Chapter 5

The colonists fortified their houses with palisades, carried their arms with them into the fields when at work, and stacked them at the door when at church. The Narraganset Indians favored Philip, and seemed on the point of joining his alliance. They had gathered their winter's provisions, and fortified themselves in the midst of an almost inaccessible swamp. Fifteen hundred of the colonists accordingly attacked them in this stronghold. The Indian wigwams and stores were burned, and one thousand warriors perished. In the spring the war broke out anew along a frontier of three hundred miles, and to within twenty miles of Boston. Nowhere fighting in the open field, but by ambuscade and skulking, the Indians kept the whole country in terror. Driven to desperation by their atrocities, the settlers hunted down the savages like wild beasts. Philip was chased from one hiding-place to another. His family being captured at last, he fled, broken-hearted, to his old home on Mt. Hope, near Bristol, E. I., where he was shot by a faithless Indian.

NEW ENGLAND A ROYAL PROVINCE.--The Navigation Act (p. 51), which we have seen so unpopular in Virginia, was exceedingly oppressive in Massachusetts, which possessed a thriving commerce. In spite of the decree the colony opened a trade with the West Indies. The royalists in England determined that this bold republican spirit should be quelled. An English officer who attempted to enforce the Navigation Act having been compelled to return home, Charles II, eagerly seized upon the excuse thus offered, and made Massachusetts a _royal province_. The king died before his plan was completed, but James II. (1686) declared the charters of all the New England colonies forfeited, and sent over Sir Edmund Andros, as first royal governor of New England. He carried things with a high hand. The colonies endured his oppression for three years, when, learning that his royal master was dethroned, they rose against their petty tyrant and put him in jail. With true Puritan sobriety they then quietly resumed their old form of government. This lasted for three years, when Sir William Phipps came as royal governor over a province embracing Massachusetts, Maine, and Nova Scotia. From this time till the Revolution, Massachusetts remained a royal province.

SALEM WITCHCRAFT (1692).--A strange delusion known as the Salem witchcraft, produced the most intense excitement. The children of Mr. Parris, a minister near Salem, performed pranks which could be explained only by supposing that they were under Satanic influence. Every effort was made to discover who had bewitched them. An Indian servant was flogged until she admitted herself to be guilty. Soon others were affected, and the terrible mania spread rapidly. Committees of examination were appointed and courts of trial convened. The most improbable stories were credited. To express a doubt of witchcraft was to indicate one's own alliance with the evil spirit. Persons of the highest respectability, clergymen, magistrates, and even the governor's wife were implicated. At last, after fifty-five persons had been tortured and twenty hung, the people awoke to their folly.

[Footnote: A belief in witchcraft was at that time universal. Sir Matthew Hale, one of the most enlightened judges of England, repeatedly tried and condemned persons accused of witchcraft. Blackstone himself, at a later day, declared that to deny witchcraft was to deny Revelation. Cotton Mather, the most prominent minister of the colony, was active in the rooting out of this supposed crime. He published a book full of the most ridiculous witch stories. One judge, who engaged in this persecution, was afterward so deeply penitent that he observed a day of fasting in each year, and on the day of general fast rose in his place in the Old South Church at Boston, and in the presence of the congregation handed to the pulpit a written confession acknowledging his error, and praying for forgiveness.]

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MAINE AND NEW HAMPSHIRE.

THESE COLONIES were so intimately united with Massachusetts that they have almost a common history. Gorges (gor-jez) and Mason, about two years after the landing of the Pilgrims, obtained from the Council for New England the grant of a large tract of land which lay between the Merrimac and Kennebec Rivers. They established some small fishing stations near Portsmouth and at Dover. This patent being afterward dissolved, Mason took the country lying west of the Piscataqua, and named it New Hampshire; Gorges took that lying east, and termed it the province of Maine.

