Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Western SIEV Episode four hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty two, A City upon a Hill. Today we dig
Speaker 1: deeper into the story of Plymouth Colony and Massachusetts Bay.
Speaker 1: There are really two separate ventures by English colonists that
Speaker 1: take root on the northern Atlantic shore. One is the
Speaker 1: Plymouth Colony. Talked about that one last time, and today
Speaker 1: we're going to also talk about the much larger and
Speaker 1: much more successful Massachusetts Bay Colony. Though oftentimes in sources
Speaker 1: those two words tend to get used interchangeably, they're not.
Speaker 1: They're different, though united by language and certainly a desire
Speaker 1: for spiritual and civic freedom. Their paths from sixteen twenty
Speaker 1: one to roughly sixteen forty followed distinct yet intersecting arcs
Speaker 1: and shaped the character of what will become one day
Speaker 1: New England. Now, as we know, Plymouth Colony wasn't born
Speaker 1: out of a royal charter. Plymouth Colony was born out
Speaker 1: of religious conviction and a desire of the separatists to
Speaker 1: live their own life. The Pilgrims, a sect of separatists
Speaker 1: seeking freedom from the Church of England, landed far north
Speaker 1: of their intended destination of Virginia by the spring of
Speaker 1: sixteen twenty one, over half of them had perished from
Speaker 1: disease and exposure. Their survival hinged on the unexpected help
Speaker 1: of the Wampanogu people, and most notably Squanto, who we
Speaker 1: discussed last time, who spoke English, and then their key chief, Massasoit.
Speaker 1: He forged a peace treaty with the Pilgrims of Plymouth
Speaker 1: Rock that would last for decades. Edward Winslow, a key
Speaker 1: leader and diplomat in Plymouth Bay, described the relationship in
Speaker 1: a letter home to England as follows. We have found
Speaker 1: the savages very faithful in their covenant of peace with us,
Speaker 1: and we often go to them and they come to us.
Speaker 1: Some of us have been fifty miles by land in
Speaker 1: the country with them end quote. By the fall of
Speaker 1: sixteen twenty one, a modest harvest celebrated in what later
Speaker 1: become mythologized as the First Thanksgiving. The peace with the
Speaker 1: wampanog people allowed the Pilgrim's time to take root, and
Speaker 1: though their numbers grew slowly, they began to establish outposts
Speaker 1: like Duxbury and Situate. The colony's moral and political center
Speaker 1: was William Bradford, serving as governor for over thirty years.
Speaker 1: Bradford recorded the community's trials and triumphs in of Plymouth Plantation.
Speaker 1: His pros plain but often biblical, reflected as follows. Quote Thus,
Speaker 1: out of small beginnings, greater things have been produced by
Speaker 1: his hand that made all things of nothing end quote.
Speaker 1: Without a royal charter, the colony governed itself under the
Speaker 1: Mayflower Compact, the improvised but enduring agreement signed in sixteen twenty.
Speaker 1: We talked about it last time. That declared the intention
Speaker 1: of those in Plymouth to quote combine ourselves together into
Speaker 1: a civil body politique end quote. By the late sixteen thirties,
Speaker 1: Plymouth remained modest sized, only about two thousand settlers, but
Speaker 1: it was stable. Its greatest challenge was now not mere survival,
Speaker 1: but maintaining its identity alongside the rising power of its
Speaker 1: larger neighbor to the north. While Plymouth struggled throughout its
Speaker 1: early years, Massachusetts Bay was born differently. This was no
Speaker 1: improvised experiment, but a well financed endeavor, backed by a
Speaker 1: royal charter and driven by an ambitious dream. It would
Speaker 1: not be a place of retreat, but of transformation. The
Speaker 1: idea was to make a wholly commonwealth, a beacon to
Speaker 1: the world. At the heart of that vision stands one man,
Speaker 1: John Winthrop. Born in fifteen eighty seven into a prosperous
Speaker 1: Suffolk gentry family, Winthrop was educated at Cambridge, trained in law,
