WEBVTT

1
00:00:20.440 --> 00:00:24.640
<v Speaker 1>Hello, and welcome to Western SIEV Episode four hundred and

2
00:00:24.640 --> 00:00:30.160
<v Speaker 1>fifty two, A City upon a Hill. Today we dig

3
00:00:30.239 --> 00:00:34.200
<v Speaker 1>deeper into the story of Plymouth Colony and Massachusetts Bay.

4
00:00:35.039 --> 00:00:40.399
<v Speaker 1>There are really two separate ventures by English colonists that

5
00:00:40.520 --> 00:00:44.240
<v Speaker 1>take root on the northern Atlantic shore. One is the

6
00:00:44.240 --> 00:00:48.159
<v Speaker 1>Plymouth Colony. Talked about that one last time, and today

7
00:00:48.159 --> 00:00:50.079
<v Speaker 1>we're going to also talk about the much larger and

8
00:00:50.159 --> 00:00:55.200
<v Speaker 1>much more successful Massachusetts Bay Colony. Though oftentimes in sources

9
00:00:55.600 --> 00:00:58.399
<v Speaker 1>those two words tend to get used interchangeably, they're not.

10
00:00:58.439 --> 00:01:03.439
<v Speaker 1>They're different, though united by language and certainly a desire

11
00:01:03.520 --> 00:01:07.719
<v Speaker 1>for spiritual and civic freedom. Their paths from sixteen twenty

12
00:01:07.799 --> 00:01:11.680
<v Speaker 1>one to roughly sixteen forty followed distinct yet intersecting arcs

13
00:01:11.719 --> 00:01:14.519
<v Speaker 1>and shaped the character of what will become one day

14
00:01:14.879 --> 00:01:18.719
<v Speaker 1>New England. Now, as we know, Plymouth Colony wasn't born

15
00:01:18.719 --> 00:01:21.640
<v Speaker 1>out of a royal charter. Plymouth Colony was born out

16
00:01:21.640 --> 00:01:24.840
<v Speaker 1>of religious conviction and a desire of the separatists to

17
00:01:24.920 --> 00:01:29.480
<v Speaker 1>live their own life. The Pilgrims, a sect of separatists

18
00:01:29.480 --> 00:01:33.159
<v Speaker 1>seeking freedom from the Church of England, landed far north

19
00:01:33.200 --> 00:01:37.040
<v Speaker 1>of their intended destination of Virginia by the spring of

20
00:01:37.079 --> 00:01:40.840
<v Speaker 1>sixteen twenty one, over half of them had perished from

21
00:01:40.920 --> 00:01:45.599
<v Speaker 1>disease and exposure. Their survival hinged on the unexpected help

22
00:01:45.640 --> 00:01:48.760
<v Speaker 1>of the Wampanogu people, and most notably Squanto, who we

23
00:01:48.799 --> 00:01:53.719
<v Speaker 1>discussed last time, who spoke English, and then their key chief, Massasoit.

24
00:01:54.480 --> 00:01:57.959
<v Speaker 1>He forged a peace treaty with the Pilgrims of Plymouth

25
00:01:58.040 --> 00:02:02.840
<v Speaker 1>Rock that would last for decades. Edward Winslow, a key

26
00:02:02.920 --> 00:02:07.120
<v Speaker 1>leader and diplomat in Plymouth Bay, described the relationship in

27
00:02:07.159 --> 00:02:10.599
<v Speaker 1>a letter home to England as follows. We have found

28
00:02:10.639 --> 00:02:14.360
<v Speaker 1>the savages very faithful in their covenant of peace with us,

29
00:02:14.879 --> 00:02:17.039
<v Speaker 1>and we often go to them and they come to us.

30
00:02:17.560 --> 00:02:19.680
<v Speaker 1>Some of us have been fifty miles by land in

31
00:02:19.680 --> 00:02:23.280
<v Speaker 1>the country with them end quote. By the fall of

32
00:02:23.319 --> 00:02:26.680
<v Speaker 1>sixteen twenty one, a modest harvest celebrated in what later

33
00:02:26.719 --> 00:02:31.199
<v Speaker 1>become mythologized as the First Thanksgiving. The peace with the

34
00:02:31.319 --> 00:02:35.400
<v Speaker 1>wampanog people allowed the Pilgrim's time to take root, and

35
00:02:35.520 --> 00:02:40.159
<v Speaker 1>though their numbers grew slowly, they began to establish outposts

36
00:02:40.520 --> 00:02:45.400
<v Speaker 1>like Duxbury and Situate. The colony's moral and political center

37
00:02:45.520 --> 00:02:50.120
<v Speaker 1>was William Bradford, serving as governor for over thirty years.

