Lyon Gardiner Tyler - England in America, 1580 to 1652

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"Their places were taken by two as arrant fanatics as ever
breathed"[7]--John Endicott, who was governor for thirteen out of
fifteen years following Winthrop's death, and John Norton, an able and
upright but narrow and intolerant clergyman. The persecuting spirit
which had never been absent in Massachusetts reached, under these
leaders, its climax in the wholesale hanging of Quakers and witches.

In the year of Cotton's death (1652), which was the year that Virginia
surrendered to the Parliamentary commissioners and the authority of
the English Parliament was recognized throughout English America, the
population of New England could not have been far short of fifty
thousand. For the settlements along the sea the usual mode of
communication was by water, but there was a road along the whole coast
of Massachusetts. In the interior of the colony, as Johnson boasted,
"the wild and uncouth woods were filled with frequented ways, and the
large rivers were overlaid with bridges, passable both for horse and
foot."[8]

All the conditions of New England tended to compress population into
small areas and to force the energies of the people into trade.
Ship-building was an early industry, and New England ships vied with
the ships of Holland and England in visiting distant countries for
commerce.[9] Manufacturing found early encouragement, and in 1639 a
number of clothiers from Yorkshire set up a fulling-mill at
Rowley.[10] A glass factory was established at Salem in 1641,[11] and
iron works at Lynn in 1643,[12] under the management of Joseph Jenks.
The keenness of the New-Englander in bargains and business became
famous.

In Massachusetts the town was the unit of representation and taxation,
and in local matters it governed itself. The first town government
appears to have been that of Dorchester, where the inhabitants agreed,
October 8, 1633, to hold a weekly meeting "to settle and sett down
such orders as may tend to the general good."[13] Not long after a
similar meeting was held in Watertown, and the system speedily spread
to the other towns. The plan of appointing a body of "townsmen," or
selectmen, to sit between meetings of the towns began in February,
1635, in Charlestown.[14]

The town-meeting had a great variety of business. It elected the town
officers and the deputies to the general court and made ordinances
regarding the common fields and pastures, the management of the
village herds, roadways, boundary-lines, fences, and many other
things. Qualified to share in the deliberations were all freemen and
"admitted inhabitants of honest and good conversation" rated at L20
(equivalent to about $500 to-day).[15]

In the prevalence of the town system popular education was rendered
possible, and a great epoch in the history of social progress was
reached when Massachusetts recognized the support of education as a
proper function of government. Boston had a school with some sort of
public encouragement in 1635,[16] and in 1642, before schools were
required by law, it was enjoined upon the selectmen to "take account
from time to time of parents and masters of the ability of the
children to read and understand the principles of religion and the
capital lawes of the country."[17] In November, 1647, a general
educational law required every town having fifty householders or more
to appoint some one to teach children how to read and write, and every
town having one hundred householders or more to establish a "grammar
(Latin) school" to instruct youth "so far as may be fitted for the
university."[18]

In 1636 the Massachusetts assembly agreed to give L400 towards "a
schoole or Colledge,"[19] to be built at Newtown (Cambridge). In 1638
John Harvard died within a year after his arrival, and left his
library and "one-half his estate, it being in all about L700, for the
erecting of the College." In recognition of this kindly act the
general court fitly gave his name to the institution,[20] the first
founded in the United States.

In 1650 Connecticut copied the Massachusetts law of 1647, and a clause
declared that the grammar-schools were to prepare boys for college.
The results, however, in practice did not come up to the excellence of
the laws, and while in some towns in both Massachusetts and
Connecticut a public rate was levied for education, more generally the
parents had to pay the teachers, and they were hard to secure. When
obtained they taught but two or three months during the year.[21] Bad
spelling and wretched writing were features of the age from which New
England was not exempt. Real learning was confined, after all, to the
ministers and the richer classes in the New England colonies, pretty
much as in the mother-country. In Plymouth and Rhode Island, where the
hard conditions of life rendered any legal system of education
impracticable, illiteracy was frequent. The class of ignorant people
most often met with in New England were fishermen and the small
farmers of the inland townships.

