measure to care even for
the new immigrants who
EDWARB WINSLOW when six years old. appeared along with them ;
From a miniature painted in 1602, now and the Crops of European
in the possession of the Rev. William C. grains failed season after
Winslow of Boston. Winslow is the ^^ Fortunatel dur _
only Pilgrim of whom we have an an- . J '
thentic likeness. Except for Standish ing the first winter, the
he is probably the only one who in Eng
land could rank as a " gentleman,"
though Brewster approached that stand
ing.
colonists found a supply
of Indian corn for seed,
and a friendly native to
teach them how to culti
vate it ; and the old cornfields of the abandoned Indian villages
saved them the formidable labor of clearing away the forest.
The slow progress, even then, toward a secure supply of food
is shown vividly in a letter from Edward Winslow at the end
of the first year (Source Book, No. 48 a) :
" We have built seven dwelling houses, and four for the use of the
plantation [for common use, that is, as storehouses, etc.], and have made
preparation for divers others. We set, the last spring, some twenty acres
of Indian corn, and sowed some six acres of barley and pease. . . . God
be praised, we had good increase of [the] Indian corn, and of our barley,
68] EARLY HARDSHIPS 61
indifferent good, but our pease not worth the gathering." [Winslow ex
plains this failure of the European seed by the colonists' ignorance of the
seasons in America.]
In the first year, then, the settlers had built only eleven
rude cabins and had brought only 26 acres of land into cultiva
tion. Winslow was writing to a friend in England who ex
pected soon to join the colony. The following advice in the
same letter suggests forcefully some features of life in the new
settlement :
"Bring every man a musket. . . . Let it be long in the barrel, and
fear not the weight of it ; for most of our shooting is from stands [rests] .
If you bring anything for comfort [that is, anything more than bare nec
essaries], butter or sallet oil . . . [is] very good. . . . Bring paper and
linseed oile for your windows, and cotton yarn for your lamps [for wicks]."
68. For long the governor's most important duty was to
direct the work in the fields where he toiled, too, with his
own hands, along with all the men and the larger boys. But
even among these " sober and godly men " the system of indus
try in common proved a hindrance :
"For this communitie was found to breed much confusion and discon-
tente, and retard much imployment that would have been to their benefite
and comforte. Eor the yung-rnen, that wepe most able and fitte, . . .
did repine that they should spend their time and strength to worke for
other mens wives and children. . . . The aged and graver men, to be
ranked and equalised in labours and victuals, cloaths, etc., with the
younger and meaner sorte, thought it some iridignitie and disrespect unto
them. And for mens wives to be commanded to doe service for other
men, as dressing their meate, washing their cloaths, etc., they deemed it
a kind of slaverie ; neither could many husbands well brooke it. "
In the third year, famine seemed imminent. Then Governor
Bradford, with the approval of the chief men of the colony, set
aside the agreement with the London partners in this matter of
common industry, and assigned to each family a parcel of land
("for the time only" 1 ). "This," says Bradford, "had very
good success,"
1 This arrangement for individual labor and property applied only to the
agricultural produce. Such trade and fishery as were carried on remained
62 PLYMOUTH PLANTATION [ 69
"for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corne was
planted then other waise would have been, by any means the Governour
or any other could use. . . . The women now wente willingly into the
field, and tooke their litle-ons with them to set corne, which before would
aledge weakness . . . whom to have compelled would have bene thought
great tiranie."
For other reasons, too, the danger of failure passed away.
The Pilgrims were learning to use the opportunities about
them. In 1627, when the partnership was to have expired,
little had been done, it is true, toward repaying the London
merchants. But the beginning of a promising fur trade had
bSen secured ; and Bradford, with seven other leading men,
offered to assume the English debt if they might have control
of this trade to raise the money. This arrangement was
accepted by all parties.
It took Bradford fourteen years more to pay the merchants.
But meantime the merchants at once surrendered their claim
upon the colony ; and the lands, houses, and cattle were promptly
divided among the settlers for private property.
69. The political development of Plymouth may be summed
up under four heads :
(TJie executive.) Governor Carver died during the first
spring. The next governor, William Bradford, was reflected
year after year until his death, in 1657, except for five years
when he absolutely refused to serve. Governor and several
" Assistants," to advise and aid him, were chosen anew each
spring. Much was left to the discretion of the governor ; but
the Assembly could check him at any time.
