The+Massachusetts+Bay+Colony


 * Video:** [|The Massachusetts Bay Colony]

Massachusetts Bay Colony Meanwhile, the English had their own problems with religious tension. The Puritans, a radical group of Protestants, faced persecution because they disagreed with the official Church of England. In 1620, forty-one Puritans sailed for the new world. Based on numerous contemporary accounts, it is quite clear that the Pilgrims originally intended to settle the Hudson River region near present day Long Island, New York. Once Cape Cod was sighted, they turned south to head for the Hudson River, but encountered treacherous seas and nearly shipwrecked. They then decided to return to Cape Cod rather than risk another attempt to head south. After weeks of scouting for a suitable settlement area, the Mayflower's passengers finally landed at Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts on Dec. 26, 1620. They agreed to govern themselves in the manner set forth in the [|Mayflower Compact], which was named for the Puritans' ship, [|The Mayflower]. After two years they abandoned the communal form of partnership begun under the Mayflower Compact and in 1623 assigned individual plots of land to each family to work. [|William Bradford], who was selected as governor after [|John Carver] died has left us with a journal that helps to understand the challenges, encounters with native americans and successes of the colony. [|(1)] [|(2)] Ten years later, the Massachusetts Bay Company, a joint stock company, acquired a charter from King Charles of England. The colony of Plymouth was eventually absorbed by Massachusetts Bay, but it did remain separate until 1691. A large group of Puritans migrated to the new colony of Massachusetts Bay. The colony, ironically, did not provide religious freedom. It only permitted male Puritans to vote and established Puritan ideas as part of the official religion of the colony (The Act of Toleration).

In 1635, A man named [|Roger Williams] was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for preaching religious freedom. He left Massachusetts and found refuge with the Narragansett Indians. He later traveled back to England to obtain a charter to create Providence Plantations... which eventually developed into the small state of Rhode Island. This made [|Roger Williams] the founder of Rhode Island, the first state with religious freedom.