The Crucible: New England In the 1690's [Archive]

Cd.

07-08-2005, 03:32 PM

New England in the 1690s

Can anyone help me by answering any of these questions?

1. What type of People Settled Massachusetts?
2. How did they survive
3. What were their main fears and anxieties
4. Any thing about their Social structures/Hierarchies?

Thankyou :)
1) Puritans, who were English Calivinists who were opposed to the Church of England and supported the teachings of John Calivn. Before settling New England many of these people lived in the Netherlands but were alienated by Dutch culture. Other settlers came later for economic reasons. It must be emphasised that Calivnism teaches that only the elect of God should be admitted into heaven and the sign of God's favor is material wealth, good fortune, good health and being blessed with lots of children is a vital part of Calvinistic dogma. Its no accident that Calvinists were recruited from the merchantile classes. The landed nobility and the peasantry tended to adhear to the Church of England.
2) Initially the puritians just barely survived. The US holiday of Thanksgiving was a celibration of surviving the first year. Puritans were Europeans from England and totally unaccustomed to the severe cold of New English winters. During the first winter, the Plymouth colony lost half its inhabitants. They would have lost more would it not have been for the Indians who showed the settlers how to use fish to fertilize the baren soil and other survival skills so necessary to live in the bleak climate.

Ironically the entire tribe of indians who lived in proximity to the Plymouth settlement died of disease within ten years of their first encounter with the English.
3) Survival in the hostile climate was their primary fear.

But once food was no longer a concern these people began small farms and elected town governments. Then they founded schools including the first Anglo-American university, which was later to be known as Harvard.

Being Calvinists the New Englanders became interested in trade, commerce and material wealth. The merchant classes became dominant and founded banks and trading companies. But it was the Congressional Churches which became the dominant feature in colonial New England.

Like other Godfearing people at that time the New Englanders had a literal view of the Bible and saw the Devil everywhere.

The Salem Witches trial was an act of mass hysteria which began when several girls were educated in the black arts by a Carribian born slave woman. They then confessed their "crimes" before a court and named other witches. All the "crimes" were later found to be bogus but the mass hysteria led to arrests, bogus confessions, trials and executions by hanging of suspected witches.
4) Initially colonial New England was a direct democracy in which all male adults met in town meetings. Leaders were elected and the colony was defended by a militia, in which all adult males served.

As the colonies grew and prospered the concept of democracy was put aside and the wealthier merchant classes became dominant. By the era of the Revolution, Massachusetts was essentially an oligarchy of merchants and high ranking tradesmen while the poor farmers were on the lower end of the political spectrum.

One very dominant feature of New English life was the position of the Church leaders. Calvinist clergymen were the dominant voices in this society. And since the people believed God was their soverign and supreme lord, they had no choice but to obey the words of the clergy.