Popular mythology would have one believing that the Mayflower pilgrims and other early English “planters” arrived blindly and boldly into the New World. However, explorers funded by private investor groups and endorsed by the respective monarchies of England, France, Holland and Spain had been treading the soil and waters of the North American continent extensively for nearly 120 years by the time of the arrival of the Mayflower, oftentimes crossing paths within days of one another. This exploration, with a few noted exceptions, was less about colonization and more concerned with increased capital gains, as the nations of Europe sought means to replenish their treasuries depleted by battles conducted against each other by exploiting the natural resources of coastal North America of its fish, fur, and medicinal plants. Sassafras, for example, which aided in the treatment of the symptoms of syphilis and gonorrhea that was running rampant throughout northern Europe, was found in abundance and extracted extensively from the peninsula of Cape Cod decades before the arrival of the Mayflower. Hindsight shows that the unwillingness on the part of these nations to cooperate and share valuable information of their discoveries contributed to much of the early tragedy and suffering experienced throughout the explorations and early attempts to colonize. True plans for establishing permanent English settlements on the mainland of America were not even seriously and thoughtfully considered as a means to expand the British Empire until the growing Protestant movement of England began to erode the influence of its monarchs.
There were less than a dozen investors and Charter signers, primarily from the old English landed gentry class in service to the newly appointed Governor, who remained with the Company and came to America with the political and legal authority as “Court Assistants” to administer to the affairs of the common settlers and establish a rule of law within the challenging early days of the founding of Massachusetts. Rules were therefore eventually implemented to slowly phase in and admit select segments of the general male population. “Mechanics”, surveyors, engineers and other skilled specialized tradesmen were encouraged to become “Freemen” so as to aid in the civil transformation of a growing and diverse band of refugees who found themselves pressed along the edges of a formidable wilderness in desperate squalor to a functional, prosperous and God-faring society.
Initially, while John Winthrop and Thomas Dudley were unfortunately engaged in a personal test of wills regarding the physical location of their new home upon their arrival in 1632 to “Trimountain” (modern-day Boston), and squandering precious time needed to build before the arrival of winter (at great mortal expense to their weary companions), it was quickly determined that only the most pious of Puritan men who were not already members of the clergy could be admitted as a Free Man. A Freeman candidate was required to renounce all prior Church affiliations and swear an “oath of fidelity” towards God, the Puritan Philosophy, and most significantly, to the governing authority of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. This oath entitled them to the right to file legal suits, conduct basic business transactions and voice their concerns of community issues, but it also obligated them to many political, legal and administrative responsibilities which positioned these candidates to become potentially required to fulfill unreasonable demands. Essentially, the Massachusetts Bay Colony’s interpretation of the Puritan Philosophy dictated that the only way a man could enjoy basic civil rights was to first prove himself before a jury of “saintly men”. This jury typically consisted of members of the Court of Assistants and ranking Pastors who would determine that he had in fact been called upon as one of “God’s Elect” and therefore deemed to be virtuous, moral and beyond reproach to become a leader among ordinary men. These requirements were perceived many as very subjective, if not too stringent, and deterred many potential candidates from being seduced into an obedience to the personal whims of a developing theocratic or oligarchic ruling class. Therefore, a second phase was implemented within a few short years in response to the demands of a growing population. This new “phase” included the “oath of allegiance” which was opened to any man who faithfully attended to Church and proven to his peers of being of good social standing and moral personal character.
While many of those who emigrated to America as Puritans simply sought religious and social refuge from England, hindsight seems to tragically indicate that they were manipulated through their need for religious and civil guidance as they set out to bring into reality Winthrop’s grand vision of God’s “City upon the hill”. The Freemen system, intentionally designed to enable the Governor and his Court of Assistants, evolved into the formation of a lower governing body of legislators within the Massachusetts Bay Colony who voted on community-level issues that would be passed along to be hopefully considered and enacted upon by the upper house, the Court of Assistants. This basic organizational bicameral structure was adopted nearly 160 years later by the founders of the “United States” as the “House of Representatives” (Assembly of Freemen) and the “Senate” (Court of Assistants). But unlike our modern government structure, there was at this time no central American government with a system of checks and balances, nor was the concept of separation of Church and State ever even considered. They believed in the contrary, in fact, as they intentionally established no channels independent from the church hierarchy through which the communities could freely communicate and express their individual concerns. Political control was successfully leveraged by manipulating the settlers with the fear of God’s Wrath. This was exercised through the influence of wealthy educated “ecclesiasts” and “divines” whose politically motivated religious propaganda castigated those who worshiped outside their particularly strict religious doctrine, but more significantly, justified the Colony’s harsh actions and maintained their oppressive influence over the already stressed and desperately dependent planters.
From the perspective of the well-entrenched members of the old English ruling class, the Puritan expansion into the new world was simply a means of exploiting natural resources and tragically, Native Americans, Quakers, “Antinomians”, Anabaptists, and others who happened to hinder this intent, as we will learn, were simply regarded expendable as non-conforming burdens upon this new “society”. Unfortunately, despite the obvious foreknowledge provided through their correspondence with the “Separatist” clergy who confronted and settled a vast uncharted wilderness twelve years earlier, and despite even being greeted and aided by a representative envoy from nearby “Separatists” frontier outpost of Salem Village, the newly established Puritan society was quickly plagued by frustration, personal conflict, power struggles and least tolerable, dissent.
