Massachusetts Bay Colony (sometimes called the Massachusetts Bay Company, for its founding institution)
Years: 1629 - 1692
The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1628–1691) is an English settlement on the east coast of North America in the seventeenth century around the Massachusetts Bay, the northernmost of the several colonies later reorganized as the Province of Massachusetts Bay.
The lands of the settlement are located in central New England in what is now Massachusetts, with initial settlements situated on two natural harbors and surrounding land, about 15.4 miles (24.8 km) apart—the areas around the present-day cities of Salem and Boston.
The territory nominally administered by the colony includes much of present-day central New England, including portions of the U.S. states of Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Connecticut.
Territory claimed but never administered by the colonial government extends as far west as the Pacific Ocean.
The earlier Dutch colony of New Netherlands disputes many of these claims, arguing that they hold rights to lands beyond Rhode Island up to the western side of Cape Cod and the Plymouth Bay Colony.
The Massachusetts Bay Colony is founded by the owners of the Massachusetts Bay Company, which includes investors in the failed Dorchester Company, which had established a short-lived settlement on Cape Ann in 1623.
The colony begins in 1628 and is the company's second attempt at colonization.
It wis successful, with about twenty thousand people migrating to New England in the 1630s.
The population is strongly Puritan, and its governance wis dominated by a small group of leaders who are strongly influenced by Puritan religious leaders.
Its governors are elected, and the electorate are limited to freemen who have been examined for their religious views and formally admitted to the local church.
As a consequence, the colonial leadership exhibits intolerance to other religious views, including Anglican, Quaker, and Baptist theologies.
The colonists initially have good relationships with the local Indian populations, but frictions develop that ultimately lead to the Pequot War (1636–38), then to King Philip's War (1675–78), after which most of the Indians in southern New England make peace treaties with the colonists (apart from the Pequot tribe, whose survivors largely merge with the Narragansett and Mohegan tribes after the Pequot War).
The colony is economically successful, engaging in trade with England and the West Indies.
A shortage of hard currency in the colony prompts it to establish a mint in 1652.
Political differences with England after the English Restoration lead to the revocation of the colonial charter in 1684.
King James II establishes the Dominion of New England in 1686 to bring all of the New England colonies under firmer crown control.
The dominion collapses after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 deposes James, and the colony reverts to rule under the revoked charter until the charter for the Province of Massachusetts Bay is issued in 1691, which combines the Massachusetts Bay territories with those of the Plymouth Colony and proprietary holdings on Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard.
Sir William Phips arrives in 1692 bearing the charter and formally takes charge of the new province.
The political and economic dominance of New England by the modern state of Massachusetts is made possible in part by the early dominance in these spheres by the Massachusetts Bay colonists.
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Northern North America (1540 – 1683 CE)
Enduring Indigenous Worlds and the First Colonial Frontiers
Geography & Environmental Framework
From the Pacific fjords of Alaska and British Columbia to the forests, lakes, and coasts of the Atlantic and Gulf, Northern North America encompassed enormous ecological diversity: glaciated mountains, salmon rivers, oak savannas, prairies, hardwood woodlands, tundra, and the boreal shield.
The Little Ice Age shaped all three subregions. Glaciers advanced along Pacific ranges; Hudson Bay and Greenland froze longer each winter; drought pulses and hurricanes alternated across the Gulf and interior plains. Communities adapted through preservation, trade, and migration, creating resilient social ecologies that endured well before sustained European settlement.
Northwestern North America: Enduring Indigenous Worlds, First Distant Glimpses
Across the Pacific Northwest and sub-Arctic, dense forests, rivers, and coasts sustained prosperous Indigenous nations.
Coastal Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Nuu-chah-nulth, and Coast Salish peoples harvested salmon, halibut, whales, and shellfish from plankhouse villages and celebrated potlatch feasts that redistributed wealth and affirmed law. Interior and plateau groups followed seasonal rounds of hunting, fishing, and root gathering, meeting for great trade fairs at Celilo Falls and other river nodes.
