CSMH History Class

1630 - Massachusets founded

Page history last edited by kylie 2 yrs ago

Massachusetts Founded In 1630

The Puritans were a group of people that came to America from England. They were unhappy with the Church of England. They thought it was becoming too much like the Catholic Church. They wanted to change it and make it more "pure" by removing the ceremony and music.

John Endecott was the first leader of the Puritan settlers. They started the settlement Salem, Massachusetts. A year later, in 1630, the settlement was changed to Massachusetts Bay Company. Massachusetts Bay Company was governed by the Puritan's religious views. They would not tolerate any other religious views and even hung some Catholics, Baptists, Quakers and Jews in Boston.

A man named John Winthrop led a group of 1000 Puritans on fifteen ships to Boston. They built small villages around the main town of Boston. The Puritan men made their own laws and settled any community problems in centralized meeting houses. The Puritans wanted all children to read the bible so they passed a law saying all parents had to teach their children to read. Schools were run out of their homes by women. The schools were called Dame Schools. The first college in America, Harvard College, was a Puritan College. It was named after John Harvard, a Puritan from Boston.

Not everyone agreed with the Puritan's political beliefs. Rodger Williams and Anne Hutchinson later left the Massachusetts Bay Company and founded the colonies of Rhode Island and Connecticut.

Because the Puritans had a desire to practice religion as they wanted, they strove for excellence - as they saw it. They developed close communities with strong morals and eventually an outstanding college.