[Footnote: To distinguish it from the islands along the coast, this country had been called the Mayne (main) land, which perhaps gave rise to its present name. New Hampshire was so called from Hampshire in England, Mason's home. The settlers of New Hampshire were long vexed with suits brought by the men into whose hands Mason's grant had fallen.]

Massachusetts, however, claimed this territory, and to secure it paid six thousand dollars to the heirs of Gorges. Maine was not separated from Massachusetts till 1820. The feeble settlements of New Hampshire also placed themselves under the protection of Massachusetts. "Three times, either by their own consent or by royal authority, they were joined in one colony, and as often separated," until 1741, when New Hampshire became a royal province, and so remained until the Revolution.

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CONNECTICUT.

[Footnote: This State is named from its principal river-- (Connecticut being the Indian word for _Long River_).]

SETTLEMENT.--About eleven years after the landing of the Pilgrims, Lord Say-and-Seal and Lord Brooke obtained from the Earl of Warwick a transfer of the grant of the Connecticut valley, which he had secured from the Council for New England. The Dutch claimed the territory, and before the English could take possession, built a fort at Hartford, and commenced traffic with the Indians. Some traders from Plymouth sailing up the river were stopped by the Dutch, who threatened to fire upon them. But they kept on and established a post at Windsor (win'-zer). Many people from Boston, allured by the rich meadow lands, settled near. In the autumn of 1635, John Steele, one of the proprietors of Cambridge, led a pioneer company "out west," as it was then called, and laid the foundations of Hartford. The next year the main band, with their pastor--Thomas Hooker, a most eloquent and estimable man--came, driving their flocks before them through the wilderness. In the meantime John Winthrop established a fort at the mouth of the river, and thus shut out the Dutch. This colony, in honor of the proprietors, was named Saybrook.

[Footnote: John Winthrop appears in history without blemish. Highly educated and accomplished, he was no less upright and generous. In the bloom of life, he left all his brilliant prospects in the old world to follow the fortunes of the new. When his father had made himself poor in nurturing the Massachusetts colony, this noble son gave up voluntarily his own large inheritance to "further the good work." It was through his personal influence and popularity at court that the liberal charter was procured from Charles II. which guaranteed freedom to Connecticut.]

THE PEQUOD WAR.--The colonists had no sooner become settled in their new home than the Pequod Indians endeavored to persuade the Narragansets to join them in a general attack upon the whites. Roger Williams hearing of this, and forgetting all the injuries he had received, on a stormy night set out in his canoe for the Indian village. Though the Pequod messengers were present, he prevailed upon the old Narraganset chief to remain at home. So the Pequods lost their ally and were forced to fight alone. They commenced by murdering thirty colonists. Captain Mason, therefore, resolved to attack their stronghold on the Mystic River. His party approached the fort at daybreak (June 4, 1637). Aroused by the barking of a dog, the sleepy sentinel shouted "Owanux! Owanux!" (the Englishmen! ) but it was too late. The troops were already within the palisades. The Indians, rallying, made a fierce resistance, when Captain Mason, seizing a firebrand, hurled it among the wigwams. The flames quickly swept through the encampment. The English themselves barely escaped. The few Indians who fled to the swamps were hunted down. The tribe perished in a day.

THE THREE COLONIES.--1. _The New Haven Colony_ was founded (1638) by a number of wealthy London families. They took the Bible for law, and only church members could vote. 2. _The Connecticut Colony_, proper, comprising Hartford, Wethersfield and Windsor, adopted a written constitution in which it was agreed to give to all freemen the right to vote. This was the _first instance in history of a written constitution framed by the people_. 3. _The Saybrook Colony_ was at first governed by the proprietors, but was afterward sold to the Connecticut colony. This reduced the three colonies to two.