Cedar canoes, totemic art, and carved masks expressed lineage and spirit power. Despite glacial advance and fluctuating salmon runs, storage, trade, and ceremony maintained abundance.
By 1683, the Pacific North had not yet seen sustained European intrusion—Spanish and Russian expeditions lay still ahead—leaving a self-governing world of maritime and riverine civilizations poised at the threshold of contact.
Northeastern North America: Fishermen, Colonists, and Resilient Woodland Worlds
From Florida’s estuaries to Greenland’s fjords, woodland, prairie, and coastal peoples adapted to cooling climates and expanding Atlantic fisheries.
Iroquoian and Algonquian farmers maintained maize-bean-squash agriculture alongside hunting and fishing; in the far north, Inuit extended seal hunting over newly thickened sea-ice. Rivers and lakes served as highways binding interior nations to the first European colonies.
By the early 1600s, French Acadia and Quebec, Dutch New Netherland, English New England and Chesapeake, and Spanish Florida had taken root. Furs, fish, and forests tied Indigenous and European economies together, while epidemics and warfare began to reshape demographics.
The Iroquois Confederacy rose as a major political power; missionaries, traders, and settlers built fragile alliances and rivalries.
By 1683, a multicultural mosaic extended from cod banks to Great Lakes forests—an Atlantic frontier still overwhelmingly Indigenous in its interior but irrevocably drawn into global circuits.
Gulf and Western North America: Spanish Entradas and Enduring Societies
South and west of the Mississippi, diverse Indigenous polities dominated vast landscapes.
Pueblo farmers of the Rio Grande maintained irrigated fields and kivas; Navajo and Apache expanded herding and raiding economies; California’s coastal and island tribes prospered on acorns, fisheries, and trade networks.
Spanish expeditions under de Soto and Coronado probed but never mastered the interior. Missions and forts appeared in Florida and New Mexico, yet survival depended on Indigenous alliances. The horse—introduced by Spaniards—was transforming mobility across the plains.
By 1683, the Gulf and West remained largely autonomous: European outposts clung to coasts and valleys, while Native confederacies, pueblos, and nomadic nations adapted horses, firearms, and trade to their advantage.
Cultural and Ecological Themes
Across the northern continent, art and ceremony anchored identity:
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Totemic carving and potlatch law on the Pacific;
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Wampum diplomacy and council fires in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence;
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Kachina dances and Green Corn rites in the Southwest and Southeast.
Environmental adaptation was everywhere sophisticated—salmon and seal preservation in the Northwest, maize granaries in the East, irrigation and acorn storage in the arid West. Climatic stress during the Little Ice Age spurred innovation rather than collapse.
Transition (to 1683 CE)
By 1683, Northern North America was a continent of enduring Indigenous sovereignties threaded with the first strands of European empire. Spanish forts, French missions, English farms, and Dutch ports dotted its edges, while vast interiors remained guided by Native diplomacy, ecology, and exchange. The Little Ice Age’s rigors had tested but not broken subsistence systems.
The next age would see intensified colonization, new alliances, and epidemic shocks—but also the continuity of Native landscapes, languages, and cosmologies that had already sustained the North for millennia.
Northeastern North America (1540–1683 CE): Fishermen, Colonists, and Resilient Woodland Worlds
Geographic & Environmental Context
The subregion of Northeastern North America includes the Atlantic seaboard from Jacksonville, Florida to St. John’s, Newfoundland; Greenland; the Midwest; the Great Lakes; and all Canadian provinces eastward to the Saskatchewan–Alberta line. Anchors include the Great Lakes basin, the St. Lawrence River, the Appalachian piedmont, Hudson Bay, and the Greenland ice sheet. This vast zone combined fertile coastal plains, hardwood and conifer forests, interior prairies, boreal shield country, and Arctic tundra.
Climate & Environmental Shifts
This age fell within the Little Ice Age. Colder winters shortened growing seasons in the Great Lakes and New England; snow and ice cover expanded across Hudson Bay. Greenland saw longer sea-ice seasons, shaping Inuit lifeways and deterring Norse reoccupation. Atlantic storms battered coastlines, while fisheries in Newfoundland and the Gulf of St. Lawrence thrived in cooler, nutrient-rich waters. Droughts occasionally stressed maize cultivation at the southern and western margins of Iroquoian territories.
