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MODULE 2.3b The Regions of British Colonies 87

with God’s “saving grace,” and divine fortune manifested as land ownership and a
higher economic status. Puritans believed God’s hand in the world appeared in nature
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as well. Comets and eclipses were considered “remarkable providences.” Puritans also
celebrated as a sign of God’s favor a smallpox epidemic that killed several thousand Mas-
sachusetts Indians in 1633–1634 and military victories over American Indians such as
the massacre at a fort near Mystic River in 1637.
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These shared religious beliefs helped forge a unified community where faith guided
civil as well as spiritual decisions. Soon after the colony was established, Puritan min-
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isters were discouraged from holding political office, although political leaders were
devout Puritans who were expected to promote a godly society. These leaders deter-
mined who got land, how much, and where. They also served as judge and jury for those
accused of crimes or sins. Their leadership was largely considered successful — even if
colonists differed over who should get the most fertile strip of land, they agreed on basic
principles.
Puritans assigned wives and daughters solely domestic roles with rare exceptions.
By the eighteenth century, Puritan women, and indeed almost all women throughout
the colonies, found their legal and economic rights similarly restricted as their female
counterparts in Great Britain.
By the 1640s, Puritan settlers had turned their colony into a thriving commercial
center. During the English Civil War (1642–1651), New England settlements spread
due to both natural increase and migration. English communities stretched from Con-
necticut through Massachusetts and Rhode Island and into Maine and what became
New Hampshire. They shipped codfish, lumber, grain, pork, and cheese to England
in exchange for manufactured goods and to the West Indies in exchange for rum and
molasses. This trade, along with the healthy climate, relatively egalitarian distribution
of property among male church members, and more equal ratio of women to men,
ensured a stable and prosperous colony. Meanwhile, the English king and Parliament,
embroiled in war, paid little attention to events in North America, allowing these New
England colonies to develop with little oversight.

REVIEW

■ How did the Puritans maintain specific aspects of Pilgrim society in
Massachusetts Bay?
■ In what ways did the Puritans change society in Massachusetts Bay?

Challenges Arise in the

New England Colonies

English men and women settled New England in the 1620s and 1630s seeking reli-
gious sanctuary and to support communities unified by common faith. Yet they, too, like
the colony at Jamestown, suffered divisions in their ranks. Almost from the beginning,
certain Puritans challenged some of the community’s fundamental beliefs and, in the
process, the community itself. Dissenters such as Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson
even led groups of discontented Puritans to establish new communities.
In the early 1630s, Roger Williams, a Salem minister, criticized Puritan leaders for
not being sufficiently pure in their rejection of the Church of England and the English
monarchy. He preached that not all the Puritan leaders were Saints and that some were
bound for eternal damnation. Williams also criticized the confiscation of American

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