History of the United States. John Clark Ridpath
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THE spring of 1621 brought hope to the Pilgrims of New Plymouth. The winter had swept off half the number. The governor himself sickened and died. Now, with the approach of warm weather, the pestilence was checked, the survivors revived with the season, and the Puritans came forth triumphant.
2. In February Miles Standish was sent out with his soldiers to gather information concerning the natives. The army of New England consisted of six men besides the general. Deserted wigwams were found; the smoke of camp-fires arose in the distance; savages were occasionally seen in the forest. These fled at the approach of the English, and Standish returned to Plymouth.
A Puritan.
Relations with the Indians.
3. A month later a Wampanoag Indian, named Samoset, ran into the village and bade the strangers welcome; friendly relations were soon established with the Wampanoags. Massasoit, the sachem of the nation, was invited to visit Plymouth. The Pilgrims received him with much ceremony, and then and there was ratified the first treaty made in New England. This treaty remained inviolate for fifty years. Other chiefs followed the example of Massasoit. Nine of the tribes acknowledged the English king. One chief sent to William Bradford, who succeeded Governor Carver, a bundle of arrows wrapped in the skin of a rattlesnake; but the governor stuffed the skin with powder and balls and sent it back to the chief, who did not dare to accept the challenge.
4. The summer was unfruitful, and the Pilgrims were brought to the point of starvation. New immigrants, without provisions or stores, arrived, and were quartered on the colonists during the winter. For six months the settlers were obliged to subsist on half allowance. At one time only a few grains of corn remained to be distributed, and at another there was absolute want. Then some English fishing-vessels came to Plymouth and charged the colonists two prices for food enough to keep them alive. The new immigrants remained at Plymouth until the summer of 1622, then removed to the south side of Boston harbor and founded Weymouth.
5. The summer of 1623 brought a plentiful harvest, and there was no longer any danger of starvation. The natives became dependent on the settlement for corn, and brought in an abundance of game. At the end of the fourth year, there were a hundred and eighty persons in New England. The managers, who had expended thirty-four thousand dollars on the enterprise, were discouraged, and proposed to sell out their claims to the colonists. The offer was accepted; and, in November of 1627, eight of the leading men of Plymouth purchased from the Londoners their entire interest for nine thousand dollars.
6. Before this transfer, the colony had been much vexed by the attempt to set over them a minister of the English Church. They had come to the New World to avoid this very thing. There was dissension for a while. The English managers withheld support; the stores of the colonists were sold to them at three prices; and they were obliged to borrow money at sixty per cent. But the Pilgrims would not yield, and the conflict ended with the purchase of the proprietors' rights in the colony.
Government of the Colonies.
7. In 1624 a settlement was made at Cape Ann, but after two years the cape was abandoned; the company moved farther south and founded Salem. In 1628 a second colony arrived in charge of John Endicott, who was chosen governor. In 1629 Charles I. issued a charter by which the colonists were incorporated under the name of The Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay in New England. In July two hundred immigrants arrived, half of whom settled at Plymouth, while the other half removed to the north side of Boston harbor and founded Charlestown.
Early Settlements in Eastern Massachusetts.
8. In September, 1629, it was decreed that the government of the colony should be transferred from England to America, and that the charter should be intrusted to the colonists themselves. Emigration then began on an extensive scale. In the year 1630 about three hundred of the best Puritan families came to New England. They were virtuous, well-educated, courageous men and women, who left comfortable homes with no expectation of returning. It was their good fortune to choose a noble leader.
9. The name of John Winthrop, governor of Massachusetts, is worthy of lasting remembrance. Born a royalist, he cherished the principles of republicanism. Surrounded with affluence and comfort, he left all to share the destiny of the Pilgrims. Calm, prudent, and peaceful, he joined the zeal of an enthusiast with the faith of a martyr. A part of the new immigrants settled at Salem; others at Cambridge and Watertown, on Charles River; while others founded Roxbury and Dorchester. The governor resided for a while at Charlestown, but soon crossed over to the peninsula of Shawmut and founded Boston, which became henceforth the capital of the colony.
Religious Intolerance.
10. In 1631 a law was passed restricting the right of suffrage. It was enacted that none but church members should be permitted to vote at the elections. Nearly three fourths of the people were thus excluded from exercising the rights of freemen. Taxes were levied for the support of the gospel; attendance on public worship was enforced by law; none but members of the church were eligible to office. The very men who had so recently escaped with only their lives to find religious freedom in another continent, began their career in the New World with intolerance.
11. Young Roger Williams, minister of Salem, cried out against these laws. For this he was obliged to quit the ministry of the church at Salem and retire to Plymouth. Finally, in 1634, he wrote a paper in which he declared that grants of land, though given by the king of England, were invalid until the natives were justly paid. When arraigned for these teachings, he told the court that a test of church-membership in a voter was as ridiculous as the selection of a doctor on account of his skill in theology.
Roger Williams Banished.
12. After a trial, Williams was condemned for heresy and banished. In mid-winter he left home and became an exile in the forest. For fourteen weeks he wandered through the snow, sleeping on the ground or in a hollow tree, living on parched corn and acorns. He carried with him a private letter from the good Governor Winthrop, and the Indians showed him kindness. Wandering from place to place, in June of 1636 he became the founder of Rhode Island by laying out the city of Providence.
13. In 1634 a representative form of government was established in Massachusetts. The restriction on the right of suffrage was the only remaining bar to free government in New England. During the next year three thousand new immigrants arrived. It was worth while to come to a country where the principles of freedom were recognized.
14. New settlements were now formed at a distance from the bay. One company of twelve families marched through the woods to some open meadows sixteen miles from Boston, and there founded Concord. Another colony of sixty persons pressed their way westward to the Connecticut River, and became the founders of Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield.
15. The banishment of Roger Williams created strife among the people of Massachusetts. The ministers were stern and exacting. Still, the advocates of free opinion multiplied. The clergy, notwithstanding their great influence, felt insecure. Religious debates became the order of the day. Every sermon was reviewed and criticised.
16. Prominent among those who were accused of heresy was Mrs. Anne Hutchinson, who desired the privilege of speaking at the weekly debates, and was refused. Indignant at this, she became the champion of her sex, and declared that the ministers were no better than Pharisees. She called meetings of her friends, and pleaded with fervor for the freedom of conscience. The doctrines of Williams were reaffirmed with more power and eloquence than ever.
17. The synod of New England convened in August of 1637, and Mrs. Hutchinson and her friends were banished from Massachusetts. A large number of the exiles wended their way toward the home of Roger Williams. Miantonomah, a Narragansett chieftain, made them a gift of the island of Rhode Island; there, in 1641, a little republic was established, in which persecution, for opinion's sake, was forbidden.
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