Subsistence & Settlement
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Woodland societies: Iroquoian and Algonquian peoples continued farming maize, beans, and squash, but also intensified hunting and fishing to buffer climatic stress. Palisaded villages and longhouses remained common.
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Great Lakes and Midwest: Horticulturalists cultivated maize in fertile valleys, while mobile Algonquian groups exploited seasonal fisheries and wild rice.
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Subarctic and Shield: Hunters pursued caribou, moose, and fur-bearing animals; canoes and snowshoes sustained mobility.
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Greenland Inuit: Adapted to harsher cold with dog sleds, toggling harpoons, and seal-hunting on extended ice.
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European colonists: By the early 1600s, Spanish Florida (St. Augustine, 1565), French Acadia and Quebec (1604–1608), Dutch New Netherland (1620s), English New England (Plymouth 1620, Massachusetts Bay 1630), and Chesapeake (Jamestown 1607) established lasting footholds. These relied on maize, European grains, livestock, and cod fisheries.
Technology & Material Culture
Indigenous technologies—canoes, bows, fishing weirs, pottery, longhouses, and wampum belts—remained essential. Europeans introduced iron axes, muskets, sailing ships, plows, and domesticated animals. Wooden forts, churches, and early towns rose along the seaboard. Inuit retained umiaks, sledges, and bone/ivory craft. The fur trade transformed material culture, linking Indigenous trapping to European markets for beaver pelts, exchanged for textiles, kettles, knives, and guns.
Movement & Interaction Corridors
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Rivers and lakes: Canoe highways (St. Lawrence, Great Lakes, Hudson, Connecticut, Mississippi headwaters) tied Native villages to European posts.
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Atlantic coast: Fisheries at Newfoundland and New England drew fleets from France, Spain, Portugal, and England.
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Colonial trade: European settlements funneled furs, fish, and timber to Europe; Africans began to be brought in as enslaved labor in southern colonies.
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Greenland Inuit corridors: Maintained links across Baffin Island and Labrador by umiak and dog sled.
Cultural & Symbolic Expressions
Cultural diversity deepened:
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Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee): Consolidated in the 16th century, embodying political unity through council fires and wampum.
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Algonquian groups: Maintained animist traditions; shamans mediated hunting rituals.
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Inuit: Celebrated seal festivals and practiced shamanic journeys, adapting cosmology to expanded ice.
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European colonists: Established Catholic missions (French, Spanish) and Protestant congregations (English, Dutch), embedding churches and schools in frontier towns. Cultural exchanges produced hybrid foodways, dress, and spiritual practices.
Environmental Adaptation & Resilience
Indigenous communities adapted by diversifying diets, forging new alliances, and integrating European goods into traditional systems. Colonists adapted to unfamiliar climates with Indigenous aid—learning maize cultivation, fur-hunting skills, and coastal navigation. European livestock, logging, and agriculture reshaped ecosystems, while Indigenous burning and land use persisted in many areas. Inuit resilience relied on flexible subsistence across seals, fish, and whales.
Transition
By 1683 CE, Northeastern North America was transformed into a multi-cultural frontier.Indigenous nations remained dominant across vast interiors, but European colonies clustered along coasts, fisheries, and river mouths. The fur trade, cod fleets, and plantation outposts tied the region into the Atlantic world. Climatic stress from the Little Ice Age continued, but resilience came through adaptation, exchange, and hybridization. The stage was set for intensified conflict, trade, and settlement in the coming centuries.
Cash crops include tobacco, rice and wheat.
Extraction industries develop in furs, fishing and lumber.
Manufacturers produce rum and ships, and Americans are producing one-seventh of the world's iron supply by the late colonial period.
Cities eventually dot the coast to support local economies and serve as trade hubs.
English colonists are supplemented by waves of Scots-Irish and other groups.
