Trouble with the Indians now began, which lasted until 1645. In 1638 the Swedes settled on the Delaware near the site of Wilmington, and extended their possessions until, in 1655, the Dutch attacked and conquered them. In 1664 the King of England granted his brother James all the country between the Connecticut and the Delaware. He had not the smallest right to do so, for the land belonged to the Dutch both by right of discovery and of settlement. England and Holland were at peace, and the overthrow of the Dutch dominion in America was an act of glaring injustice, and it is only surprising that Holland made such feeble resistance.
There is little that is important but much that is interesting in the history of these Dutch settlements. Slavery had been in existence since 1628, but it was slavery in a comparatively mild form. It was allowed a man to purchase his own freedom, and a great number of slaves did so. A very democratic spirit reigned throughout the colony. The republican sentiment which they had brought with them from Holland, never left these settlers. There was no religious persecution, no intolerance, no such cruel wrongs committed in the name of right as in New England. They were good, honest burghers. They built mills and breweries, and raised fat cattle and grew fat themselves and were very happy.
The first attempt to colonize New England was made by Gosnold in 1602, and was unsuccessful. In 1606 the Plymouth company established a settlement at the mouth of the Kennebec River, but the forty-five daring spirits of which it was composed abandoned it after a winter of suffering, and returned to England. Captain John Smith explored the coast in 1614, making a map of its length and giving it its present name. His earnest attempts at colonization failed, and it was not until the arrival of the Puritans in 1620 that a permanent settlement was formed.
These Puritans, it is scarcely necessary to explain, were the most austere of the English “Non-Conformists,” or dissenters of the Established Church. Most of them were Nottinghamshire farmers, and so mercilessly were they persecuted at home on account of their religion that they determined to emigrate to Holland, where a London congregation had fled some years before, and where they in turn were followed by a Lincolnshire congregation. Holland becoming the seat of violent political agitation, they resolved to emigrate to America. In July, 1620, they embarked for England in the ship “Speedwell.” At Southampton they met the “Mayflower,” which was also engaged for the voyage. They put to sea twice, but were obliged to return, as the “Speedwell” proved unseaworthy. Finally the “Mayflower” sailed alone on the 6th of September. Their destination was a point near the Hudson River, just within the boundaries of the territory of the London Company. This must have been the sea-coast of the State of New Jersey.
At early dawn of the 9th of November, 1620, the white sand-banks of Massachusetts came into sight; their course lay to the south, but so dangerous became the shoals and breakers that they resolved to retrace their vessel’s way, and two days later, at noon, they dropped anchor in the bay formed by the curved peninsula which terminates in Cape Cod.
Here, while the vessel lay at anchor, a brief governmental compact was drawn up, and John Carver, who had been very prominent in obtaining the King’s permission for their enterprise, was chosen governor of the colony. In the afternoon “fifteen or sixteen men well armed” were sent on shore to reconnoitre and to collect fuel. They returned at evening bringing good report of the country, and the welcome news that there was neither person nor dwelling in sight. The next day was Sunday, which the emigrants kept as strictly as usual. Monday morning, while the women washed and the men began their labors by hauling a boat on shore for repairs, Miles Standish and sixteen men set off on foot to explore the country. They returned Friday evening bringing some Indian corn which they had found in a deserted hut. The explorations were kept up for several weeks. At last a suitable location was decided upon; there was a convenient harbor, the country was well wooded; it had clay, sand, and shells for bricks and mortar, and stone for chimneys; there was plenty of good water, and the sea and beach contained a plentiful supply of fish and fowl. It was on Christmas Day that they landed. The record says: “Monday, the 25th day, we went on shore, some to fell timber, some to saw, some to rive, and some to carry; so no man rested all that day.” They first erected a building for common occupation. Nineteen plots for dwelling-houses were laid out, and in spite of the bitter cold the little settlement gradually built itself into a town. Sickness set in, and within four months’ time one-half of their number was swept away. It was a terrible winter, but there was no inclination to weaken or to despond on the part of the heroic Pilgrims. They were in constant fear of the Indians, and the necessity for defenses becoming daily more apparent, a military organization was formed, with the valiant Miles Standish as Captain, and the fortification on the hill overlooking the dwellings was mounted with five guns.
“Warm and fair weather” came at last; and never could spring have seemed fairer to these people than when it greeted them first in New England. The colony at Plymouth grew and prospered. The Indians made several threats of hostility but were each time repressed by Miles Standish and his men.
In 1628 another settlement was made at Salem, under John Endicott. The next year this colony was large enough to admit of a lively quarrel, the consequence of which was a division of interests and the establishment of Charlestown. In 1630 the “Colony of Massachusetts Bay” was augmented by the arrival of a large number of settlers, many of them being people of education and refinement. The towns of Boston, Watertown, Roxbury, and Dorchester were founded. In August the first Court of Assistants met since the arrival of the colonists, and voted to build houses and to raise salaries for ministers. This year was made a bold step toward the establishment of civil liberty in the removing of the governing council from England to Massachusetts. In 1633 the settlement of Connecticut was begun. In another year there were “between three and four thousand Englishmen distributed among twenty hamlets along and near the seashore.”
It seems a good deal of a pity that these grand old Pilgrim Fathers had so little sense of humor, else the absurdity of allowing no one liberty of conscience, after they themselves had fled from just such a state of affairs, must have dawned upon them. The early history of New England is one long catalogue of religious persecutions. To the first of these is due the settlement of Rhode Island. Later dissensions helped to people Connecticut, Maine, and New Hampshire.
Roger Williams was a talented young Puritan preacher who had been driven out of England by the intolerance of Archbishop Laud. Arriving in Boston, he found himself quite as much out of harmony with the Church in that place as he had been with the Church of England. He was subsequently called to a Salem pastorate, where his doctrines were very popular; everywhere else in the colonies they were regarded as abominable. No wonder, for the obnoxious parson declared boldly that it was wrong to enforce an oath of allegiance to any monarch or magistrate, that all religious sects had a right to claim equal protection from the laws, and that civil magistrates had no right to restrain the consciences of men, or to interfere with their modes of worship or religious beliefs. This heretical doctrine, if carried to its logical conclusion, would permit even Roman Catholics and Quakers to dwell in peace! It was decided to send Williams to England, where he would undoubtedly have fared ill, for he had preached a crusade against the cross of St. George in the English standard, pronouncing it a relic of superstition and idolatry, and so inflaming the