The New England
New England Colonies of British America
British America included Connecticut Colony, Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Massachusetts
Massachusetts Bay Colony, and the Province of New Hampshire, as well as a few smaller short-lived colonies. The New England
New England colonies were part of the Thirteen Colonies
Thirteen Colonies and eventually became five of the six states in New England.[1] Captain John Smith's 1616 work A Description of New England
New England first applied the term "New England"[2] to the coastal lands from Long Island Sound
Long Island Sound to Newfoundland.[3]

Contents

1 Arriving in America 2 Establishing the New England
New England Colonies

2.1 Spreading out

3 Commerce 4 Wartime Enslavement of Enemy Combatants in New England 5 Education 6 See also 7 Notes 8 Sources

Arriving in America[edit]

The English royal charters granted land to the north to Queen Elizabeth, land to the south to the London Company.

France, England, and other countries made several attempts to colonize New England
New England early in the 17th century, and those nations were often in contention for lands in the New World. French nobleman Pierre Dugua Sieur de Monts established a settlement on Saint Croix Island, Maine in June 1604 under the authority of the King of France. Nearly half the settlers perished due to the harsh winter and scurvy, and the survivors moved north out of New England
New England to Port-Royal of Nova Scotia (see symbol "R" on map to the right) in the spring of 1605.[4] King James I of England
England recognized the need for a permanent settlement in New England, and he granted competing royal charters to the Plymouth Company and the London Company. The Plymouth Company ships arrived at the mouth of the Kennebec River
Kennebec River (then called the Sagadahoc River) in August 1607 where they established a settlement named Sagadahoc Colony, better known as Popham Colony
Popham Colony (see symbol "Po" on map to right) to honor financial backer Sir John Popham. The colonists faced a harsh winter, the loss of supplies following a storehouse fire, and mixed relations with the local Indian tribes. Colony leader Captain George Popham died, and Raleigh Gilbert decided to return to England
England to take up an inheritance left by the death of an older brother—at which point, all of the colonists decided to return to England. It was around August 1608 when they left on the ship Mary and John and on a new ship built by the colony named Virginia of Sagadahoc. The 30-ton Virginia was the first sea-going ship ever built in North America.[5] Conflict over land rights continued through the early 17th century, with the French constructing Fort Pentagouet
Fort Pentagouet near Castine, Maine
Maine in 1613. The fort protected a trading post and a fishing station and was the first longer-term settlement in New England. It changed hands multiple times throughout the 17th century among the English, French, and Dutch colonists.[6] In 1614, Dutch explorer Adriaen Block
Adriaen Block traveled along the coast of Long Island Sound and then up the Connecticut River
Connecticut River to Hartford, Connecticut. By 1623, the Dutch West India Company
Dutch West India Company regularly traded for furs there, and they eventually fortified it for protection from the Pequot
Pequot Indians and named the site "House of Hope" (also identified as "Fort Hoop," "Good Hope," and "Hope").[7] Establishing the New England
New England Colonies[edit] A group of Puritans
Puritans known as the Pilgrims arrived on the Mayflower from England
England and the Netherlands
Netherlands to establish Plymouth Colony
Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts, the second successful English colony in North America following Jamestown, Virginia. About half of the one hundred-plus passengers on the Mayflower
Mayflower died that first winter, mostly because of diseases contracted on the voyage followed by a harsh winter.[8] In 1621, an American Indian named Squanto
Squanto taught the colonists how to grow corn and where to catch eels and fish. His assistance was invaluable and helped them to survive the early years of the colonization. The Pilgrims lived on the same site where Squanto's Patuxet tribe had established a village before they were wiped out from diseases.[9] The Plymouth settlement faced great hardships and earned few profits, but it enjoyed a positive reputation in England
England and may have sown the seeds for further immigration. Edward Winslow
Edward Winslow and William Bradford published an account of their experiences called Mourt's Relation (1622).[10] This book was only a small glimpse of the hardships and dangers encountered by the Pilgrims, but it encouraged other Puritans to immigrate during the Great Migration.

Major boundaries of Massachusetts
Massachusetts Bay and neighboring colonial claims in the 17th century and 18th century. Modern state boundaries are partially overlaid for context.