Scarcity of money was felt in New England as in Virginia, and resort
was had to the use of wampum as a substitute,[22] and corn, cattle,
and other commodities were made legal tenders in payment of debts.[23]
In 1652 a mint was established at Boston, and a law was passed
providing for the coinage of all bullion, plate, and Spanish coin into
"twelve-penny, sixpenny, and threepenny pieces." The master of the
mint was John Hull, and the shillings coined by him were called
"Pine-Tree Shillings," because they bore on one side the legend
"Massachusetts" encircling a tree.[24]

Marriage was a mere civil contract, and the burials took place without
funeral service or sermon. Stern laws were made against card-playing,
long hair, drinking healths, and wearing certain articles, such as
gold and silver girdles, hat-bands, belts, ruffs, and beaver hats.
There were no Christmas festivals and no saints' days nor recognized
saints, though special feasts and thanksgiving days were frequent.[25]
The penal legislation of New England was harsh and severe, and in
Massachusetts and Connecticut there were fifteen crimes punishable
with death, while the law took hold also of innumerable petty
offences. In addition the magistrates had a discretionary authority,
and they often punished persons on mere suspicion.

There can be no doubt that the ideal of the educated Puritan was lofty
and high, and that society in New England was remarkably free from the
ordinary frivolities and immoralities of mankind; but it would seem
that human nature exacted a severe retaliation for the undue
suppression of its weaknesses. There are in the works of Bradford and
Winthrop, as well as in the records of the colonies, evidence which
shows that the streams of wickedness in New England were "dammed" and
not dried up. At intervals the impure waters broke over the obstacles
in their way, till the record of crime caused the good Bradford "to
fear and tremble at the consideration of our corrupt natures."[26]

The conveniences of town life gave opportunities for literature not
enjoyed by the Virginians, and, though his religion cut the Puritan
almost entirely off from the finer fields of poetry and arts, New
England in the period of which we have been considering was strong in
history and theology. Thus the works of Bradford and Winthrop and of
Hooker and Cotton compare favorably with the best productions of their
contemporaries in England, and contrast with the later writers of
Cotton Mather's "glacial period," when, under the influence of the
theocracy, "a lawless and merciless fury for the odd, the disorderly,
the grotesque, the violent, strained analogies, unexpected images,
pedantics, indelicacies, freaks of allusion, and monstrosities of
phrase" were the traits of New England literature.[27]

[Footnote 1: N.H. Hist. Soc., _Collections_, I., 323-326.]

[Footnote 2: Winthrop, _New England_, II., 222-224, 228, 238-240.]

[Footnote 3: _New England's Jonas Cast Up at London_ (Force, _Tracts_,
IV., No. iii.); Winthrop, _New England_, II., 319, 340, 358, 391.]

[Footnote 4: Winthrop, _New England_, II., 329, 330, 402.]

[Footnote 5: Mather, _Magnalia_, book V.]

[Footnote 6: Adams, _Massachusetts, its Historians and its History_,
59.]

[Footnote 7: Fiske, _Beginnings of New England_, 179.]

[Footnote 8: Johnson, _Wonder Working Providence,_ book III., chap.
i.]

[Footnote 9: Weeden, _Econ. and Soc. Hist. of New England,_ I., 143.]

[Footnote 10: Palfrey, _New England,_ II., 53.]

[Footnote 11: _Mass. Col. Records,_ I., 344.]

[Footnote 12: Weeden, _Econ. and Soc. Hist. of New England,_ I., 174.]

[Footnote 13: Clapp, _Dorchester,_ 32.]

[Footnote 14: Frothingham, _Charlestown,_ 51.]

[Footnote 15: Howard, _Local Constitutional History,_ I., 66.]

[Footnote 16: Palfrey, _New England,_ II., 47.]

[Footnote 17: _Mass. Col. Records,_ II., 9.]

[Footnote 18: Ibid., 203.]

[Footnote 19: Ibid., I., 183.]

