Pilgrims &Puritans:

Coming to America

Seeking Religious

Freedom

The Pilgrims and Plymouth Colony

Pilgrims aka “The Saints” were Religious Separatists seeking a new land to establish themselves and

practice their faith on their terms

• The Pilgrims sought to leave behind (literally) the corruption of the Church of England and the authority of the King

• America was seen as a place where they could practice their faith

freely -- without fear of prejudice or bias

John Cotton’s Sermon, as the Pilgrims leave for America, encapsulates their hopes

“that they may dwell in a

place of their own, and

move no more…

neither shall the children

of wickedness afflict them

any more, as beforetime.”

Plymouth

The Pilgrims Landing at Plymouth

The Plymouth Colony

The Root of Self-Government in America: The Mayflower Compact

November 1, 1620

Modern version of the Mayflower Compact

In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, defender of the Faith, etc. Having undertaken, for the Glory of God, and advancements of the Christian faith and honor of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the Northern parts of Virginia, do by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body politic; for our better ordering, and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape Cod the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, 1620.

Life at Plymouth

• Brutal 1st winter

• Common House

• Indian help – Squanto (planting and fishing)

• 1621 1st Thanksgiving Peace Treaty with Indians

• Growth to 2000 people by 1630

• Merged with Mass Bay Colony in 1691

The Puritans and Mass Bay Colony

The Seal of the Royal Charter that established the Massachusetts Bay Company

Puritans: a whole other kind of Protestant

• Unlike the Pilgrims, the Puritans choose to stay in the Church of England and reform it (purify) it from the inside.

• Like the Pilgrims, the Puritans left England to seek religious freedom and to create a community where their “pure” form of Christianity was the foundation for ALL aspects of communal life .

• Biblically Fundamental, Strict, Rigid, Serious, Uncompromising, Rules-oriented, Punitive and Intolerant of Dissent

• Strict Gender roles and Class Structure

17 ships with 1000 settlers, livestock, and provisions left England in 1630 to settle in America.

John Winthrop – 1st Governor of Massachusetts Bay

The Puritans desired to establish a “Shining

City on a Hill” or a “Beacon” – drawing

all men closer to God through the Colony and its community

rules.

Boston – the Center of the Colony

Life in Massachusetts Bay Colony Work Hard Pray Hard

Preach Hard Punish Hard and Publically