He and other Congregationalists believed Charles I was more hostile to the Puritans than his father had been. Under his leadership, the Church of England attempted to suppress Puritan practices. Apprehensively, the Congregationalists were convinced that they will no longer be able to practice their religion freely in their homeland. They wanted to remain committed to reforming the Church of England but considered the thought that they can pursue that aim in America. John Winthrop, the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company, organized the initial migration of the Puritans, transferring the Massachusetts Bay Company headquarters to New England where they settled in the
The Jamestown and Plymouth colonies were established with different economic intentions, leadership, and survival tactics. While Jamestown settlers had Gold and other economical gains on their mind establishing their colony, the Pilgrims sought after religious freedom as they established their colony in Plymouth. Jamestown colonists were outrageous adventurers: “Economic motives prompted colonization in Virginia” (National Park Service). The Plymouth colonists, however, sought America for a different purpose: Freedom from religious persecution motivated the Pilgrims to leave England and settle in Holland, where there was more religious freedom. However, after a number of years the Pilgrims felt that their children were being corrupted by the liberal Dutch lifestyle and were losing their English heritage.
By 1700, their religious practices, family relations, and political differences led them in two different directions. New England was a refuge for religious separatists leaving England, while people who immigrated to the Chesapeake region had no religious motives. John Winthrop states that the Puritan goal was to form "a city upon a hill", which would represent a "pure" community, where Christianity could be pursued (Document A).To New England, religion was considered to be most important thing while the colonists that landed at Jamestown in 1607 were not as religiously inclined as the Puritans. The History of Virginia, written by the leader of the colony John Smith in 1624, describes how hard it was in the first few years at Jamestown (Document F). There was little food, new diseases, lots of quarreling between the settlers and they had many problems with the Indians (Document H).
They came to the New World for more economic opportunities. They wanted to find gold and gain a lot financially, so for the most part, they came to the Chesapeake area individually. Men wasted a lot of time trying to find gold instead of doing useful things such as building shelters or planting crops. That, along with the swamp area’s mosquitos that caused diseases such as malaria, shortened the life-span of the Chesapeake people. Since many men died at a young age, women had the right to inherit their husband’s wealth and estate.
Some of which included a high demand of wool which put many people, mostly farmers out of a job. The colonization of the America allowed for great opportunities for farmers and many other jobless English citizens. But, what the King had hoped for were two main objectives. One, to find gold or hard money”, used as an international currency. Two, to find a route to the South seas.
America was a place for dreams and new beginnings, until white people arrived in 1607. Three groups sailed over the treacherous Atlantic from their cruel lives in England to set up peaceful religious colonies. The only problem is that they attempted to settle in their own way and all failed dismally. The New England, Middle and Southern Colonies grew differently over the period 1619-1760.Examining the three sets of colonies will prove that they were all different: socially, economically, politically but not philosophically. Socially the three groups of colonies developed differently.
They broke away from the persecution of church leadership and the King to come to America. The immigration of the Pilgrims to New England occurred in stages. The Pilgrims, fleeing religious persecution, broke away from the Church of England because they felt the Church violated biblical principles of true Christians. ‘Opposed to the Episcopal jurisdiction and the rites and discipline of the Church of England, the group had formed as a separatist church by 1606’, Pilgrims (2008) They committed themselves to a life based on the Bible. Evangelical Christianity in the 18th century represented something new but not in the sense of a creation out of nothing.
Another reason for migration was the idea of primogeniture, which allowed the eldest son to inherit the wealth; leaving others desperate and in hopes of finding riches overseas. Also, many fled to America to escape peonage or prison. These social concerns in England ended up populating the colonies because people believed they would find a better life in America. The second major way that England shaped the colonies were the English politics. At some points, colonists seemingly were allowed plenty of freedom, while other times they were under strict English rule.
Countries that wanted their religion to triumph would have not predicted a new shift of power, a massacre and new technique for future wars that could even influence the actions of today. Religion was such a powerful weapon for rulers that the Peace of Augsburg was established and obtained until the early 17th century when the imperial power became concerned over a new rising religion named Calvinism. The religion is a strain of protestant, forbidden under the peace treaty, which spread to present day Germany. “Only two churches were recognized,” under the Peace of Augsburg treaty, “the Roman Catholic and the adherents of the Augsburg Confession—i.e., the Lutherans.”[1] Calvinism started to become the majority in some states so the Peace of Augsburg was nullified. There was also a vacancy in the lineage as King in the Holy Roman Empire.
Roger Williams Roger Williams was basically the first rebel against the divine church order. During his life he was labeled as a spreader of intellectual infections. Afterwards he has been hailed as the first “flower” of Enlightenment’s spring. Most of his ideas were mainly in a religious context, but some were also engaged in debates on political liberty that would eventually fire the American Revolution. When Puritans saw good and evil, Williams saw people, usually friends with intelligence, moral sense, and a workable political system based on consensus.