[Footnote 20: Ibid., 253.]

[Footnote 21: Weeden, _Econ. and Soc. Hist., of New England_, I., 282,
II., 861.]

[Footnote 22: Weeden, _Indian Money as a Factor in New England
Colonization_ (_Johns Hopkins University Studies_, II., Nos. viii.,
ix.).]

[Footnote 23: _Mass. Col. Records_, 110; _Conn. Col. Records_, I., 8.]

[Footnote 24: _Mass. Col. Records_, IV., pt. i., 84, 118.]

[Footnote 25: Howe, _Puritan Republic,_ 102, 110, 111.]

[Footnote 26: Bradford, _Plimoth Plantation,_ 459.]

[Footnote 27: Tyler, _American Literature,_ II., 87.]

CHAPTER XX

CRITICAL ESSAY ON AUTHORITIES

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL AIDS

Four special bibliographies of American history are serviceable upon
the field of this volume. First, most searching and most voluminous,
is Justin Winsor, _Narrative and Critical History of America_ (8
vols., 1888-1889). Mr. Winsor has added to the study of the era of
colonization by the writers of his co-operative work the vast wealth
of his own bibliographical knowledge. The part of Winsor applicable to
this volume is found in vol. III., in which most of the printed
contemporary material is enumerated. The second bibliography is the
_Cambridge Modern History,_ VII. (1903); pages 757-765 include a brief
list of selected titles conveniently classified. J.N. Lamed,
_Literature of American History, a Bibliographical Guide_ (1902), has
brief critical estimates of the authorities upon colonial history.
Channing and Hart, _Guide to the Study of American History_ (1896),
contains accounts of state and local histories (Sec. 23), books of travel
(Sec. 24), biography (Sec. 25), colonial records (Sec. 29), proceedings of
learned societies (Sec. 31), also a series of consecutive topics with
specific references (Sec.Sec. 92-98, 100, 101, 109-124). For the field of
the present volume a short road to the abundant sources of material is
through the footnotes of the principal secondary works enumerated
below. The critical chapters in _The American Nation,_ vols. III. and
V., contain appreciations of many authorities which also bear on the
field of vol. IV.

GENERAL SECONDARY WORKS

The "Foundation" period, from 1574 to 1652, is naturally one of the
most interesting in the annals of the American colonies. The most
important general historians are George Bancroft, _History of the
United States_ (rev. ed., 6 vols., 1883-1885); J.A. Doyle, _English
Colonies in America_ (3 vols., 1882-1887); Richard Hildreth, _History
of the United States_ (6 vols., 1849-1852); George Chalmers,
_Political Annals of the American Colonies_ (1780); Justin Winsor,
_Narrative and Critical History of America_ (8 vols., 1888-1889); John
Fiske, _Discovery of America_ (2 vols., 1892), _Old Virginia and Her
Neighbors_ (1900), _Beginnings of New England_ (1898), _Dutch and
Quaker Colonies in America, New France and New England_ (1902).

Among these writers three have conspicuous merit--Doyle, Winsor, and
Fiske. Doyle's volumes manifest a high degree of philosophic
perception and are accurate in statement and broad in conclusions. Of
his books the volumes on the Puritan colonies are distinctly of a
higher order than his volume on the southern colonies. The chief merit
of Winsor's work is the critical chapters and parts of narrative
chapters, which are invaluable. John Fiske is not wanting in the
qualities of a great historian--breadth of mind and accuracy of
statement; but his great charm is in his style and his power of
vivifying events long forgotten. He has probably come nearer than any
one else to writing real history so as to produce a popular effect.