TJie Assembly was the essential part of the government.
For many years it was, in form, merely a town meeting,
a mass meeting of the voters of one small village. Soon after
1630, other settlements grew up in the colony, but even then the
Assembly continued for a time to be a meeting of all male citi
zens, held in the oldest town. However, this clumsy and un-
under common management ; and even these parcels of land did not at this
time become private property. Only their temporary use was given.
70] DEMOCRACY 63
fair system could not last among Englishmen. In 1636 the
three chief towns sent representatives to sit with the governor
and assistants to revise and codify the laws. The same device
was used the next year in assessing taxes among the towns.
And in 1639 it was decided that thereafter the Assembly should
be made up of such representatives, with the governor and
assistants. There was never a division into two " Houses."
(Local government?) As other villages grew up about the
original settlement at Plymouth town, their constables and
other necessary officers were at first appointed by the central
Assembly. But, soon after the central government became
representative, the various settlements became " towns " in a
political sense, with town meetings, and their own elected
officers, after a method introduced just before in Massachusetts
Bay ( 92),
(Franchise.) The first voters were the forty-one * signers of
the Mayflower Compact. They made up the original Assem
bly. Thereafter, the Assembly admitted to citizenship as it
saw fit. For a time it gave the franchise to nearly all men
who came to the colony. But in 1660 a law required that new
voters must have a specified amount of property ; and after
1671, the franchise was restricted further to those who could
present " satisfactory " proof that they were " sober and peace
able " in conduct and " orthodox in the fundamentals of religion"
In practice, this limited the franchise to church members.
70. Political democracy at Plymouth was an outgrowth of
economic and social democracy. There were no materials for
anything else 2 but democracy. No one was rich, even by colo-
1 Out of sixty-six adult males. Of the twenty-five who did not sign (over
a third of all), some were regarded as represented by fathers who did sign,
and eleven were servants or temporary employees ; but the absence of other
names can be explained only on the ground that certain men did not wish to
sign or that they were not asked to do so.
2 Robinson, in a farewell letter (Pastor Robinson remained with the main
congregation at Leyden) regards it a misfortune that the Pilgrims "are not
furnished with any persons of spetiall eminencie above the rest, to be chosen
into offices of governmente." Had such persons been present, public feeling,
64
PLYMOUTH PLANTATION
[71
nial standards ; and, more than in any other important colony,
all the settlers came from the " plain people." Hardly any of
them would have ranked as " gentlemen " in England. Brad
ford, there, would have re
mained a poor yeoman, and
John Alden a cooper.
But, in even greater de
gree, democracy in politics
at Plymouth resulted from
democracy in the church,
and this ecclesiastical de
mocracy was essential to
the Pilgrim ideal. Plym
outh ivas, first, a religious
society ; then, an economic
enterprise ; and, last, and
incidentally, a political com
monwealth.
71. Plymouth never se
cured a royal charter, and
GOVERNOR EDWARD WINSLOW at the age
of 57. From a portrait (now in Pil
grim Hall, Plymouth) painted in Eng
land in 1653 while Winslow was de- upon the basis of the May-
tained there on a diplomatic mission, flower Compact until King
to arrange relations between Plymouth r -iv TTT -, ,n
and the new Puritan Commonwealth. William III annexed the
This was one of four such missions to colony to Massachusetts ill
England. Bradford was the adminis-
trative head of Plymouth jStandish, its
military chief ; Wmslow, its statesman
and man of affairs.
its government remained
1691. Nor did the early
settlers have legal title to
their land. In 1630, how
ever, the proprietary New
England Council granted the territory to Bradford as trustee
for the colony. Bradford kept the grant until he and his
seven associates had paid off the huge debt they had assumed
even in Plymouth, would probably have made them an aristocracy of office.
Democracy at that time rarely went farther than to suggest that common men
ought to have a voice in selecting their rulers. The actual ruling was to be
left in the hands of those selected from the upper classes.
72] PLACE IN HISTORY 65
for the colony ( 68). Then, in 1641, with solemn ceremony,
he surrendered his rights to the whole body of settlers. The
colony then gave legal titles to the assignments of land it had
made.