Speaker 1: and steeped in Calvinist piety. It was no radical, He
Speaker 1: believed deeply in order, hierarchy, and godly discipline. By the
Speaker 1: late sixteen twenties, the of King Charles the First and
Speaker 1: Charles laud made it clear that there was no future
Speaker 1: for Puritan reform within the Church of England. Winthrop and
Speaker 1: his fellow Puritans would not separate from the Church. They
Speaker 1: would simply recreate it in the new world. In sixteen
Speaker 1: twenty nine, Winthrop was chosen governor of the newly chartered
Speaker 1: Massachusetts Bay Colony. Before he and nearly one thousand colonists
Speaker 1: departed in the spring of sixteen thirty, he composed a sermon,
Speaker 1: a theological and political road map for their endeavor. He
Speaker 1: titled it quote a Model of Christian Charity. He writes
Speaker 1: in there, we must delight in each other, make each
Speaker 1: other's conditions our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor and
Speaker 1: suffer it together. And then of course, most famously, he writes,
Speaker 1: we people of Massachusetts Bay Colony shall be a city
Speaker 1: upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us,
Speaker 1: delivered aboard the ship the Arbella. That sermon was never
Speaker 1: formally published in his lifetime, but it became the moral
Speaker 1: cornerstone of the entire colony. For Winthrop, this new society
Speaker 1: would be bound not just by laws, but by a
Speaker 1: spiritual covenant. If they failed to uphold it, they would
Speaker 1: not merely falter. They would be judged by God and
Speaker 1: man alike. When the fleet arrived in sixteen thirty, they
Speaker 1: quickly established Boston as the capital. Within a decade. Thanks
Speaker 1: to the Great Migration, the population of Massachusetts Bay swelled
Speaker 1: to over fifteen thousand people between sixteen Already in sixteen forty,
Speaker 1: a steady tide of humans across the Atlantic, not in
Speaker 1: search of conquest, but of covenant with God. This movement
Speaker 1: we know in history is the Great Migration, and brought
Speaker 1: some twenty thousand English Puritans to the shores of New
Speaker 1: England and also deep to the south, to the Caribbean.
Speaker 1: It wasn't a single wave, it was a flowing river. Families, congregations, ministers,
Speaker 1: tried tradesmen and school teachers flowing westward, bound by conscience
Speaker 1: and conviction. They came not as individuals but as communities.
Speaker 1: Entire churches uprooted themselves from English towns and reassembled themselves
Speaker 1: in the wilds of America. Men like Thomas Hooker led
Speaker 1: their flocks across the ocean, preaching from ship decks and
Speaker 1: holding fast to the belief that they were chosen instruments
Speaker 1: in God's providential design. As we know. One such traveler,
Speaker 1: John Winthrop, recorded in his journal the spiritual purpose that
Speaker 1: was this kind of migration. He wrote, the Lord will
Speaker 1: make our name a praise upon the earth. We must
Speaker 1: rather choose to leave our native country than to part
Speaker 1: with the worship of God. The push from England was fierce.
Speaker 1: Under Charles the first. We'll get into this very soon
Speaker 1: in the podcast. The Puritans faced mounting pressure, harsh censorship,
Speaker 1: hostile bishops, and threats constant threats of imprisonment. Archbishop Laud,
Speaker 1: who again I'll get into in future episodes, led a
Speaker 1: campaign to enforce conformity in the Anglican Church, and this
Speaker 1: drove many to believe that spiritual corruption wasn't just creeping,
Speaker 1: but it was galloping, galloping ahead, and so they fled,
Speaker 1: not to escape the Church of England entirely, but to
Speaker 1: purify it by example. They dreamed not of a world
Speaker 1: of freedom, not religious freedom at least in the modern sense,
Speaker 1: but of a reform society, governed by the world and
Speaker 1: ruled by the ancient writings of the same and church fathers.
Speaker 1: Massachusetts Bay would be their new Zion, Boston their new Jerusalem.