Freed indentured servants push further west as coastal land grows more expensive.
Europeans will often be offered fur, food or other items as gifts when they first encounter a tribe.
The Europeans do not understand they are supposed to take on an alliance with the natives, including helping them against their enemies.
Native tribes regularly practice gift giving as part of their social relations.
Because the Europeans (or most of them) do not, they are considered to be rude and crude.
After observing that Europeans want to trade goods for the skins and other items, natives enter into that commercial relationship.
As a consequence, both sides become involved in the conflicts of the other.
The Europeans in New France, Carolina, Virginia, New England, and New Netherland become drawn into the endemic warfare of their trading partners.
Northwest Europe (1624–1635 CE): Rising Conflicts, Scientific Advancements, and Cultural Flourishing
England: The Late Reign of James I and Early Rule of Charles I
The final years of James I's reign saw continued political tensions between the monarchy and Parliament, largely over royal prerogatives and religious policies. Following James's death in 1625, his son Charles I ascended the throne. Charles immediately faced strained relations with Parliament due to his insistence on divine-right monarchy, leading to disputes over taxation and military funding. His marriage to the Catholic French princess Henrietta Maria heightened Protestant anxieties about Catholic influence.
In 1628, Parliament forced Charles to accept the Petition of Right, limiting royal authority and emphasizing Parliamentary consent for taxation and martial law. However, Charles's subsequent dissolution of Parliament in 1629 initiated the Personal Rule period (1629–1640), during which he governed without parliamentary approval, exacerbating tensions and laying groundwork for future conflicts.
Ireland: Intensifying Plantation Policies
The Plantation of Ulster continued to reshape Ireland's demographic and social structures significantly. English and Scottish settlers strengthened Protestant dominance, deepening divisions with the native Catholic Gaelic population. Tensions simmered, setting the stage for future conflicts, as the plantations entrenched long-lasting ethnic and religious hostilities.
Scotland: Religious and Political Strife
Under Charles I, Scotland experienced intensified religious and political discord. Charles’s efforts to impose Anglican-style ecclesiastical governance on the predominantly Presbyterian Church of Scotland led to increasing friction. His introduction of the Book of Common Prayer and new canons in 1637 (developed during this era) sparked widespread resistance, laying foundations for the subsequent Bishops' Wars.
Scandinavia: Danish-Norwegian Ambitions and Conflict
Christian IV continued aggressive foreign and colonial policies, but faced major setbacks in continental Europe. His ambitious intervention in the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) culminated in severe Danish defeats, particularly at the Battle of Lutter am Barenberge (1626), significantly weakening Denmark's European influence and initiating domestic fiscal crises.
Maritime and Colonial Expansion
The English East India Company expanded its influence significantly, solidifying its presence in India and securing more commercial rights through diplomacy and occasional military action. The Mughal emperor extended hospitality to the English traders in Bengal in 1634, setting the stage for greater influence and commercial dominance. The company's mainstay businesses now included cotton, silk, indigo dye, saltpeter, and tea. In North America, English colonies continued to expand, notably in Massachusetts, where the founding of Boston in 1630 by Puritan settlers fleeing religious persecution established a prominent foothold that shaped future American society.
Scientific and Intellectual Progress
This era witnessed extraordinary scientific developments, particularly through the contributions of scholars such as William Harvey, whose groundbreaking publication De Motu Cordis (1628) explained the circulation of blood, revolutionizing medical understanding. Francis Bacon’s inductive methodologies continued to profoundly influence intellectual discourse, underpinning the advancement of empirical science. Bacon continued work in the tradition of John Dee under Rosicrucian influence, carefully downplaying magical elements in favor of inductive science to please the Catholic-leaning King.
Cultural Flourishing
The English cultural landscape remained vibrant. Literary output was robust, with playwrights such as John Ford and Philip Massinger dominating the stage. Poetry thrived under the metaphysical poets, including John Donne and George Herbert, whose intricate works profoundly shaped English literature.
