John Winthrop: The Massachusetts Bay Colony In New England

Religion was an essential part of everyday life and it provided individuals with a purpose in life. John Winthrop’s goal was to expand the Protestant community (Puritans) and his main focus was to have a better relationship with God. Winthrop especially desired for all the settlers of New England

The New Englanders took religion seriously, making unitary laws according to Puritan standards. John Winthrop, later chosen as the first Massachusetts Bay Colony governor, was seeking religious freedom. Wishing to inspire the colonists to dwell in brotherly unity, he summoned them together to remind them “that if we [colonists] shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world.” On the other hand, those in the Chesapeake region came for the wealth that America promised. They were there to become prosperous or die trying.

The ideas constructed by the Puritans were not simply a principal starting point for American culture because they were the first in the country, but because they offered distinct ways of thinking that are still deep-seated in our culture today. Although many of the ideas of Puritans have evolved or vanished over time, it is important to give credit to the Puritan writers and thinkers such as John Winthrop and John Cotton who offered ideas that were new at the time and that stayed with the American consciousness—culturally, socially, and politically.

John Winthrop knew that their colony would “be a service to the church” by “[carrying] the gospel” into this new part of the world (Winthrop). This colony would demonstrate

Massachusetts Bay Colony Goals It was established by a group of puritans led by a John Winthrop with a goal of colonizing a wide area in the New England where they would establish what he referred to as a model religious community in the New World. This was a theocracy that forced people to worship and live in an orthodox way, a theory based on John Calvin’s teachings. John Winthrop was tired of trying to reform the church in England in which he believed there was the need to purify it against the influences of Catholicism. The Puritans had been opposed by both the Anglican Church and the ruling monarch in England. It is for this reason that they migrated to America, established the Massachusetts Bay colony and create their own religious community.

John Winthrop, a non-separating Puritan, was a leading figure in the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony that described the goal of this colony in his City Upon a Hill speech in which he says, “We must consider that we shall be as a city

In 1629, John Winthrop joined the Bay Company and said that he would sell his English estate and would also take his family to Massachusetts if the government and charter of the company would be transferred

Being the first two well-known places in which the English would set out to colonize in 1607 and 1620, Jamestown, Virginia and Plymouth, Massachusetts hold very separate set of beliefs, standards, and outlooks on life then and the future to come. While paving the way for things such as slavery, taxes, ownership of land, inclusion of women, tobacco and government assemblies, John Smith and the people of Jamestown became a classical foundation for new life and economic growth for the new world that is, the United States. On the other hand, William Bradford and his people began to realize the intentions of the Church of England were unholy and had strayed away from God’s teachings from the Bible. With this in mind, the Pilgrims set on a voyage to the new world to seek religious freedom. As we know it, the Pilgrims sought for peace and a new way of living that was fair, just and free from religious corruptions.

Religion among the colonies was now becoming less denominational. Attendance at the Church’s were already low; but with the new aspire of personal Religion, the numbers than dropped dramatically. Another name for an Orthodox Clergymen back then, were “old lights.” These “old lights”, disapproved and despised of personal spirituality and refused to take part of it. Many members of Presbyterian denominations packed their bags and went in search of smaller places.

This journal, “Of Plymouth Plantation”, which was from Norton Anthology of American Literature, Vol. 1, written by William Bradford between 1630 and 1651, and edited by Samuel Eliot Morison in 1953, describes the story of the pilgrims who sailed from Southampton, England, on the Mayflower and settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620. Those pilgrims were English Christians in the 16th and 17th centuries and religious separatists who saw no hope of reforming the Church of England from within; therefore, they hoped to separate from the Church of England and form independent local churches in another place. In order to , those pilgrims overcame many obstacles. The author had used the power of rhetoric, especially in the use of the three rhetorical

They both left their country for their religious freedom and came to the New World. Both the Puritans and Pilgrims made promises to one another in a written doctrine to do what they felt was for the betterment of one another in their society which is shown in both of their covenants the Mayflower Compact and the Arbella Covenant. The Mayflower Compact and The Arbella Covenant are what the laws of today are shaped by and the remnants of it live in today’s Constitution. John Winthrop and William Braford are the writers of what shaped American history into what it is today.

Winthrop was a first-generation colonist and a Puritan. He’s surely reciting his sermon to surge the moral of the Puritans. He knows that the New World is full of trees, Native Americans, and other severe treats. Winthrop wants to avert the impending fears of the New World creating this sermon. This document was certainly published to represent depict the

The arrival of the first Europeans in the Americas is dramatically captured through the many writers who attempted to communicate what they saw, experienced and felt. What is more, the very purposes of their treacherous travel and colonization are clearly seen in their writings; whether it is poetry, history or sermons. Of the many literary pieces available today, William Bradford and John Winthrop’s writings, even though vary because the first is a historical account and the second is a sermon, stand out as presenting a clear trust in God, the rules that would govern them and the reason they have arrived in the Americas. First of all, William Bradford provides an in-depth look into the first moment when the Puritans arrived in the Americas. In fact, he chronicles the hardships they face on their way to Plymouth, yet he includes God’s provision every step of the way.

They were puritans who were constrained by English laws and customs and sought a new place to freely practice religion how they wanted. With no King James there in America to restrict them, the colonists were free to do this. Church was the most revered part of society there in Plymouth. “The important thing was their spiritual life,” and they continued to keep close ties with their minister in Leiden John Robinson until his death. After his death “a profound sense of sadness settled over the Plymouth church.”.

In 1634, a woman that would play one of the biggest roles in the development of early America came to Massachusetts from England. Before immigrating to the New World though, Anne Hutchinson lived in London with her husband William Hutchinson. There, a minister, John Cotton, who believed you didn’t need to follow the laws and rules of society to connect with God, resonated greatly with Anne. The idea that religion is based on personal views would be taken with her to the New World, where she would become an icon for conservative Puritanism and steadfast determination.