Speaker 1: They founded schools, held fast to Covenant theology, and governed
Speaker 1: themselves through town meetings. In this migration, unlike any before
Speaker 1: in English colonization, religion and republicanism sailed together, and by
Speaker 1: sixteen forty the Great Migration had ended. England itself now
Speaker 1: would stand on the brink of civil war, and many
Speaker 1: Puritans stayed to fight the battle on home soil. But
Speaker 1: those who had crossed the sea had already planted something new,
Speaker 1: a spiritual republic carved out of rock and conviction, destined
Speaker 1: to shape the soul the Covenant. Winthrop's leadership was firm
Speaker 1: but often paternal. He kept a careful diary, called, fittingly
Speaker 1: the Journal of John Winthrop, which remains a key source
Speaker 1: of understanding the colonies. Early Deparliament. In one entry dated
Speaker 1: sixteen thirty he reflected on the death of his son
Speaker 1: Henry and the suffering of their people, as follows, the
Speaker 1: Lord hath afflicted us, yet he hath not forgotten to
Speaker 1: be gracious. I am satisfied with the Lord's hand in it,
Speaker 1: and he will do us good in the end. Yet
Speaker 1: the unity that Winthrop preached was tested again and again.
Speaker 1: Then in sixteen thirty six, Roger Williams, who is going
Speaker 1: to be the subject of our next episode, challenged the
Speaker 1: colony's right to occupy native lands and its enforcement of
Speaker 1: religious conformity. Winthrop considered Williams dangerously radical, yet treated him
Speaker 1: with some personal kindness, even as the General Court banished him.
Speaker 1: As we'll find out next time, Williams would go on
Speaker 1: to found Providence and the principle of general religious liberty. Likewise,
Speaker 1: the other character will meet more next time is going
Speaker 1: to be Ann Hutchinson, and Hutchinson was much more explosive
Speaker 1: than Roger. Williams was a charismatic and theologically bold woman.
Speaker 1: She held meetings in her home and accused the ministers
Speaker 1: of preaching quote a covenant of works. Winthrop saw her
Speaker 1: as a threat, not only to doctrine, but to social order.
Speaker 1: In sixteen thirty seven, she was tried and exiled, with
Speaker 1: Ruinthrop writing, as sort of a PostScript, quote, a woman
Speaker 1: is not fit for our society, an unfit for the
Speaker 1: place where she is end quote. He meant it as
Speaker 1: a sick burn. Unfortunately, Dan Hutchinson is going to have
Speaker 1: the last laught there for all its religious zeal. Though
Speaker 1: Massachusetts Bay was also a commercial success. The colony exported timber,
Speaker 1: furs and salted fish. It built schools, including Harvard College
Speaker 1: if you've heard of it in sixteen thirty six, to
Speaker 1: ensure an educated ministry, and it operated with a sophisticated
Speaker 1: political system in which each town sent deputies to the
Speaker 1: General Court, laying the foundations for representative government. Throughout the
Speaker 1: sixteen thirties, Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay eyed each other with
Speaker 1: both some measure of fraternity and some measure of friction.
Speaker 1: The Bay colonists often viewed Plymouth as quaint and insufficiently zealous.
Speaker 1: Plymouth's leaders, in turn regarding the rapid Bay's expansion with
Speaker 1: intolerance and some on ease. Still, they cooperated when they
Speaker 1: had to. In sixteen thirty six, both colonies raised militias
Speaker 1: to confront the growing threat from the Peaquad people, and
Speaker 1: though the war would not come to a head until
Speaker 1: sixteen thirty seven, it marked the beginning of a new
Speaker 1: unified colonial front. In sixteen forty three, both would join
Speaker 1: the New England Confederation, a defensive alliance that marked the
Speaker 1: first ever American attempt at regional unity. By sixteen forty
Speaker 1: the shape of New England was clear. Plymouth, humble and enduring,
Speaker 1: had laid the moral groundwork for self rule. Massachusetts Bay,
Speaker 1: bold and more rigorous, and certainly more industrial, had established
Speaker 1: a model of covenantal theocracy and civic ambition. On top
Speaker 1: of it all was John Winthrop, lawyer, theologian, patriarch, governor.
Speaker 1: He didn't seek personal glory. In fact, his diary he
Speaker 1: once wrote, the work we have in hand is by
Speaker 1: mutual consent to seek out a place of cohabitation and
Speaker 1: consortship under a due form of government, both civil and ecclesiastical. Ambitious, sure,
Speaker 1: but John Winthrop and his Massachusetts Bay colony laid the
Speaker 1: groundwork for what is going to come afterwards, American democracy.