plimoth Plantation

Plymouth The building at left is a careful historical reconstruction of a fort built by the Plymouth settlers in 1622, shortly after hearing of Powhatan's uprising against English colonists in Virginia. •It is adapted from the traditional design of a 17thcentury granary, but the ports lining the second story are not for stacking sheaves of grain but for firing on attacking Indians or on hostile Spaniards or Frenchmen. •In fact, no attack ever came and the fort was used as a meetinghouse. Colonists gathered on the first floor for church services and court sessions. •The building evokes the Plymouth colonists’ major concerns: military vulnerability and religious security.

Plymouth

The Non-Indian Population of New England As in the Chesapeake colonies, the European population of New England grew very rapidly after settlement began in 1620. The most rapid rate of growth, unsurprisingly, came in the first thirty years, when even a modest wave of immigration could double or triple the small existing population. But the largest numbers of new immigrants arrived between 1650 and 1680. What events in England in those years might have led to increased emigration to America in that period?

How did the Pilgrims make it? American Indians in the area had already suffered from European diseases brought by traders. Relations between colonists and American Indians: Squanto – an American Indian who had learned English from traders and who had been kidnapped, taken to England, and later returned, interpreted for the Pilgrims and Native Americans. Helped colonists plant corn and establish relations with Wampanoag Indians American Indians and Pilgrims held a feast now known as the first Thanksgiving

Growth of the colony Between 1629 and 1639 thirteen thousand people came to Massachusetts Bay in what has been referred to as “The Great Migration.” Settlements were organized around the church and politics were dominated by the clergy Puritans encouraged people to conform to their belief system and strictly adhere to the teachings of the church. In 1628, the Massachusetts Bay Company designed the seal on the left to encourage more people to come to the colony. Why would this symbol be a welcoming image?