A ROYAL CHARTER was obtained (1662) which united both these colonies and guaranteed to all the rights upon which the Connecticut colonists had agreed. This was a precious document, since it gave them almost independence, and was the most favorable yet granted to any colony. Twenty-four years after, Governor Andros marching from Boston over the route where the pious Hooker had led his little flock fifty years before, came "glittering with scarlet and lace" into the assembly at Hartford, and demanded the charter. A protracted debate ensued. The people crowded around to take a last look at this guarantee of their liberties, when suddenly the lights were extinguished. On being relighted, the charter was gone. William Wadsworth had seized it, escaped through the crowd and hidden it in the hollow of a tree, famous ever after as the _Charter Oak_. However, Andros pronounced the charter government at an end. "Finis" was written at the close of the minutes of their last meeting. When the governor was so summarily deposed in Boston the people brought the charter from its hiding-place, the general court reassembled, and the "finis" disappeared.

[Footnote: Another attempt to infringe upon charter rights occurred in 1693. Governor Fletcher ordered the militia placed under his own command. Having called them out to listen to his royal commission, he began to read. Immediately Captain Wadsworth ordered the drums to be beaten. Fletcher commanded silence, and began again. "Drum, drum!" cried Wadsworth. "Silence!" shouted the governor. "Drum, drum, I say!" repeated the captain; and then turning to Fletcher, with a meaning look, he added: "If I am interrupted again, I will make the sun shine through you." The governor did not press the matter.--The story of the Charter Oak is denied by some, who claim that contemporary history does not mention it, and that probably Andros seized the charter, while the colonists had previously made a copy.]

RHODE ISLAND.

[Footnote: An island of a reddish appearance was observed lying in the bay. This was known to the Dutch as Roode or Red Island. Hence the name of the island and State of Rhode Island.--_Brodhead_.]

SETTLEMENT. Roger Williams settled Providence Plantation in 1636, the year in which Hooker came to Hartford. Other exiles from Massachusetts followed, among them the celebrated Mrs. Hutchinson. A party of these purchased the island of Aquiday and established the Rhode Island Plantation. Roger Williams stamped upon these colonies his favorite idea of religious toleration, i.e., that the civil power has no right to interfere with the religious opinions of men.

[Footnote: William Blackstone, being as dissatisfied with the yoke of the "lords brethren" in Boston as with that of the "lord bishops" in England, some time before this removed to the banks of what is now called the Blackstone, near Providence. He, however, acknowledged the jurisdiction of Massachusetts.]

[Footnote: Persecuted refugees from all quarters flocked to Providence; and Williams shared equally with all the lands he had obtained, reserving to himself only two small fields which, on his first arrival, he had planted with his own hands.]

A CHARTER.--The colonists wished to join the New England Union, but were refused on the ostensible plea that they had no charter. Williams accordingly visited England and obtained a charter uniting the two plantations. On his return the people met, elected their officers, and (1647) agreed on a set of laws guaranteeing freedom of faith and worship to all,--"the first legal declaration of liberty of conscience ever adopted in Europe or America."

NEW YORK.

SETTLEMENT.--Soon after the discovery of the Hudson, as previously described (p. 39), Dutch ships began to visit the river to traffic in furs with the Indians. Afterward the West India Company obtained a grant of New Netherland, and under its patronage permanent settlements were made at New Amsterdam and also at Fort Orange (Albany). The company allowed persons who should plant a colony of fifty settlers to select and buy land of the Indians, which it was agreed should descend to their heirs forever. These persons were called "patroons" (patrons) of the manor.

[Footnote: Some huts were built by the Dutch traders on Manhattan Island in 1613. and a trading-post was established a year or two after. A fort was completed, in 1615, south of the present site of Albany. Eight or nine years later, a party of Walloons or Protestants from Belgian provinces were brought over by the company. About the same time, Fort Orange was erected, and eighteen families built their bark huts under its protection. In 1626, Minuit, the first governor, arrived in New Amsterdam, and purchased Manhattan Island of the Indians for about $24, nearly 1 mill per acre.--Some of the old Dutch manors remain to this day. The famous anti-rent difficulties (p. 182) grew out of such titles.]

EPOCH II.