COLLECTIONS OF SOURCES

The main contemporary collectors of materials for the history of the
early voyages to America were Richard Eden, Richard Hakluyt, and
Samuel Purchas. Eden's _Decades of the New World or West Indies_ (7
vols., 1555) consists of abstracts of the works of foreign
writers--Peter Martyr, Oviedo, Gomara, Ramusio, Ziegler, Pigafetta,
Munster, Bastaldus, Vespucius, and others. Richard Hakluyt first
published _Divers Voyages_ (1582; reprinted by the Hakluyt Society)
and then his _Principal Voyages_ (3 vols., folio, 1589; reissued
1600). Samuel Purchas's first volume appeared in 1613 under the title,
_Purchas: His Pilgrimage of the World, or Religions Observed in all
Ages and Places Discovered, from the Creation unto this Present_. The
four subsequent volumes were published in 1623 under the title,
_Hakluytius Posthumous, or, Purchas: His Pilgrimes._

Among these three compilers Hakluyt enjoys pre-eminence, and the
Hakluyt Society has supplemented his labors by publishing in full some
of the narratives which Hakluyt, for reasons of accuracy or want of
space, abbreviated. _The Historie of Travaile into Virginia_, by
William Strachey, secretary to Lord Delaware, was published by the
Hakluyt Society in 1848, and this book contains excellent accounts of
the expeditions sent by Sir Walter Raleigh to Roanoke, the voyages of
Bartholomew Gosnold and George Weymouth, and the settlement made under
its charter by the Plymouth Company at Sagadahoc, or Kennebec.

The only official collection of documentary materials that covers the
entire period is the _Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series,
America and West Indies, 1574-1696_ (9 vols., 1860-1903). George
Sainsbury, the editor, was a master at catching the salient points of
a manuscript. Many of his abstracts have elsewhere been published in
full.

The principal private collectors are E. Hazard, _State Papers_ (2
vols., 1792-1794); Peter Force, _Tracts_ (4 vols., 1836-1846);
Alexander Brown, _Genesis of the United States_ (2 vols., 1891);
Albert Bushnell Hart, _American History Told by Contemporaries_ (4
vols., 1898-1902); Maryland Historical Society, _Archives of
Maryland_; and the series called _Documents Relating to the Colonial
History of New York_, edited by John Romeyn Brodhead. Two convenient
volumes embodying many early writings are Stedman and Hutchinson,
_Library of American Literature_, I. (1888); Moses Coit Tyler,
_History of American Literature During the Colonial Time, 1607-1676_,
I. (1897).

VIRGINIA

The standard authorities for the history of Virginia are Robert
Beverley, _History of Virginia_ (1722) (extends to Spotswood's
administration); William Stith, _History of Virginia_ (1747) (period
of the London Company); John D. Burk, _History of Virginia_ (4 vols.,
1805); R.R. Howison, _History of Virginia_ (2 vols., 1846); Charles
Campbell, _History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of Virginia_
(1847); and Jonn Fiske, _Old Virginia and Her Neighbors_ (1900). For
the period Stith is by far the most important. His work covers the
duration of the London Company, and as he had access to manuscripts
now destroyed the history has the value of an original document. As
president of William and Mary College Stith was an accomplished
scholar, and his work, pervaded with a broad, philosophic spirit,
ranks perhaps first among colonial histories. As a mere collection of
facts upon the whole colonial history of Virginia Campbell's work is
the most useful. The greatest collection of original material bearing
upon the first ten years of the colony's history is in Alexander
Brown, _Genesis of the United States_ (2 vols., 1890). This remarkable
work contains an introductory sketch of what has been done by
Englishmen prior to 1606 in the way of discovery and colonization, and
a catalogue of charters, letters, and pamphlets (many of them
republished at length) through which the events attending the first
foundation of an English colony in the New World are developed in
order of time. Dr. Brown's other works, _The First Republic in
America_ (1898), and _English Politics in America_ (1901) make
excellent companion pieces to the _Genesis_, though the author has
made a great mistake in not supporting his text with foot-notes and
references.