Legacy of the Era
By 1635 CE, Northwest Europe stood at the threshold of significant turmoil. Charles I's authoritarian governance in England created profound political and religious tensions destined to erupt into civil war. Ireland and Scotland experienced deepening divisions exacerbated by English policies. Denmark-Norway's continental ambitions were severely curtailed, reshaping northern European power dynamics. Simultaneously, scientific innovation and cultural richness marked the region as a crucible for transformative developments in Western thought and culture.
Northeastern North America
(1624 to 1635 CE): Consolidation of Colonization, Epidemics, and Intensifying Rivalries
Between 1624 and 1635 CE, Northeastern North America experienced increased European settlement and consolidation, extensive epidemics devastating indigenous populations, strategic indigenous realignments, and escalating colonial rivalries. The period witnessed significant expansions in English and Dutch colonization, notably in Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, and New Netherland. Indigenous communities faced demographic catastrophe from diseases such as smallpox, reshaping regional power dynamics and altering patterns of settlement and alliance.
Expansion and Consolidation of European Colonies
French Expansion in New France
French colonization intensified under the leadership of Samuel de Champlain, who strengthened alliances with the Huron (Wendat), Montagnais, and Algonquin peoples around Quebec City. These diplomatic ties further solidified French dominance in the lucrative fur trade networks of the St. Lawrence region.
English Settlements in New England
The English colonies, particularly the Plymouth Colony (1620) and the Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630), expanded significantly, increasing pressures on local indigenous communities. Myles Standish, a military leader who arrived on the Mayflower in 1620, became a central figure in Plymouth. A red-haired veteran soldier, Standish quickly learned local indigenous languages, led military expeditions against hostile tribes, and helped maintain security for the fledgling colony.
While Longfellow’s poem The Courtship of Miles Standish romantically depicted him asking John Alden to propose marriage on his behalf to Priscilla Mullins, historical evidence does not support this story.
Dutch Colonization and the Patroon System in New Netherland
The Dutch West India Company, established by the States-General in 1620, dramatically expanded its colonization activities in the 1630s. Seeking to attract investment and settlers, the Company introduced the Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions (1630) to encourage agricultural colonization of New Netherland.
Under this charter, any investor who established a colony of at least fifty adult settlers within four years would become a patroon, receiving extensive privileges, including the authority to govern locally, administer justice, control fishing and hunting rights, and establish towns and magistrates. Each patroonship could extend 16 miles along one side of a navigable river or 8 miles on both sides. Patroons were obligated to legally purchase land from indigenous groups rather than taking it by force.
Though fur trading remained a Company monopoly, patroons could trade elsewhere from Newfoundland to Florida, provided traders first stopped at Manhattan to engage in potential trade there. Colonists under patroon contracts could not legally leave without the patroon’s consent. Additionally, the West India Company pledged to defend colonists and supply patroonships with enslaved Africans as labor.
Devastating Epidemics: Smallpox and Demographic Catastrophe
Smallpox Epidemic of 1630
While Europeans brought smallpox to North America early in colonization, by 1630 it became a widespread and catastrophic epidemic among indigenous peoples. European settlers—mostly immune due to prolonged exposure in Europe—carried smallpox unknowingly. Twenty passengers on the Mayflower, including their physician, Dr. Samuel Fuller, had been infected, demonstrating the disease’s transatlantic journey.
In 1630, New England colonists witnessed the horrific toll taken on indigenous communities. A colonist described the scale of devastation vividly, noting indigenous populations "fell down so generally of this disease as they were in the end not able to help one another, nor to make a fire, nor to fetch a little water to drink, nor any to bury the dead."
Epidemic as Religious Justification
Some Puritans interpreted the smallpox epidemic as divine intervention favoring their settlement. Increase Mather, a future clergyman and president of Harvard College, would later state that the epidemic was God’s resolution to indigenous-Puritan land disputes. This view profoundly shaped Puritan justifications for further land appropriation.
Continuing Effects of the 1616–1619 Epidemic
Earlier demographic disasters—such as the 1616–1619 epidemic, likely leptospirosis—continued to reverberate, leaving large coastal areas depopulated and open to rapid European colonization, notably enabling the quick settlement of Massachusetts Bay.