The Puritans
Puritans in England
England first sent smaller groups in the mid-1620s to establish colonies, buildings, and food supplies, learning from the Pilgrims' harsh experiences of winter in the Plymouth Colony. In 1623, the Plymouth Council for New England
New England (successor to the Plymouth Company) established a small fishing village at Cape Ann
Cape Ann under the supervision of the Dorchester Company. The first group of Puritans moved to a new town at nearby Naumkeag
Naumkeag after the Dorchester Company dropped support, and fresh financial support was found by Rev. John White. Other settlements were started in nearby areas; however, the overall Puritan population remained small through the 1620s.[11] A larger group of Puritans
Puritans arrived in 1630, leaving England
England because they desired to worship in a manner that differed from the Church of England. Their views were in accord with those of the Pilgrims who arrived on the Mayflower, except that the Pilgrims were "separatists" who felt that they needed to separate themselves from the Church of England, whereas the later Puritans
Puritans were content to remain under the umbrella of the Church of England. The separate colonies were governed independently of one other until 1691, when Plymouth Colony
Plymouth Colony was absorbed into the Massachusetts Bay Colony
Massachusetts Bay Colony to form the Province of Massachusetts
Massachusetts Bay. Spreading out[edit] Early dissenters of the Puritan laws were often banished from the Massachusetts
Massachusetts Bay Colony. The Connecticut Colony
Connecticut Colony was started after Puritan minister Thomas Hooker
Thomas Hooker left Massachusetts
Massachusetts Bay with about 100 followers in search of greater religious and political freedom. John Wheelwright left with his followers to a colony in New Hampshire
New Hampshire and then on to Maine. The Puritans
Puritans also established the American public school system for the express purpose of ensuring that future generations would be able to read the Bible for themselves, which was a central tenet of Puritan worship.[12] It was the dead of winter in January 1636 when minister Roger Williams was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony
Massachusetts Bay Colony because of theological differences. One source of contention was his view that government and religion should be separate; he also believed that the colonies should purchase land at fair prices from the Wampanoag and Narragansett tribes. He escaped being deported to England
England by the Massachusetts officials and walked from Salem, Massachusetts
Massachusetts to Raynham, Massachusetts, a distance of 55 miles through the deep snow. The Indian tribes helped him to survive and sold him land for a new colony which he named Providence Plantations
Providence Plantations in recognition of the intervention of Divine Providence
Divine Providence in establishing the new colony. It was unique in its day in expressly providing for religious freedom and a separation of church from state. Other dissenters established two settlements on Rhode Island (now called Aquidneck Island) and another settlement in Warwick; these four settlements eventually united to form the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.[13]

A map of the Connecticut, New Haven, and Saybrook colonies

Thomas Hooker
Thomas Hooker left Massachusetts
Massachusetts in 1636 with 100 followers and founded a settlement just north of the Dutch Fort Hoop which grew into Connecticut Colony. The community was first named Newtown then renamed Hartford
Hartford to honor the English town of Hertford. One of the reasons why Hooker left was that only members of the church could vote and participate in the government in Massachusetts
Massachusetts Bay, which he believed should include any adult male owning property. The Connecticut Colony was not the first settlement in Connecticut (the Dutch were first) or even the first English settlement (Windsor was first in 1633). Thomas Hooker obtained a royal charter and established Fundamental Orders, considered to be one of the first constitutions in North America. Other colonies later merged into the royal charter for the Connecticut Colony, including New Haven
New Haven and Saybrook. Commerce[edit] The earliest colonies in New England
New England were usually fishing villages or farming communities on the more fertile land along the rivers. The rocky soil in the New England
New England Colonies was not as fertile as the Middle or Southern Colonies, but the land provided rich resources, including lumber that was valued for building homes and ships. Lumber was also a resource that could be exported back to England, where there was a shortage of wood. In addition, the hunting of wildlife provided furs to be traded and food for the table. The New England
New England Colonies were located along the Atlantic coast where there was an abundance of marketable sea life. Excellent harbors and some inland waterways offered protection for ships and were also valuable for fresh water fishing. By the end of the 17th century, New England
England colonists had created an Atlantic trade network that connected them to the English homeland as well as to the West African slave coast, the Caribbean's plantation islands, and the Iberian Peninsula. Colonists relied upon British and European imports for glass, linens, hardware, machinery, and other items for the household. The Southern Colonies
Southern Colonies could produce tobacco, rice, and indigo in exchange for imports, whereas New England's colonies could not offer much to England
England beyond fish, furs, and lumber. Inflation was a major issue in the economy. During the 18th century, shipbuilding drew upon the abundant lumber and revived the economy, often under the direction of the British Crown.[14] Wartime Enslavement of Enemy Combatants in New England[edit] Enslavement of enemies defeated in war was a common practice in European nations at this time. This was a policy that had been going on for decades in Ireland, particularly since the time of Elizabeth I and during the mid-17th century Cromwell wars in Britain and Ireland, where large numbers of Irish, Welsh, and Scots prisoners of war were sent as slaves to plantations in the West Indies, especially to Barbados and Jamaica.[15] The practice found its way to the American colonies during the Pequot
Pequot War and King Philip's War. Military leader Benjamin Church spoke out against enslaving Indians in the summer of 1675, describing the practice as "an action so hateful… that (I) opposed it to the loss of the good will and respect of some that before were (my) good friends." This said, Church was an owner of African slaves himself, like many Englishmen in the colony.[16] Ships carrying captured war combatants began to leave New England
England ports during King Philip's War
King Philip's War (1675-78) and continued for the three years of the war. The policy concerning war enemies was that "no male captive above the age of fourteen years should reside in the colony."[17] It is estimated that at least a thousand New England Indian warriors were sold as slaves during King Philip's War, with over half of those coming from Plymouth.[18] Education[edit] In the New England
New England Colonies, the first settlements of Pilgrims and the other Puritans
Puritans who came later taught their children how to read and write in order that they might read and study the Bible for themselves. Depending upon social and financial status, education was taught by the parents home-schooling their children, public grammar schools, and private governesses, which included subjects from reading and writing to Latin and Greek and more. See also[edit]