The history of New York for twenty years is only an account of Indian butcheries., varied by difficulties with the Swedes on the Delaware, and the English on the Connecticut.

[Footnote: These disputes arose from the fact that the Dutch claimed the territory lying between the Delaware and the Connecticut.]

THE FOUR DUTCH GOVERNORS

These disturbances are monotonous enough in the recital, but doubtless thrilled the blood of the early Knickerbockers. Peter Stuyvesant was the last and ablest of the four Dutch governors. He agreed with Connecticut upon the boundary line, and taking an armed force, marched upon the Swedes, who at once submitted to him. But the old Governor hated democratic institutions, and was terribly vexed in this wise. There were some English in the colony, and they longed for the rights of self-government which the Connecticut people enjoyed. They kept demanding these privileges and talking of them to their Dutch neighbors. At this juncture an English fleet came to anchor in the harbor, and demanded the surrender of the town in the name of the Duke of York. Stout-hearted old Peter pleaded with his council to fight. But in vain. They rather liked the idea of English rule. The surrender was signed, and at last the reluctant governor attached his name. In September, 1664, the English flag floated over Manhattan Island. The colony was named New York in honor of the proprietor.

THE ENGLISH GOVERNORS disappointed the people by not granting them their coveted rights. A remonstrance against being taxed without representation was burned by the hangman. So that when, after nine years of English rule, a Dutch fleet appeared in the harbor, the people went back quietly under their old rulers. But the next year peace being restored between England and Holland, New Amsterdam became New York again. Thus ended the Dutch rule in the colonies. Andros, who twelve years after played the tyrant in New England, was the next governor, but he ruled so arbitrarily that he was called home. Under his successor, Dongan, an assembly of the representatives of the people was called, by permission of the Duke of York. This was but a transient gleam of civil freedom, for two years alter, when the Duke of York became James II., king of England, he forgot all his promises, forbade legislative assemblies, prohibited printing-presses, and annexed the colony to New England. When, however, Andros was driven from Boston, Nicholson, his lieutenant and apt tool of tyranny in New York, fled at once. Captain Leisler, supported by the democracy but bitterly opposed by the aristocracy, thereupon administered affairs very prudently until the arrival of Governor Sloughter (slaw-ter) who arrested him on the absurd charge of treason. Sloughter was unwilling to execute him, but Leisler's enemies, at a dinner party, made the governor drunk, obtained his signature, and before he became sober enough to repent, Leisler was no more.

[Footnote: For many years the Atlantic Ocean was infested by pirates. A little after the events narrated above, William Kidd, a New York shipmaster, was sent out to cruise against these sea-robbers. He turned pirate himself and became the most noted of them all. Returning from his cruise, he was at length captured while boldly walking in the streets of Boston. He was carried to England, tried, and hung. His name and deeds have been woven into popular romance, and the song "My name is Captain Kidd, as I sailed, as I sailed," is well known. He is believed to have buried his ill-gotten riches on the coast of Long Island or the banks of the Hudson, and these localities have been oftentimes searched by credulous persons seeking for Kidd's treasure.]

From this time till the Revolution, the struggles of the people with the royal governors for their rights, developed the spirit of liberty and paved the way for that eventful crisis.

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NEW JERSEY.

SETTLEMENT.--The present State of New Jersey was embraced in the territory of New Netherland, and the Dutch made settlements at several places near New York. Soon after New Netherland passed into the hands of the Duke of York, he gave the land between the Hudson and the Delaware to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. In 1664, a company from Long Island and New England settled at Elizabethtown, which they named after Carteret's wife. This was the first permanent English settlement in the State.

[Footnote: This tract was called New Jersey in honor of Carteret, who had been governor of Jersey island in the English Channel.]

EAST AND WEST JERSEY.--Lord Berkeley sold his share to some English Quakers. This part was called _West Jersey_. A company of Quakers soon settled at Burlington. Others followed, and thus West Jersey became a Quaker colony. Sir George Carteret's portion was called _East Jersey_. After his death it was sold to William Penn and eleven other Quakers.

