HIST 1100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Anne Hutchinson, Puritans, Half-Way Covenant
Document Summary
Loophole allowed to bring their english charter with them: unlike virginia they were governed locally. Governors, magistrates and delegates all elected (colony government: voting restricted to adult male church members. Local town meetings: voting restricted to adult men who owned property in the town. More strictly observed than in england or the chesapeake. Courts enforced morality and required residents to attend church: sabbath breaking, sexual offenses, blasphemy / heresy. Virginians had encountered a powerful indian confederacy relatively untouched by european diseases when they landed at jamestown. Many of new england"s indian nations had been decimated by european diseases before the settlement of either plymouth or massachusetts bay. Pressured by stronger groups to the west, many of new england"s indians thought it in their best interests to ally with the settlers. Although converting the indians was a stated objective of the colony, relatively little evangelism actually took place. The puritans were more concerned with maintaining orthodoxy within their own ranks.