Middle Colonies Southern Colonies Chesapeake Colonies Thirteen Colonies History of Massachusetts Historical outline of Massachusetts British Colonial America New England History of New England Dominion of New England New England
New England Confederation

Notes[edit]

^ Gipson ^ Bisceglia ^ Smith ^ St. Croix Celebration. "St. Croix Island History". Archived from the original on 2001-08-03. Retrieved 2008-12-21.  ^ "Maine's First Ship: Historic Overview". Maine's First Ship. Retrieved 22 July 2013.  ^ "New France Forts". New France New Horizons. Retrieved 2009-01-10.  ^ New York Historical Society, p. 260 ^ Deetz, Patricia Scot; James F. Deetz. "Passengers on the Mayflower: Ages & Occupations, Origins & Connections". The Plymouth Colony Archive Project. Retrieved 2008-11-10.  ^ NativeAmericans.com. " Squanto
Squanto (The History of Tisquantum)". Archived from the original on June 5, 2007. Retrieved September 20, 2014.  ^ Bradford, William (1865). Mourt’s Relation, or Journal of the Plantation at Plymouth. Boston: J. K. Wiggin. Retrieved 2008-12-23.  ^ Young, Alexander (1846). Chronicles of the First Planters of the Colony of Massachusetts
Massachusetts Bay, 1623-1636. Boston: C. C. Little and J. Brown. p. 26. Retrieved 2008-12-23.  ^ The Library of Congress Web Site. "America as a Religious Refuge: The Seventeenth Century". Retrieved 2008-11-11.  ^ Roger Williams, Family Association. "Biography of Roger Williams". Retrieved 2009-02-07.  ^ . N.p.. Web. 20 Aug 2013. <https://www.boundless.com/u-s-history/britain-and-the-settling-of-the-colonies-1600-1750/settling-new-england/commerce-in-the-new-england-colonies/>. ^ Nathaniel Philbrick. Mayflower: A story of Courage, Community and War (Viking 2006) p. 253 ^ Nathaniel Philbrick. Mayflower: A story of Courage, Community and War (Viking 2006) pp 253, 345 ^ Nathaniel Philbrick. Mayflower: A story of Courage, Community and War (Viking 2006) p. 345 ^ Nathaniel Philbrick. Mayflower: A story of Courage, Community and War (Viking 2006) p. 332

Sources[edit]

Bisceglia, Michael (12 February 2008). "John Smith: The man who named New England". Sea Coast Online. Retrieved April 28, 2013.  Gipson, Lawrence. The British Empire Before the American Revolution (15 volumes) (1936-1970). Knopf.  Collections of the New York Historical Society. New York: H. Ludwig. 1841.  Smith, John, Captain & Admiral (1616). Royster, Paul, ed. A Description of New England
New England (1616): An Online Electronic Text Edition. Electronic Texts in American Studies. 

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The Thirteen Colonies
Thirteen Colonies of Colonial America

New England
New England Colonies Middle Colonies Chesapeake Colonies Southern Colonies

Connecticut Delaware Georgia Maryland Massachusetts
Massachusetts Bay New Hampshire New Jersey New York North Carolina Pennsylvania Rhode Island and Providence Plantations South Carolina Virginia

Early English colonial entities

Carolina East Jersey Maine New England New Haven Plymouth Saybrook