Among the contemporary writers, John Smith, _Works_ (1884), edited by
Edward Arber, is a compilation rather than a history, and in spite of
its partisan coloring contains much that is valuable regarding
Virginia affairs from 1607 to 1629. For matters from 1619-1624 we have
the sure guide of the London Company's _Journal,_ in Virginia
Historical Society, _Collections_, new series, VII. After that time
the main dependence, apart from the _Calendar of State Papers,_ is
Hening, _Statutes at Large of Virginia_ (13 vols., 1823). The leading
incidents in Virginia connected with Lord Baltimore's colony of
Maryland and the Puritan persecution are set forth by J.H. Latane,
_Early Relations of Maryland and Virginia_ (_Johns Hopkins University
Studies,_ XIII., Nos. iii., iv.) Many documents illustrative of this
period may be read in Force, _Tracts,_ and Hazard, _State Papers;_
Virginia history is illuminated by many original documents printed in
the _Virginia Magazine of History and Biography_ (11 vols.,
1893-1903); and the _William and Mary College Quarterly_ (12 vols.,
1892-1903). The works of Edward D. Neill are also of a documentary
nature and of much value. Those which bear upon Virginia are _The
Virginia Company_ (1868), _Virginia Carolorum_ (1886), _Virginia
Vestusta_ (1885), and _Virginia and Virginiola_ (1878). Many tracts
are cited in the foot-notes.

MARYLAND

The standard authorities for the history of Maryland are J.V.L.
McMahon, _Historical View of the Government of Maryland_ (1831); John
Leeds Bozman, _History of Maryland_ (2 vols., 1837, covering the
period of 1634 to 1658); James McSherry, _History of Maryland_ (1849);
J.T. Scharf, _History of Maryland_ (3 vols., 1879); William Hand
Browne, _History of Maryland_ (1893), and _George and Cecilius
Calvert_ (1893); Edward D. Neill, _Founders of Maryland_ (1876), and
_Terra Mariae_ (1867). Of these Bozman's work is an invaluable magazine
of information, being, in fact, as much a calendar of documents as a
continuous narrative. William Hand Browne's books show great
familiarity with the story of Maryland and its founders, but his
treatment of the subject is marked by strong bias and partisanship in
favor of Lord Baltimore and his government. Neill's books, on the
other hand, argue strongly in favor of the Puritan influence on the
history of Maryland. There are many interesting pamphlets relating to
Maryland in the series of _Johns Hopkins University Studies_, such as
Edward Ingle, _Parish Institutions of Maryland_, I., No. vi.; John
Hensley Johnson, _Old Maryland Manors_, I., No. vii.; Lewis W.
Wilhelm, _Maryland Local Institutions_, III., Nos. v., vi., vii.; D.R.
Randall, _The Puritan Colony at Annapolis, Maryland_, IV., No. vi.;
J.H. Latane, _Early Relations of Virginia and Maryland_, XIII., Nos.
iii., iv., and Bernard C. Steiner, _The Beginnings of Maryland_.

The documentary material of Maryland is very extensive, as the State
has been fortunate in preserving most of its colonial records. _The
Archives of Maryland_ (23 vols., 1889-1903), published by the Maryland
Historical Society, is composed of the proceedings of the council,
legislature, and provincial court. The _Fund Publications_ of the
society (36 nos. in 4 vols., 1867-1900), are also valuable in this
respect, and contain among other things _The Calvert Papers_ (_Fund
Publications_, No. 34). A complete list of all these publications can
be found in the annual report of the society for 1902.

For the controversy between Lord Baltimore and the Puritans the chief
authorities are Winthrop, _History of New England_ (2 vols.,
1790-1853); _Lord Baltimore's Case Concerning the Province of
Maryland_ (1653); _Virginia and Maryland, or Lord Baltimore's Case
Uncased and Answered_ (Force, _Tracts_, II., No. ix.); Leonard Strong,
_Babylon's Fall in Maryland, a Fair Warning to Lord Baltimore_; John
Langford, _A Just and Clere Reputation of Babylon's Fall_ (1655); John
Hammond, _Leah and Rachel_ (Force, Tracts, III., No. xiv.); _Hammond
versus Heamans, or an Answer to an Audacious Prophet;_ Heamans, _Brief
Narrative of the Late Bloody Designs Against the Protestants._ The
battle of the Severn is described in the letters of Luke Barber and
Mrs. Stone, published in Bozman, _Maryland_, II., 688.