72. The colony grew slowly, counting less than three hundred
people in 1630, 1 when the great Puritan migration to Massachu
setts Bay began. The Puritan colonies, then established, grew
much faster and taught more important lessons in politics
and economics. Plymouth had little direct influence, in either
of these ways, upon later American history. It did have a
large part in directing the later Puritan colonies toward church
independency ; but its supreme service, after all, lay in pointing
the way for that later and greater migration. This the Pilgrims
did ; and with right their friends wrote them later, when the
little colony was already overshadowed by its neighbors,
" Let it not be grievous to you that you have been but instruments
to break the ice for others : the honor shall be yours till the world's
end."
FOR FURTHER READING. Bradford's Plymouth Plantation will be
enjoyed by many high school students as far as to page 200. (The latter
part of the work is taken up largely with details of financial arrangements
with the London partners, and is difficult reading.) Excellent secondary
accounts are given by Tyler {England in America, 149-182) and by
Channing (I, 293-321). Perhaps the most dramatic portraiture of the
leaders is found in Eggleston's Beginners of a Nation. Jane G. Austin's
stories, especially Standish of Standish, are worthy of mention.
EXERCISE. 1. Trace the title of a piece of property purchased in
1642 from John Alden and never held previously by any other private
owner. 2. Distinguish between Plymouth town, Plymouth colony, and
the Plymouth Council. 3. Examine the Source Book on Plymouth for
information not given in this volume, and report. 4. Explain two
meanings of " New England." 5. Compare the maps on pages 29 and 51,
and note that on page 56 " Virginia" is used in its original meaning as in
the map on page 25.
1 EXERCISE. Find authority for these figures in one of the Plymouth
documents in the Source Book. Study No. 50 in the Source Book for illustra
tions of democratic progress.
CHAPTER IX
THE FOUNDING OF MASSACHUSETTS BAY
God hath sifted a nation, that he might send choice grain into this
wilderness. WILLIAM STOUGHTON, Election Sermon IN 1690.
73. SOME commercial beginnings of colonization in New
England have been mentioned ( 58). One such enterprise
became the foundation for the Puritan Colony of Massachu
setts. A partnership of merchants in the west of England,
mainly about Dorchester, had been engaged in the New England
fisheries for several years. In 1623, in order to carry on the
business better, they established some forty employees in a
station at Cape Ann, under Roger Conant l as overseer. During
the next three years the Dorchester partnership was over
whelmed by heavy losses, and in 1626 it broke up, after sending
a vessel to bring home the colonists. But John White, 2 one of
the partners, by earnest promises of supplies, induced Conant
and four others to stay in America, and the next year he
succeeded in organizing a strong company of Dorchester and
London merchants to renew the work of trade and colonization.
74. This new company came to be known as The Company
for Massachusetts Bay. In the spring of 1628 it bought from
the New England Council the territory between the Charles
and the Merrimac rivers (extending west to the Pacific), and
during the summer it sent out sixty settlers under John Endi-
1 Conant drifted to Cape Ann from Plymouth, which he left, he said, out
of dislike for the extreme principles of the Separatists. How he came to
Plymouth we do not know. Possibly he was one of the gentlemen in the
Gorges expedition.
2 White's "Brief Relation" (Source Book, No. 58) is the authority for
most of the early history of this colony.
66
76] COMMERCIAL BEGINNINGS 67
cottj a well-known Puritan gentleman. Conant, meanwhile,
had removed from the exposed position at Cape Ann to a more
convenient location near by. His " old settlers " at first were
inclined to dispute Endicott' s authority, but finally they recog
nized him peaceably as head of the settlement to which
accordingly he gave the Hebrew name Salem (Peace).
75. A year later (March 14, 1629) the Massachusetts Com
pany secured a charter from King Charles. At the time this
" First Charter of Massachusetts Bay " (as it came to be called
later) was merely a grant to the commercial proprietary com
pany in England. It confirmed their title to the land they had
bought from the New England Council, and it gave them
jurisdiction over settlers, similar to the authority possessed by
other colonizing companies in England, though more restricted. 1
The Company now appointed Endicott governor 2 at Salem,
collected supplies of all sorts diligently, and sought out desir
able emigrants of various trades. In May of 1629 it sent out
its second expedition, of some 200 settlers, led by Francis
Higgiiison, a Puritan minister. 3 Soon after, a Puritan church
was organized in Salem.