Indigenous Alliances and Territorial Rivalries
Haudenosaunee Confederacy: Increased Assertiveness
The powerful Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Five Nations) intensified raids against French-allied tribes—especially the Huron and Algonquin—seeking dominance over regional fur trade networks. Persistent warfare deepened longstanding animosity between the Confederacy, French colonists, and their indigenous allies.
French-Allied Indigenous Confederacies
The Huron, Algonquin, and Montagnais intensified defensive alliances with the French against Haudenosaunee aggression. Access to French firearms and trade goods significantly increased their military and economic capabilities, intensifying regional conflict dynamics.
Interior Indigenous Communities: Adaptation and Stability
Great Lakes Algonquian Stability
The Potawatomi, Ojibway, Cree, Cheyenne, and Arapaho maintained traditional subsistence economies, cautiously engaging with emerging trade opportunities. The Kickapoo Menominee, Sauk, and Fox tribes increasingly positioned themselves as strategic trade partners in regional European-indigenous networks.
Miami and Illinois Strategic Positioning
The Miami and Illinois consolidated agriculturally productive settlements along Ohio Valley waterways, anticipating greater involvement in European fur trade networks and regional alliances.
Siouan-speaking Peoples: Stability and Migration
Eastern Siouan Stability
The Dakota, Assiniboine, and Winnebago (Ho-Chunk) continued stable settlements in Wisconsin and Upper Michigan, insulated from significant direct European pressures. Eastern Siouan groups (Omaha, Iowa, Kansa, Osage, Quapaw) gradually moved westward under growing pressure from European settlements and eastern indigenous competition.
Mandan, Hidatsa, and Crow Consolidation
Further west, the Mandan and Hidatsa expanded prosperous agricultural settlements along the Missouri River, becoming influential trade intermediaries between Plains tribes and eastern groups. The Crow, migrating westward, displaced the Shoshone and consolidated alliances with the Kiowa and Kiowa Apache.
Plains Indigenous Communities: Territorial and Cultural Stability
Pawnee Continuity
The Pawnee remained in stable villages along central Plains river valleys, preserving their political and ceremonial cohesion amidst regional upheavals.
Gros Ventre and Tsuu T’ina Isolation
Northern Plains communities, notably the Gros Ventre around Lake Manitoba and the Tsuu T’ina (Sarcee) in northern Saskatchewan, maintained traditional hunting lifestyles, protected by geographic isolation from severe European disruption.
Newfoundland’s Beothuk: Increasing Pressures
Intensified Vulnerability
Newfoundland’s Beothuk faced severe pressures from expanded English coastal settlements at St. John's and neighboring areas. Increasing territorial encroachment, resource competition, and disease risks endangered their long-term survival.
Indigenous Artistic and Cultural Resilience
Continued Vibrancy of Cultural Practices
Indigenous artistic traditions—including ceremonial pottery, intricate beadwork, shell gorgets, and tobacco pipes—persisted robustly, reinforcing cultural identity amid ongoing disruptions.
Strength in Ritual Continuity
Haudenosaunee Longhouse rituals, Mi’kmaq seasonal celebrations, and Pawnee religious practices provided strong cultural continuity, maintaining social cohesion during times of rapid geopolitical and demographic change.
Environmental Context and Adaptations
Little Ice Age Challenges
Persistent climatic variability associated with the Little Ice Age challenged indigenous subsistence strategies. Communities effectively adapted through diversified agriculture, seasonal mobility, and ecological knowledge.
Legacy of the Era (1624–1635 CE)
The period 1624–1635 CE saw intensified European colonization, the introduction of Dutch patroonships, severe demographic crises due to smallpox and earlier epidemics, and escalating indigenous-European and intertribal rivalries. Indigenous communities strategically navigated shifting geopolitical conditions, leveraging diplomacy, alliance-building, and cultural resilience. Epidemic devastation dramatically reshaped regional demographics, facilitating rapid European expansion and laying critical foundations for subsequent indigenous-colonial interactions in Northeastern North America.