38
00:02:50.800 --> 00:02:55.479
<v Speaker 1>Bradford recorded the community's trials and triumphs in of Plymouth Plantation.

39
00:02:56.520 --> 00:03:02.680
<v Speaker 1>His pros plain but often biblical, reflected as follows. Quote Thus,

40
00:03:02.960 --> 00:03:06.479
<v Speaker 1>out of small beginnings, greater things have been produced by

41
00:03:06.520 --> 00:03:11.800
<v Speaker 1>his hand that made all things of nothing end quote.

42
00:03:11.879 --> 00:03:14.759
<v Speaker 1>Without a royal charter, the colony governed itself under the

43
00:03:14.759 --> 00:03:20.360
<v Speaker 1>Mayflower Compact, the improvised but enduring agreement signed in sixteen twenty.

44
00:03:20.439 --> 00:03:22.960
<v Speaker 1>We talked about it last time. That declared the intention

45
00:03:23.159 --> 00:03:27.080
<v Speaker 1>of those in Plymouth to quote combine ourselves together into

46
00:03:27.120 --> 00:03:32.360
<v Speaker 1>a civil body politique end quote. By the late sixteen thirties,

47
00:03:32.919 --> 00:03:38.759
<v Speaker 1>Plymouth remained modest sized, only about two thousand settlers, but

48
00:03:38.840 --> 00:03:43.520
<v Speaker 1>it was stable. Its greatest challenge was now not mere survival,

49
00:03:44.120 --> 00:03:49.000
<v Speaker 1>but maintaining its identity alongside the rising power of its

50
00:03:49.120 --> 00:04:13.199
<v Speaker 1>larger neighbor to the north. While Plymouth struggled throughout its

51
00:04:13.240 --> 00:04:17.720
<v Speaker 1>early years, Massachusetts Bay was born differently. This was no

52
00:04:17.920 --> 00:04:22.040
<v Speaker 1>improvised experiment, but a well financed endeavor, backed by a

53
00:04:22.079 --> 00:04:25.839
<v Speaker 1>royal charter and driven by an ambitious dream. It would

54
00:04:25.839 --> 00:04:29.000
<v Speaker 1>not be a place of retreat, but of transformation. The

55
00:04:29.040 --> 00:04:33.560
<v Speaker 1>idea was to make a wholly commonwealth, a beacon to

56
00:04:33.680 --> 00:04:37.879
<v Speaker 1>the world. At the heart of that vision stands one man,

57
00:04:38.439 --> 00:04:43.279
<v Speaker 1>John Winthrop. Born in fifteen eighty seven into a prosperous

58
00:04:43.319 --> 00:04:48.519
<v Speaker 1>Suffolk gentry family, Winthrop was educated at Cambridge, trained in law,

59
00:04:49.079 --> 00:04:53.240
<v Speaker 1>and steeped in Calvinist piety. It was no radical, He

60
00:04:53.319 --> 00:04:58.079
<v Speaker 1>believed deeply in order, hierarchy, and godly discipline. By the

61
00:04:58.160 --> 00:05:02.240
<v Speaker 1>late sixteen twenties, the of King Charles the First and

62
00:05:02.319 --> 00:05:05.519
<v Speaker 1>Charles laud made it clear that there was no future

63
00:05:05.839 --> 00:05:10.360
<v Speaker 1>for Puritan reform within the Church of England. Winthrop and

64
00:05:10.439 --> 00:05:14.240
<v Speaker 1>his fellow Puritans would not separate from the Church. They

65
00:05:14.240 --> 00:05:19.160
<v Speaker 1>would simply recreate it in the new world. In sixteen

66
00:05:19.240 --> 00:05:24.120
<v Speaker 1>twenty nine, Winthrop was chosen governor of the newly chartered

67
00:05:24.199 --> 00:05:30.439
<v Speaker 1>Massachusetts Bay Colony. Before he and nearly one thousand colonists

68
00:05:30.480 --> 00:05:34.639
<v Speaker 1>departed in the spring of sixteen thirty, he composed a sermon,

69
00:05:35.240 --> 00:05:39.800
<v Speaker 1>a theological and political road map for their endeavor. He

70
00:05:39.879 --> 00:05:45.199
<v Speaker 1>titled it quote a Model of Christian Charity. He writes

71
00:05:45.240 --> 00:05:49.199
<v Speaker 1>in there, we must delight in each other, make each

72
00:05:49.240 --> 00:05:54.759
<v Speaker 1>other's conditions our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor and

73
00:05:54.800 --> 00:05:58.879
<v Speaker 1>suffer it together. And then of course, most famously, he writes,