76. So far the history of the colony is like that of other com
mercial plantations. Most of the settlers were " servants," and
rather a worthless lot ( 80). The chief men were Puritans
because it was easier just then for an emigration in England
to find fit leaders among the Puritans than among other
classes ; and the proprietary Company was Puritan, on the
whole, because almost the whole merchant class in England
was Puritan. But there is no evidence that any one was plan
ning, as yet, to build a Puritan colony. Later in this same
1 Source Book, Nos. 53-55. This charter did not authorize capital punish
ment, martial law, control over immigration, or coinage of money, though
all these powers were exercised under it.
2 Ib., No. 63. Until the Company secured the charter, it had no power to
appoint officers in America. Endicott had been its "agent," without legal
control over settlers except over those who were " servants " of the Company.
8 /&., No. 56, for the " agreement" with Higginson.
68 MASSACHUSETTS BAY COLONY [ 77
summer of 1629, however, a new colonizing movement began,
with that special purpose.
77. This new movement was due to a new danger to Puritanism
in England. For years, despite the strenuous efforts of the
Puritans, the English Church had been carried farther and
farther away from their ideals. Bishop Laud, the tireless
leader of the High-church movement, was ardently supported
by King Charles. All high ecclesiastical offices had been
turned over to Laud's followers ; and his " High Commission "
Court, with dungeon and pillory, was now ready to drive
Puritan pastors from their parishes.
The Puritans had rested their hope upon parliament. They
made the great majority in the House of Commons ; and with
the meeting of the third parliament of Charles (1628), their
reform seemed on the verge of success. That parliament
extorted the King's assent to the great " Petition of Right " ; 1
and then, in the winter of 1629, it began vigorously to regu
late the church. But the King struck a despotic blow.
March 2, he dissolved parliament, sent its leaders to the
Tower, and entered upon a system of absolute rule. For
eleven years no parliament was to meet in England. Reli-
gious reform and political liberty had gone down in common
ruin, the end of which no man then could see.
The continent of Europe offered no hope. Every form of
Protestantism there seemed doomed. Wallenstein's victo
rious troopers were turning the Protestant provinces of
Germany into wilderness homes for wild beasts ; and in
France the great Richelieu had just crushed the Huguenots.
Accordingly, the more dauntless of the English Puritans
turned their eyes to the New World. And there they saw a
marvelous opportunity. At Plymouth was the colony of the
Separatists, not large, but safely past the stage of experiment ;
while close by was the prosperous beginning of a commercial
1 The course of the Puritan struggle in England is told compactly in the
Modern World in seven pages (420-435). Brief explanation of the events
referred to in Germany and France can be found in the same text, 407-410,
79] THE DANGER TO ENGLISH PURITANISM 69
colony controlled by a Puritan company in England and
managed on the spot by well-known Puritans like Endicott
and Higginson. How natural to try to convert this Massa
chusetts into a refuge for Low-church Puritanism, such as
Plymouth already was for " Puritans of the Separation."
78. But the leaders of this new movement had no idea of be
coming part of a mere plantation governed by a distant proprietary
company, however friendly. They were of the ruling aris
tocracy of England, justices of their counties, and, on
occasion, members of parliament. And so a number of them
gathered, by long horseback journeys, and signed the famous
Cambridge Agreement (August 25), promising one another
solemnly that they would embark for Massachusetts with their
families and fortunes, if they could find a way to take with them
the charter and the " whole government" l
79. A proposal to transfer the government of the Company to
America had been made a month before at the July meeting of
the Company in London. The plan was novel to most of the
members ; but in September, after repeated debates, it was ap
proved. 2 Commercial motives faded beside the supreme desire
to provide a safe refuge for Puritan principles.
The new men of the Cambridge Agreement now bought stock ;
many old stockholders drew out ; the old officers resigned
(since they did not wish to emigrate) ; and John Winthrop, the
most prominent of the new men, was elected " governor "
(October, 1629). The next spring, Winthrop led to Massachu
setts a great Puritan migration, the most remarkable colo
nizing expedition that the world had ever seen.