Most Europeans are immune to the disease due to living conditions in overpopulated Europe.
However, twenty settlers on the Mayflower were infected, including their only physician Dr Samuel Fuller.
While the European settlers remain mostly unaffected by smallpox in 1630, they witness their Native American neighbors fall victim to it rapidly.
A New England colonist in 1630 says the Native Americans "fell down so generally of this disease as they were in the end not able to help one another, not to make a fire, nor to fetch a little water to drink, nor any to bury the dead..."
Yet despite the destruction wrought by smallpox, it will seen as a gift from god by some Puritans, including Increase Mather, a future clergyman and one of Harvard College's first presidents, who will state that the smallpox epidemic had been God's solution to the Native American and Puritan land disputes.
The Plymouth Council for New England (successor to the Plymouth Company) had in 1624 established a small fishing village at Cape Ann under the supervision of the Dorchester Company (Thomas Gardner (Planter) as Overseer).
This company was originally organized at the urging of the Puritan Reverend John White (1575–1648) of Dorchester, in the English county of Dorset.
White has been called “the father of the Massachusetts Colony”, despite remaining in England his entire life, because of his influence in establishing this settlement.
But the settlement was not profitable, and the financial backers of the Dorchester Company had terminated heir support by the end of 1625.
A few settlers from the Cape Ann fishing village, including Roger Conant who had arrived in 1625, did not abandon the area, but removed in 16226 to establish a new town at the nearby native village of Naumkeag (later named Salem).
White helps this small band by going back to the Council for New England and obtaining a new land grant and fresh financial support.
Dated March 19, 1627, this new patent is known as the Massachusetts Company.
This Company had sent about one hundred new settlers and provisions in 1628 to join Conant, led by John Endecott, who had become the governor of the fledgling settlement.
The next year, 1629, Naumkeag is renamed Salem and fortified by another three hundred settlers, led by Rev.
Francis Higginson, first minister of the settlement.
Nevertheless, the colonists struggle against disease and starvation, and many die.
The Massachusetts Puritans send a group of the faithful to take over Naumkeag, rechristened Salem, in 1629.
Both King James and his son Charles have attempted to suppress the Puritan movement.
The initial colony in what is to be called New England is made up of English Puritans, who had known that creating a new colony out of the wilderness would be difficult, but political and religious events in England have driven many Puritans to take their chances in North America.
They are angry because King Charles has promised his French queen, Henrietta Maria, that she could practice the Roman Catholic religion, and raise their children practicing Catholicism.
The Puritans hate this, because they have tried to purify the Church of England of all its Catholic remnants.
The Reverend John White of Dorchester, England had worked hard to obtain a patent in 1628 for lands between the parallel that ran three miles south of the Charles River to three miles north of the Merrimack River, and all the way from the Atlantic to the Pacific—though they had no idea of the size of the land mass.
Concerned about the legality of conflicting land claims given to several companies, including the New England Company to the still little-known territories of the New World, and because of the increasing number of Puritans that wanted to join the company, White seeks a Royal Charter for the colony.
Charles grants the new charter in March 1629, superseding the land grant and establishing a legal basis for the new English Colony of Jamestown.
It is not apparent that Charles knows the Company was meant to support the Puritan emigration, and he is likely left to assume it is purely for business purposes, as is the custom.
The charter omits a significant clause—the location for the annual stockholders' meeting and election of their leaders.
This allows formation of the Cambridge Agreement later this year, which is to set the locus of government in New England.
The Massachusetts Bay Colony becomes the only English chartered colony whose board of governors does not reside in England.
This independence helps the settlers to maintain their Puritan religious practices with very little oversight by the King, Archbishop Laud, and the Anglican Church.
The charter will remain in force for fifty-five years, until in 1684, as a result of colonial insubordination with trade, tariff and navigation laws, Charles II revokes it.
The first four hundred settlers under this new charter had departed in April 1629.
Most, but not all of the members of the Company are Puritans, and events during the spring and summer of 1629 have persuaded them that many others would be attracted to such a colony.