PLYMOUTH AND MASSACHUSETTS

The standard authorities for the history of these two colonies are
Thomas Hutchinson, _History of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay_ (3
vols., 1795-1828); John G. Palfrey, _History of New England_ (3 vols.,
1858-1890); J.S. Barry, _History of Massachusetts_ (3 vols.,
1855-1857). Very lively and interesting are Charles Francis Adams,
_Massachusetts: Its Historians and Its History_ (1893); _Three
Episodes of the History of Massachusetts_ (2 vols., 1895). The best
account of Plymouth is J.E. Goodwin, _The Pilgrim Republic_ (1888).

The chief original authority for the early history of the Puritan
colony of New Plymouth is William Bradford, _Plimoth Plantation_
(several eds.); and for Massachusetts, John Winthrop, _History of New
England_ (several eds.), which is, however, a journal rather than a
history. Edward Arber, _Story of the Pilgrim Fathers as Told by
Themselves_ (1897), is a collection of ill-arranged sources. The
documentary sources are numerous. Hazard prints many documents bearing
upon the early history of Massachusetts, and much valuable matter is
found in the _Records of Plymouth_ (12 vols., 1855-1859), and the
_Records of Massachusetts Bay_ (5 vols., 1853-1854). Then there are
the published records of numerous towns, which throw much light upon
the political, social, and economic condition of the colonies. The
publications of the Massachusetts Historical Society and of the New
England Historic-Genealogical Society contain much original matter and
many interesting articles upon the early history of both Plymouth and
Massachusetts. Special tracts and documents are referred to in the
foot-notes to chaps, ix.-xiii., above.

RHODE ISLAND

The general histories are J.N. Arnold, _History of the State of Rhode
Island and Providence Plantation_ (2 vols., 1878), and Irving B.
Richman, _Rhode Island, Its Making and Meaning_ (2 vols., 1902). The
chief original authorities for the early history of Rhode Island are
John Winthrop, _History of New England_, and the _Colonial Records_,
beginning in 1636. The publications of the Rhode Island Historical
Society consist of _Collections_ (9 vols.), _Proceedings_ (21
numbers), and _Publications_ (8 vols.). In all of these important
material for history is preserved. The Narragansett Club,
_Publications_ (6 vols.), contain Roger Williams's letters; and there
is some important matter in S.S. Rider, _Rhode Island Historical
Tracts_ (1877-1895), in the _Narragansett Historical Register_ (9
vols.), and the _Newport Historical Reports_ (4 vols.).

CONNECTICUT AND NEW HAVEN

For Connecticut the standard authority is Benjamin Trumbull, _History
of Connecticut_ (2 vols., 1818). Other general histories are by
Theodore Dwight, G.H. Hollister, and W.H. Carpenter. Original material
is found in the _Colonial Records_, edited by J.H. Trumbull and C.J.
Hoadly; Winthrop, _History of New England_; Connecticut Historical
Society, _Proceedings_, which contain Hooker's famous letter to
Winthrop; and Massachusetts Historical Society, _Collections_.

For New Haven the reader should consult Edward E. Atwater, _History of
New Haven_ (1881); Charles H. Levermore, _Republic of New Haven_
(1886); and the publications of the New Haven Historical Society and
the _Records of the Colony of New Haven_, in which the documentary
material is chiefly printed. In connection with this volume the
records of Hartford and of Southold are important. Special authorities
are cited in chaps, xiv., xv. above.

NEW HAMPSHIRE AND MAINE

The standard authority for the history of New Hampshire is Jeremy
Belknap, _History of New Hampshire_ (3 vols., 1784-1813); and that for
Maine is William D. Williamson, _History of Maine_ (2 vols., 1832).
Documents illustrating the history of New Hampshire can be found in
the _New Hampshire Provincial and State Papers_ and in John Scribner
Jenness, _Transcripts of Original Documents in the English Archives
Relating to the Early History of the State of New Hampshire_ (1876).

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