Previously the governor had been Matthew Cradock, and his term
would not have expired regularly until the next May. This position cor
responded to that of "treasurer" in the London Company. It must not
be confounded with the subordinate "governorship" held by Endicott,
any more than Sandys' position as head of the London Company in 1619
1 Source Book, Nos. 58 6 and 59.
2 For a detailed discussion on the transfer of the charter, cf. Source Book,
No. 53, and comments at close.
70
MASSACPIUSETTS BAY COLONY
[80
is to be confounded with the position of Yeardley in Virginia. Win-
throp was the second governor of the Company. When he came to
America, he superseded Endicott (for whose separate office there was no
further need), and became
governor of the colony also.
The two offices merged.
For the first time a proprie
tary corporation removed to
its colony. Colony and cor
poration merged. Massachu
setts became a corporate colony
and a Puritan commonwealth.
80. In May, 1629, Endi
cott had a hundred settlers
at Salem. In June, when
Higginson arrived with
two hundred more ( 75),
another plantation was
begun at Charlestown. 1
Now, in the summer of
1630, seventeen ships
brought two thousand
settlers to Massachusetts,
and six new towns 2 were
started.
But the immigrants found conditions sadly different from
their expectations. Two hundred returned home in the ships
that brought them, or sought better prospects in other colonies ;
and two hundred more died before December. Immediately
1 The next winter slew nearly a third of the colonists ; and in June of 1630
Winthrop found the survivors starving and demoralized. Four fifths of them
were servants of the Company; but they had accomplished nothing, and
Winthrop thought it cheaper to free them than to feed them. There were also
seven other little settlements along the coast like that of Blackstone at
Boston with a total population of some fifty souls. These scattered planta
tions were the remnants of the commercial attempts mentioned in 58.
2 Boston, Dorchester, Watertown, Roxbury, and minor settlements at Lynn
(Saugus) and Newtown (afterward Cambridge). There were also the two
older towns, Salem and Charlestown. See map, p. 107.
JOHN WINTHROP. From a portrait in the
State House at Boston, painted in Eng
land before the migration, and attributed
to Van Dyck.
80] " THE GREAT MIGRATION " 71
on his arrival, Winthrop, in fear of famine before the next sum
mer, wisely hurried back a ship for supplies. Its prompt
return, in February, saved the colony. According to one story,
Winthrop had just given his last measure of meal to a destitute
neighbor.
Meantime the deserters spread such discouragement in Eng
land that for the next two years emigration to Massachusetts
ceased. In 1633, however, it began again. Soon the ship-
money 1 troubles gave it new impetus, and it went on, at the
average volume of three thousand people a year, until the Long
Parliament was summoned.
Thus the eleven years of " No Parliament " in England saw
twenty-Jive thousand selected Englishmen transported to New Eng
land. This was the " Great Migration " of 1629-1640. In 1640
the movement stopped short. 2 Says Winthrop, "The parlia
ment in England setting upon a general reformation both in
church and state, . . . this caused all men to stay in England
in expectation of a New World " there. Indeed, the migration
turned the other way ; and many of the boldest and best New
England Puritans hurried back to the old home, now that there
was a chance to fight for Puritan principles there. 3
New England had no further immigration of consequence until after
the Rev9lution. But this coming of the Puritans, during England's ten
1 For English history in this period, see Modern World, 436 ff.
2 The sudden stop in immigration caused great industrial depression.
Until that time the colony had been unable to raise sufficient supplies for its
use. Newcomers brought money with them, and gladly paid for cattle and
food the price in England plus the cost of transportation. In an instant this
was changed. The colony had more of such supplies than it could use, and
high freights made export impossible. Both Bradford and Winthrop lament
the falling in prices, for a cow from 20 to 5, etc., without very clear
ideas as to its cause. The phenomenon has been repeated many times on our
moving frontier.
3 Winthrop's third son and one of his nephews went back and rose to the
rank of general under Cromwell, while the Reverend Hugh Peter, rather a
troublesome busybody in the colony, became Cromwell's chaplain. Such
facts help us to understand that the larger figures on the small New England
stage, like Winthrop and his gallant son, John Winthrop, Jr., were fit compan
ions for the greatest actors on the great European stage in that great day.