[Footnote: It was settled, however, largely by Puritans and Scotch Presbyterians. The latter having refused to accept the English form of religion, had been bitterly persecuted. Fleming their native country they found an asylum in this favored land.]

NEW JERSEY UNITED.--Constant disputes arose out of the land titles. Among so many proprietors the tenants hardly knew from whom to obtain their titles for land. The proprietors finally (1702) surrendered their rights of government to the English crown, and the whole of New Jersey was united with New York under one governor, but with a separate assembly. Thirty-six years after, at the earnest request of the people, New Jersey was set apart as a distinct royal province.

PENNSYLVANIA AND DELAWARE.

SETTLEMENT.--The first permanent settlement in Delaware was made (1638) by the Swedes, on a tract which they called New Sweden, lying near Wilmington. They also made the first settlement in Pennsylvania, a few miles below Philadelphia. The Dutch subsequently conquered these settlements, but they continued to prosper long after the Swedish and Dutch rule had yielded to the constantly growing English power.

_William Penn_, the founder of Pennsylvania, was a celebrated English Quaker, He obtained from Charles II. a grant of the land lying west of the Delaware.

[Footnote: The Quakers, avoiding unmeaning forms, aim to lead purely spiritual lives. Their usual worship is conducted in solemn silence, each soul for itself. They take no oath, make no compliments, remove not the hat to king or ruler, and "thee" and "thou" both friend and foe. Every day is to them a holy day, and the Sabbath simply a day of rest. We can readily see how this must have scandalized the Puritans. William Penn became a Quaker while in college at Oxford. Refusing to wear the customary student's surplice, he with others violently assaulted some fellow-students and stripped them of their robes. For this he was expelled. His father would not allow him to return home. Afterward relenting, he sent him to Paris, Cork, and other cities, to soften his Quaker peculiarities. After several unhappy quarrels, his father proposed to overlook all else if he would only consent to doff his hat to the king, the Duke of York, and himself. Penn still refusing, he was again turned out of doors. He was several times imprisoned for his religious extremes. On the death of his father, to whom he had once more been reconciled, he became heir to quite a fortune. He took the territory which forms Pennsylvania in payment of a debt of 16,000 pounds due his father from the crown.]

This tract Penn named Sylvania, but the king insisted upon calling it Pennsylvania

[Footenote: Penn offered the secretary who drew up the charter twenty guineas to leave off the prefix "Penn" This request being denied, the king was appealed to, who commanded the tract to be called Pennsylvania] (Penn's woods) in honor of William Penn's father.

The Duke of York added to this grant the present State of Delaware, which soon came to be termed the "Three lower counties on the Delaware." Penn wished to form a refuge for his Quaker brethren, who were bitterly persecuted in England. He at once sent over large numbers, as many as two thousand in a single year. The next year he came himself, and was received by the settlers with the greatest cordiality and respect.

PHILADELPHIA FOUNDED.--The year following (1683) Penn purchased land of the Swedes and laid out a city which he named Philadelphia, signifying _brotherly love_. It was in the midst of the forest, and the startled deer bounded past the settler who came to survey his new home. Yet within a year it contained one hundred houses; in two years numbered over two thousand inhabitants; and in three years gained more than New York had in half a century.

THE GREAT LAW was a code agreed upon by the legislative body which Penn called from among the settlers soon after his arrival. It made faith in Christ a necessary qualification for voting and office-holding; but also provided that no one believing in "Almighty God" should be molested in his religious views. The Quakers, having been persecuted themselves, did not celebrate their liberty by persecuting others. Penn, himself, surrendered the most of his power to the people. His highest ambition seemed to be to advance their interests. He often declared that if he knew anything more that could make them happier, he would freely grant it.

PENN'S TREATY WITH THE INDIANS possesses a romantic interest. He met them under a large elm tree near Philadelphia.