Introduction

The founding narrative of the Colonial North often begins with the Pilgrim and Puritan leaders William Bradford and John Winthrop. Yet, women's experiences in the founding era frequently differed from men's, and although religion was at the heart of colonial development, it was not only the faith of the Puritans of New England. The Web activities for chapter 3 are introduced by an etching of an unknown woman speaking at a Quaker meeting. The opening chapter narrative describing the first encounter between the Micmac Indians and the "shock troops" of the French invasion, the Jesuits, reinforces another point. Europe's religious rivalries shaped patterns of settlement in the colonial North and mid-Atlantic region. Here Quakers, Catholics, Mennonites, French Huguenots, and Portuguese Jews, as well as Puritans, sought a home. 

The Web activities for this chapter take as their focal points these two threads, gender and religion. The research links pursue the theme, as well as promote investigation of the mid-Atlantic region, the French in North America, and the documents associated with England's seventeenth century American empire.

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Quaker Meeting - Woman preaching
Corbis-Bettmann

Web Activities

1. The Massachusetts Bay Puritans cast a long shadow across American history. Ann Hutchinson and her family arrived in Boston in 1634. Within four years she was charged with heresy and expelled from the colony. To place Hutchinson in her world read Scott Aiken's essay The American Sense of Puritan. Next go to Context and Developments. Scroll down to the Puritans and read the rest of the page, note the section "the revealed word, antinomianism, individualism" and "caveat--a note on the jeremiad," to understand the religious differences that rocked the colony in its first decade.

• Does the trial of Ann Hutchinson at the Court at Newton, 1637, suggest how women's experiences in the founding era might differ from men's? What evidence supports her depiction as a "charismatic heretic" (93) ? How did Hutchinson's case threaten the stability of the colony? Would the sentence have been different if she were a man?
• Another exile was Mary Dyer, a Hutchinson supporter, who became a Quaker. Visit the exhibit America as a Religious Refuge: The Seventeenth Century, one of a seven part exhibit on Religion and the Founding of the Republic at the Library of Congress. Read the section "Persecution in America" and the notes on Mary Dyer. Scroll down to read the section on the Quakers. How does the explanation of the Quaker meeting clarify the above graphic? Why were the Quakers despised?
• Although expelled over three centuries ago, bronze representations of Ann Hutchinson and Mary Dyer stand today on the grounds of the Massachusetts State House. What do these memorials suggest about their legacies, the Puritan heritage, and Americans ability to come to terms with the past?

• Witchcraft in Salem Village site created by Danvers, Massachusetts (formerly Salem) Archival Center and the University of Virginia, includes maps, archival materials and historical sites. 
• Salem Witchcraft Trials 1692  is a feature of the Famous Trials Web site by Doug Linder, Professor of Law, University of Missouri-Kansas City Law School and contains biographies of key figures as well as numerous primary documents. 
• Witchcraft in Salem Village: Intersections of Religion and Society at the National Humanities Center  
Scroll down to "Historians Debate" in order to understand why so many historians have been drawn to this topic and how their interpretation of events differ. 
• Salem Witchcraft Hysteria - a National Geographic Interactive Web site 

Additional Research Links

• Visit the other excellent Divining America: Religion and the National Culture, the 17th and 18th Century,  pages at the National Humanities Center to comprehend the intersections of American history and religion. Each section highlights recent scholarship and guides you to additional online resources. 
• Native American Religion in Early America - describes the multifaceted belief systems of Indian people of North America.
• Puritanism and Predestination - explores the complex doctrine of predestination and examines the historians debate on Puritanism as a cultural force.

The Mid-Atlantic Region

• Pennsylvania: The Quaker Province: 1681-1776, provides a solid overview of settlement with some illustrations. 
• William Penn - Visionary Proprietor, is part of the fine Capitol Project at the University of Virginia. The site includes an introductory biography, the Penn memorials in the Capitol, Penn's relations with Indians, and the building of Philadelphia.
• Return to the National Humanities Center, for an essay by Patricia Bonomi on The Middle Colonies as the Birthplace of American Religious Pluralism. Bonomi considers the Mid-Atlantic colonial region a stage for the development the western world's most complex experience with religious pluralism, and the creation of a "uniquely diverse religious society."
• The New Netherland Project is sponsored by the New York State Library and the Holland Society. The site presents a "historical calendar" of New Netherland, and online documents, including the Peter Schaghen Letter announcing the purchase of Manhattan Island for the value of 60 guilders.

The French in North America

• New France Jesuit Relations provides an overview of the letters and reports relative to Jesuit missionary activity in the early 17th century. Published, they became popular reading in France and help to publicize ventures in New France.
• Trading Frontiers, a page on the 17th century section of the Colonial North America Tutorial, describes the nature of French colonial settlement in America.

England's Seventeenth Century American Empire

• The Avalon Project at Yale University hosts an extensive full-text list of documents, with a search feature, relating to England's Seventeenth Century American Empire: Pre 18th Century Documents. Included is the Commission of Sir Edmund Andros for the Dominion of New England, April 7, 1688. 
• Examine the adjustments to empire with a visit the Tax History Museum.  Enter the early period, 1660-1713. The narrative is focused on taxes and English efforts to order colonial commerce and tighten control over colonial trade practices. 
• Colonial Currency contains examples of currency emitted in the colonies and early states. The site, created by Louis Jordan at the Notre Dame University Department of Special Collections, contains extensive graphics which can be magnified of the original currencies with detailed historical annotations. There is a companion site on Colonial Coins and early Federal currency.

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• European microbes devastated Native American populations not only in the Colonial North, but throughout the new world. To examine the impact of disease on the indigenous population see, Plagues and Peoples: The Columbian Exchange , a good chart for The Columbian Biological Exchange, includes diseases, animals and plants. For more details on plant exchanges visit the Smithsonian's History section of the Seeds of Change Garden.