74
00:05:59.600 --> 00:06:04.040
<v Speaker 1>we people of Massachusetts Bay Colony shall be a city

75
00:06:04.240 --> 00:06:10.600
<v Speaker 1>upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us,

76
00:06:11.639 --> 00:06:15.759
<v Speaker 1>delivered aboard the ship the Arbella. That sermon was never

77
00:06:15.839 --> 00:06:20.439
<v Speaker 1>formally published in his lifetime, but it became the moral

78
00:06:20.560 --> 00:06:26.240
<v Speaker 1>cornerstone of the entire colony. For Winthrop, this new society

79
00:06:26.279 --> 00:06:29.600
<v Speaker 1>would be bound not just by laws, but by a

80
00:06:29.639 --> 00:06:34.319
<v Speaker 1>spiritual covenant. If they failed to uphold it, they would

81
00:06:34.360 --> 00:06:38.759
<v Speaker 1>not merely falter. They would be judged by God and

82
00:06:38.920 --> 00:06:44.560
<v Speaker 1>man alike. When the fleet arrived in sixteen thirty, they

83
00:06:44.639 --> 00:06:49.759
<v Speaker 1>quickly established Boston as the capital. Within a decade. Thanks

84
00:06:49.759 --> 00:06:54.920
<v Speaker 1>to the Great Migration, the population of Massachusetts Bay swelled

85
00:06:55.160 --> 00:07:01.319
<v Speaker 1>to over fifteen thousand people between sixteen Already in sixteen forty,

86
00:07:01.360 --> 00:07:04.879
<v Speaker 1>a steady tide of humans across the Atlantic, not in

87
00:07:04.959 --> 00:07:08.879
<v Speaker 1>search of conquest, but of covenant with God. This movement

88
00:07:08.920 --> 00:07:11.959
<v Speaker 1>we know in history is the Great Migration, and brought

89
00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:15.800
<v Speaker 1>some twenty thousand English Puritans to the shores of New

90
00:07:15.839 --> 00:07:18.959
<v Speaker 1>England and also deep to the south, to the Caribbean.

91
00:07:19.600 --> 00:07:24.199
<v Speaker 1>It wasn't a single wave, it was a flowing river. Families, congregations, ministers,

92
00:07:24.240 --> 00:07:28.199
<v Speaker 1>tried tradesmen and school teachers flowing westward, bound by conscience

93
00:07:28.199 --> 00:07:31.560
<v Speaker 1>and conviction. They came not as individuals but as communities.

94
00:07:32.279 --> 00:07:37.560
<v Speaker 1>Entire churches uprooted themselves from English towns and reassembled themselves

95
00:07:37.720 --> 00:07:42.240
<v Speaker 1>in the wilds of America. Men like Thomas Hooker led

96
00:07:42.279 --> 00:07:45.519
<v Speaker 1>their flocks across the ocean, preaching from ship decks and

97
00:07:45.600 --> 00:07:48.560
<v Speaker 1>holding fast to the belief that they were chosen instruments

98
00:07:48.600 --> 00:07:53.279
<v Speaker 1>in God's providential design. As we know. One such traveler,

99
00:07:53.399 --> 00:07:56.959
<v Speaker 1>John Winthrop, recorded in his journal the spiritual purpose that

100
00:07:57.360 --> 00:08:01.439
<v Speaker 1>was this kind of migration. He wrote, the Lord will

101
00:08:01.519 --> 00:08:05.120
<v Speaker 1>make our name a praise upon the earth. We must

102
00:08:05.240 --> 00:08:08.439
<v Speaker 1>rather choose to leave our native country than to part

103
00:08:08.879 --> 00:08:13.240
<v Speaker 1>with the worship of God. The push from England was fierce.

104
00:08:13.959 --> 00:08:16.319
<v Speaker 1>Under Charles the first. We'll get into this very soon

105
00:08:16.360 --> 00:08:21.120
<v Speaker 1>in the podcast. The Puritans faced mounting pressure, harsh censorship,

106
00:08:21.800 --> 00:08:27.759
<v Speaker 1>hostile bishops, and threats constant threats of imprisonment. Archbishop Laud,

107
00:08:27.839 --> 00:08:30.879
<v Speaker 1>who again I'll get into in future episodes, led a

108
00:08:30.920 --> 00:08:35.440
<v Speaker 1>campaign to enforce conformity in the Anglican Church, and this

109
00:08:35.519 --> 00:08:38.279
<v Speaker 1>drove many to believe that spiritual corruption wasn't just creeping,

110
00:08:38.279 --> 00:08:42.080
<v Speaker 1>but it was galloping, galloping ahead, and so they fled,

111
00:08:42.919 --> 00:08:46.000
<v Speaker 1>not to escape the Church of England entirely, but to

112
00:08:46.080 --> 00:08:50.159
<v Speaker 1>purify it by example. They dreamed not of a world

113
00:08:50.240 --> 00:08:54.120
<v Speaker 1>of freedom, not religious freedom at least in the modern sense,

114
00:08:54.320 --> 00:08:57.159
<v Speaker 1>but of a reform society, governed by the world and

115
00:08:57.279 --> 00:09:01.159
<v Speaker 1>ruled by the ancient writings of the same and church fathers.

