Brief biographies from American history, for the fifth and sixth grades

by Edna Henry Lee Turpin

The king was much displeased when he learned that the Massachusetts Company and its charter had gone across the ocean, but just then nothing was done about the matter. Later on, an unsuccessful attempt was made to get the charter from the people.

The governor elected by the Massachusetts company was John Winthrop, one of the noblest men who aided in the making of New England. Winthrop was a gentleman by birth, gracious, gentle, and charitable in private life, intense—and sometimes intolerant—in his religious views. When he joined the “great emigration” of 1630, he was forty-one years of age, having been born the very year that the Spanish Armada was destroyed. With eight hundred men and the precious charter, Winthrop sailed to the New World. A few days were spent at Salem, and then it was decided to make a settlement at Charlestown. But the site proved unfortunate. There was much sickness the first summer, caused, it was thought, by impure drinking water.

Not far from the little settlement was what was called Shawmut peninsula; here lived a Mr. Blackstone who had come from England to lead a hermit’s life. He pitied the sufferings of his neighbors and countrymen, and invited them to come to Shawmut where the air and water were excellent. They came and found the situation so favorable that they bought land from Mr. Blackstone; in September they laid there the foundations of a city which they called Boston for the English city of Boston from which many of them came. Shawmut peninsula was called Trimountain Peninsula from its three hills.

Like the settlers at Plymouth, the Salem colonists were often in want of food during the first years. Until they could cultivate farms and raise crops, food had to be brought from England, for there was no farmers and no tradespeople in the New World from whom it could be obtained. The loss or delay of a ship bearing supplies meant want and suffering for the colonists. On one occasion, expected supplies failed to come to the Puritans and a fast day was appointed to pray for relief. As Governor Winthrop was dividing his last handful of meal with a needy neighbor, a ship laden with food entered the harbor. The devout people went to church to give thanks and changed the appointed fast to a feast.

Not all the people who had come to Massachusetts were willing to endure the hardships of the new life. About a hundred went back to England, but Governor Winthrop, with the more unselfish and zealous Puritans, remained.

Governor Winthrop endeavored to set the people an example of a sober and upright life. He became convinced that the drinking of healths at meals according to the English custom led to intemperance. He restrained it at his own table and thus became the leader of temperance reform in the New World.

One winter day he was informed that a poor man who lived near him was taking fuel from his woodpile. “Go call that man to me,” he said, “I’ll warrant I’ll cure him of stealing.” When the man came he said, “Friend, it is a severe winter and I doubt you are but meanly provided with wood; wherefore I would have you supply yourself at my woodpile till this cold season be over.” He then asked his friends whether he had not cured this man of stealing his wood.

Winthrop’s charity, however, did not extend to matters of religion. He wished to have those of unlike religious views “well whipt.” The Puritans had come to America to establish a colony which should be ruled according to their own views and faith. They did not tolerate in it men who differed from them in belief. “Let such go elsewhere,” they thought; “there is room enough.”

The Puritan leaders of the Massachusetts Company encouraged colonists of their own faith to emigrate. By 1634 four thousand had come and about twenty villages had been founded on or near the bay. Houses, churches, and shops were built; farms were tilled; fur, lumber, and salt fish were sent to England and manufactured goods were brought back.

The laws of the Massachusetts colony were very strict. People were taxed to support the church, and only men who were church members were allowed to vote or to hold office as magistrates. Everyone was required to attend church services. If any one was absent without good reason the “tithing man” was sent after him. In church men sat on one side and women on the other; there was a man to keep order and he had a long stick with which to tap people who slept or children who fidgeted during the service which lasted two, or three, or even four hours. Children were whipped and grown people were fined if they talked in church.