men” required to be members of the deep, rich soil . These new commu-
Puritan, or Congregational, Church . nities often eliminated church mem-
This guaranteed that the Puritans bership as a prerequisite for voting,
would be the dominant political as thereby extending the franchise to
well as religious force in the colony . ever larger numbers of men .
The General Court elected the gov-
At the same time, other settle-
ernor, who for most of the next gen- ments began cropping up along the
eration would be John Winthrop .
New Hampshire and Maine coasts,
The rigid orthodoxy of the Pu- as more and more immigrants
ritan rule was not to everyone’s lik- sought the land and liberty the New
ing . One of the first to challenge the World seemed to offer .
General Court openly was a young
clergyman named Roger Williams,
NEW NETHERLAND AND
who objected to the colony’s seizure
MARYLAND
of Indian lands and advocated sepa-
ration of church and state . Another Hired by the Dutch East India
dissenter, Anne Hutchinson, chal- Company, Henry Hudson in 1609
lenged key doctrines of Puritan the- explored the area around what is
ology . Both they and their followers now New York City and the river
were banished .
that bears his name, to a point prob-
Williams purchased land from ably north of present-day Albany,
the Narragansett Indians in what is New York . Subsequent Dutch voy-
now Providence, Rhode Island, in ages laid the basis for their claims
1636 . In 1644, a sympathetic Puri- and early settlements in the area .
tan-controlled English Parliament
As with the French to the north,
gave him the charter that established the first interest of the Dutch was the Rhode Island as a distinct colony fur trade . To this end, they cultivated
where complete separation of church close relations with the Five Nations
and state as well as freedom of reli- of the Iroquois, who were the key to
gion was practiced .
the heartland from which the furs
So-called heretics like Williams came . In 1617 Dutch settlers built a
were not the only ones who left Mas- fort at the junction of the Hudson
sachusetts . Orthodox Puritans, seek- and the Mohawk Rivers, where Al-
ing better lands and opportunities, bany now stands .
soon began leaving Massachusetts
Settlement on the island of Man-
Bay Colony . News of the fertility of hattan began in the early 1620s . In
the Connecticut River Valley, for in- 1624, the island was purchased from
stance, attracted the interest of farm- local Native Americans for the re-
ers having a difficult time with poor ported price of $24 . It was promptly
land . By the early 1630s, many were renamed New Amsterdam .
ready to brave the danger of Indian
In order to attract settlers to the
attack to obtain level ground and Hudson River region, the Dutch en-
14
OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY
couraged a type of feudal aristocra- and to avoid trouble with the British
cy, known as the “patroon” system . government, they also encouraged
The first of these huge estates were Protestant immigration .
established in 1630 along the Hud-
Maryland’s royal charter had
son River . Under the patroon sys- a mixture of feudal and modern
tem, any stockholder, or patroon, elements . On the one hand the
who could bring 50 adults to his es- Calvert family had the power to
tate over a four-year period was giv- create manorial estates . On the oth-
en a 25-kilometer river-front plot, er, they could only make laws with
exclusive fishing and hunting privi- the consent of freemen (property
leges, and civil and criminal juris- holders) . They found that in order
diction over his lands . In turn, he to attract settlers — and make a
provided livestock, tools, and build- profit from their holdings — they
ings . The tenants paid the patroon had to offer people farms, not just
rent and gave him first option on tenancy on manorial estates . The
surplus crops .
number of independent farms grew
Further to the south, a Swedish in consequence . Their owners de-
trading company with ties to the manded a voice in the affairs of the
Dutch attempted to set up its first colony . Maryland’s first legislature
settlement along the Delaware Riv- met in 1635 .
er three years later . Without the re-
sources to consolidate its position,
COLONIAL-INDIAN
New Sweden was gradually absorbed
RELATIONS
into New Netherland, and later,
Pennsylvania and Delaware .
By 1640 the British had solid
In 1632 the Catholic Calvert fam- colonies established along the New
ily obtained a charter for land north England coast and the Chesapeake
of the Potomac River from King Bay . In between were the Dutch and
Charles I in what became known as the tiny Swedish community . To the
Maryland . As the charter did not ex- west were the original Americans,
pressly prohibit the establishment of then called Indians .
non-Protestant churches, the colony
Sometimes friendly, sometimes
became a haven for Catholics . Mary- hostile, the Eastern tribes were no
land’s first town, St . Mary’s, was longer strangers to the Europeans .
established in 1634 near where the Although Native Americans ben-
Potomac River flows into the Chesa- efited from access to new technol-
peake Bay .
ogy and trade, the disease and thirst
While establishing a refuge for for land that the early settlers also
Catholics, who faced increasing per- brought posed a serious challenge to
secution in Anglican England, the their long-established way of life .
Calverts were also interested in cre-
At first, trade with the European
ating profitable estates . To this end, settlers brought advantages: knives,
15