Massachusetts Orthodoxy & Dissent
A society where religious leadership and civil government are completely fused, as in early Massachusetts Bay.
What is a "Theocracy"?
Boston woman put on trial in 1638 for challenging clergy authority and claiming direct personal revelation from God.
Who is Anne Hutchinson?
Native Americans who converted to Puritan Christianity and settled in supervised colonial settlements.
Who are "Praying Indians"?
The 1637 war where English colonists and Native allies burned a Native palisade at Mystic River, slaughtering ~500 people.
What is the Pequot War?
Spanish military bases built to guard missions and trade routes in the borderlands.
What are Presidios?
In Puritan/Calvinist theology, those chosen by God for salvation who alone could vote in the colony.
Who are the "Elect"?
Fertile farming land west of Boston along the river where settlers established new towns like Hartford
What is the Connecticut Valley?
Puritan missionary known as the "Apostle to the Indians" who translated the Bible into the Algonquian language.
Who is John Eliot?
The Wampanoag sachem who united regional Native tribes in 1675 to resist English land encroachment.
Who is Metacomet (or King Philip)?
Frontier zones where neither European colonizers nor Native tribes exercised dominant control, requiring negotiation and gift exchange.
What are "Middle grounds"?
Puritan minister who left Massachusetts in 1635 to found Hartford in the fertile Connecticut Valley.
Who is Thomas Hooker?
Northern colony granted to John Mason in 1629 that was populated by followers of Anne Hutchinson and became a royal colony in 1679.
What is New Hampshire?
The Native American tribe that befriended Roger Williams and fought alongside the English in the Pequot War.
Who are the Narragansetts?
The high-casualty 1675–1676 war that ended sovereign Native military resistance in southern New England.
What is King Philip’s War?
Older firearms that required a slow-burning lit cord to ignite gunpowder.
What are Matchlock rifles?
Separatist minister banished from Massachusetts in 1635 who founded Rhode Island with complete religious liberty and separation of church and state.
Who is Roger Williams?
English proprietor who received the colonial council grant that founded New Hampshire.
Who is Captain John Mason?
The Native American tribe led by Uncas that allied with Connecticut colonists to defeat the Pequots in 1637.
Who are the Mohegans?
The swamp in Rhode Island where colonial militia burned a fortified Narragansett winter village in 1675, killing hundreds of non-combatants.
What is the Great Swamp?
Advanced firearms using a flint-struck hammer that Native warriors mastered with deadly effectiveness in King Philip's War.
What are Flintlock rifles?
The theological doctrine championed by Anne Hutchinson claiming that the saved "elect" did not need to obey church or moral laws.
What is "Antinomianism"?
English proprietor granted the northern wilderness territory of Maine in 1639.
Who is Sir Ferdinando Gorges?
The Iroquois nation that allied with the English in 1676, ambushing and killing Metacomet to end King Philip's War.
Who are the Mohawks?
Northern frontier territory granted to Gorges in 1639 that remained under Massachusetts government for nearly two centuries.
What is Maine?
Small military outposts and stations built to guard Spanish settlements against sudden indigenous attacks.
What are Garrisons?