116
00:09:02.200 --> 00:09:07.240
<v Speaker 1>Massachusetts Bay would be their new Zion, Boston their new Jerusalem.

117
00:09:07.960 --> 00:09:11.320
<v Speaker 1>They founded schools, held fast to Covenant theology, and governed

118
00:09:11.320 --> 00:09:16.440
<v Speaker 1>themselves through town meetings. In this migration, unlike any before

119
00:09:16.440 --> 00:09:22.960
<v Speaker 1>in English colonization, religion and republicanism sailed together, and by

120
00:09:23.039 --> 00:09:28.120
<v Speaker 1>sixteen forty the Great Migration had ended. England itself now

121
00:09:28.120 --> 00:09:30.639
<v Speaker 1>would stand on the brink of civil war, and many

122
00:09:30.679 --> 00:09:34.639
<v Speaker 1>Puritans stayed to fight the battle on home soil. But

123
00:09:34.679 --> 00:09:38.559
<v Speaker 1>those who had crossed the sea had already planted something new,

124
00:09:39.360 --> 00:09:44.360
<v Speaker 1>a spiritual republic carved out of rock and conviction, destined

125
00:09:44.840 --> 00:09:50.200
<v Speaker 1>to shape the soul the Covenant. Winthrop's leadership was firm

126
00:09:50.320 --> 00:09:55.440
<v Speaker 1>but often paternal. He kept a careful diary, called, fittingly

127
00:09:55.840 --> 00:09:58.600
<v Speaker 1>the Journal of John Winthrop, which remains a key source

128
00:09:58.639 --> 00:10:02.879
<v Speaker 1>of understanding the colonies. Early Deparliament. In one entry dated

129
00:10:02.879 --> 00:10:05.360
<v Speaker 1>sixteen thirty he reflected on the death of his son

130
00:10:05.440 --> 00:10:08.840
<v Speaker 1>Henry and the suffering of their people, as follows, the

131
00:10:08.919 --> 00:10:12.360
<v Speaker 1>Lord hath afflicted us, yet he hath not forgotten to

132
00:10:12.399 --> 00:10:16.600
<v Speaker 1>be gracious. I am satisfied with the Lord's hand in it,

133
00:10:16.919 --> 00:10:20.399
<v Speaker 1>and he will do us good in the end. Yet

134
00:10:20.440 --> 00:10:23.879
<v Speaker 1>the unity that Winthrop preached was tested again and again.

135
00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:28.679
<v Speaker 1>Then in sixteen thirty six, Roger Williams, who is going

136
00:10:28.759 --> 00:10:31.480
<v Speaker 1>to be the subject of our next episode, challenged the

137
00:10:31.480 --> 00:10:34.799
<v Speaker 1>colony's right to occupy native lands and its enforcement of

138
00:10:34.799 --> 00:10:40.559
<v Speaker 1>religious conformity. Winthrop considered Williams dangerously radical, yet treated him

139
00:10:40.600 --> 00:10:44.279
<v Speaker 1>with some personal kindness, even as the General Court banished him.

140
00:10:44.600 --> 00:10:47.120
<v Speaker 1>As we'll find out next time, Williams would go on

141
00:10:47.200 --> 00:10:52.320
<v Speaker 1>to found Providence and the principle of general religious liberty. Likewise,

142
00:10:52.360 --> 00:10:54.559
<v Speaker 1>the other character will meet more next time is going

143
00:10:54.600 --> 00:10:58.080
<v Speaker 1>to be Ann Hutchinson, and Hutchinson was much more explosive

144
00:10:58.080 --> 00:11:02.639
<v Speaker 1>than Roger. Williams was a charismatic and theologically bold woman.

145
00:11:03.240 --> 00:11:05.600
<v Speaker 1>She held meetings in her home and accused the ministers

146
00:11:05.639 --> 00:11:09.879
<v Speaker 1>of preaching quote a covenant of works. Winthrop saw her

147
00:11:09.879 --> 00:11:12.200
<v Speaker 1>as a threat, not only to doctrine, but to social order.

