Religion
Calvinist doctrine that God has foreordained some people to be saved and some to be damned. Though their fate was irreversible, Calvinists, particularly those who believed they were destined for salvation, sought to lead sanctified lives in order to demonstrate to others that they were in fact members of the "elect".
Predestination
Agreement to form a majoritarian government in Plymouth, signed aboard the Mayflower. Created a foundation for self-government in the colony.
Mayflower Compact (1620).
Armed conflict between royalists and parliamentarians, resulting in the victory of pro-Parliamentarian forces and the execution of Charles I.
English Civil War (1642-1649).
German friar who touched off the Protestant Reformation when he nailed a list of grievances against the Catholic Church to the door of Wittenberg's cathedral in 1517.
Martin Luther (1483-1546).
Puritan general who helped lead parliamentary forces during the English Civil War, and ruled England as Lord Protector from 1653 until his death in 1658.
Oliver Cromwell
Dominant theological credo of the New England Puritans based on the teachings of John Calvin. Calvinists believed in predestination- that only "the elect" were destined for salvation.
Calvinism
Established by non-separating Puritans, it soon grew to be the largest and most influential of the New England colonies.
Massachusetts Bay Colony (founded in 1630)
Began with an Indian attack on Newbern, North Carolina. After the Tuscaroras were defeated, remaining Indian survivors migrated northward, eventually joining the Iroquois Confederacy as its sixth nation.
Tuscarora War (1711-1713).
French Protestant reformer whose religious teachings formed the theological basis for New England Puritans, Scottish Presbyterians, French Huguenots, and members of the Dutch Reformed Church; he argued that humans were inherently weak and wicked, and he believed in an all-knowing, all-powerful God who predestined select individuals for salvation.
John Calvin (1509-1546).
Soldier-statesman and leading founder of Georgia. A champion of prison reform, he established Georgia as a haven for debtors seeking to avoid imprisonment. During the War of Jenkins's Ear, he successfully led his colonists in battle, repelling a Spanish attack on British territory.
James Oglethorpe (1696-1785).
Intense religious experience that confirmed an individual's place among the "elect," or the "visible saints." Calvinists who experienced conversion were then expected to lead sanctified lives to demonstrate their salvation.
Conversion
Migration of seventy thousand refugees from England to the North American colonies, primarily New England and the Caribbean. The twenty thousand migrants who came to Massachusetts largely shared a common sense of purpose- to establish a model Christian settlement in the new world.
Great English Migration (1630-1642)
Series of clashes between English settlers and Pequot Indians in the Connecticut River Valley. Ended in the slaughter of the Pequots by the Puritans and their Narragansett Indian allies.
Pequot War (1636-1638).
Antinomian religious dissenter brought to trial for heresy in MA Bay after arguing that she need not follow wither God's laws or man's claiming direct revelation from God; banished from the Puritan colony she moved to Rhode Island and later New York where she and her family were killed by Indians.
Anne Hutchinson (ca. 1591-1643).
Wampanoag chieftain who signed a peace treaty with Plymouth Bay settlers in 1621 and helped them celebrate the first Thanksgiving.
Massasoit (ca. 1590-1661).
English Protestant reformers who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic rituals and creeds. Some of the most devout believed that only "visible saints" should be admitted to church membership.
Puritans
Drafted by settlers in the Connecticut River Valley, document was the first "modern constitution" establishing a democratically controlled government. Key features of the document were borrowed for Connecticut's colonial charter and later, its state constitution.
Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (1639).
Series of assaults by Metacom, King Philip, on English settlements in New England. The attacks slowed the westward migration of New England settlers for several decades.
King Philip's War (Metacom's War) 1675-1676.
Salem minister who advocated a complete break form the Church of England and criticized the MA Bay Colony for unlawfully taking land from the Indians; banished for his heresies, he established a small community in present-day Rhode Island, later acquiring a charter for the colony from England.
Roger Williams (ca. 1603-1683).
Charles II (1630-1685; r. 1660-1685).
Small group of Puritans who sought to break away entirely from the Church of England; after initially settling in Holland, a number of English Separatists made their way to Plymouth Bay, Massachusetts in 1620.
Separatists
Weak union of the colonies in Massachusetts and Connecticut led by Puritans for the purposes of defense and organization, an early attempt at self-government during the benign neglect of the English Civil War.
New England Confederation (1643).
Relatively peaceful overthrow of the unpopular Catholic monarch, James II, replacing him with Dutch-born William III and Mary, daughter of James II. William and Mary accepted increased Parliamentary oversight and new limits on monarchical authority.
Glorious Revolution (1688)
Prominent Quaker activist who founded Pennsylvania as a haven for fellow Quakers in 1681; established friendly relations with neighboring Indian tribes and attracted a wide array of settlers to his colony with promises of economic opportunity and ethnic and religious toleration.
William Penn (1644-1718).
Dutch-born monarch and his English-born wife, daughter of King James II, installed to the British throne during the Glorious Revolution of 1689. They relaxed control over the American colonies, inaugurating a period of "salutary neglect" that lasted until the French and Indian War.
William III and Mary II.