148
00:11:12.919 --> 00:11:16.159
<v Speaker 1>In sixteen thirty seven, she was tried and exiled, with

149
00:11:16.320 --> 00:11:19.480
<v Speaker 1>Ruinthrop writing, as sort of a PostScript, quote, a woman

150
00:11:19.679 --> 00:11:22.600
<v Speaker 1>is not fit for our society, an unfit for the

151
00:11:22.600 --> 00:11:26.080
<v Speaker 1>place where she is end quote. He meant it as

152
00:11:26.080 --> 00:11:29.519
<v Speaker 1>a sick burn. Unfortunately, Dan Hutchinson is going to have

153
00:11:29.519 --> 00:11:33.320
<v Speaker 1>the last laught there for all its religious zeal. Though

154
00:11:33.360 --> 00:11:38.639
<v Speaker 1>Massachusetts Bay was also a commercial success. The colony exported timber,

155
00:11:39.039 --> 00:11:44.080
<v Speaker 1>furs and salted fish. It built schools, including Harvard College

156
00:11:44.200 --> 00:11:46.720
<v Speaker 1>if you've heard of it in sixteen thirty six, to

157
00:11:46.879 --> 00:11:50.559
<v Speaker 1>ensure an educated ministry, and it operated with a sophisticated

158
00:11:50.600 --> 00:11:53.919
<v Speaker 1>political system in which each town sent deputies to the

159
00:11:53.960 --> 00:11:59.600
<v Speaker 1>General Court, laying the foundations for representative government. Throughout the

160
00:11:59.600 --> 00:12:03.440
<v Speaker 1>sixteen thirties, Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay eyed each other with

161
00:12:03.600 --> 00:12:08.240
<v Speaker 1>both some measure of fraternity and some measure of friction.

162
00:12:09.159 --> 00:12:14.159
<v Speaker 1>The Bay colonists often viewed Plymouth as quaint and insufficiently zealous.

163
00:12:14.639 --> 00:12:19.440
<v Speaker 1>Plymouth's leaders, in turn regarding the rapid Bay's expansion with

164
00:12:19.639 --> 00:12:24.279
<v Speaker 1>intolerance and some on ease. Still, they cooperated when they

165
00:12:24.279 --> 00:12:29.240
<v Speaker 1>had to. In sixteen thirty six, both colonies raised militias

166
00:12:29.279 --> 00:12:32.159
<v Speaker 1>to confront the growing threat from the Peaquad people, and

167
00:12:32.240 --> 00:12:34.159
<v Speaker 1>though the war would not come to a head until

168
00:12:34.200 --> 00:12:37.120
<v Speaker 1>sixteen thirty seven, it marked the beginning of a new

169
00:12:37.600 --> 00:12:43.120
<v Speaker 1>unified colonial front. In sixteen forty three, both would join

170
00:12:43.159 --> 00:12:47.279
<v Speaker 1>the New England Confederation, a defensive alliance that marked the

171
00:12:47.320 --> 00:12:53.320
<v Speaker 1>first ever American attempt at regional unity. By sixteen forty

172
00:12:53.679 --> 00:12:57.399
<v Speaker 1>the shape of New England was clear. Plymouth, humble and enduring,

173
00:12:57.720 --> 00:13:01.720
<v Speaker 1>had laid the moral groundwork for self rule. Massachusetts Bay,

174
00:13:02.159 --> 00:13:07.000
<v Speaker 1>bold and more rigorous, and certainly more industrial, had established

175
00:13:07.320 --> 00:13:12.600
<v Speaker 1>a model of covenantal theocracy and civic ambition. On top

176
00:13:12.639 --> 00:13:18.039
<v Speaker 1>of it all was John Winthrop, lawyer, theologian, patriarch, governor.

177
00:13:18.840 --> 00:13:22.960
<v Speaker 1>He didn't seek personal glory. In fact, his diary he

178
00:13:23.000 --> 00:13:26.919
<v Speaker 1>once wrote, the work we have in hand is by

179
00:13:27.039 --> 00:13:31.679
<v Speaker 1>mutual consent to seek out a place of cohabitation and

180
00:13:31.759 --> 00:13:40.200
<v Speaker 1>consortship under a due form of government, both civil and ecclesiastical. Ambitious, sure,

181
00:13:41.039 --> 00:13:45.200
<v Speaker 1>but John Winthrop and his Massachusetts Bay colony laid the

182
00:13:45.240 --> 00:13:51.480
<v Speaker 1>groundwork for what is going to come afterwards, American democracy.