Wanderlust World Wanderlust World The six New England colonies (Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, plus later Vermont & Maine districts) shared a distinct character shaped by faith, geography, and self-governance.
Founded largely by Puritans seeking freedom to worship their way—not freedom for all. Dissenters (Quakers, Baptists, Antinomians) were often banished. Rhode Island was the exception, founded on true separation of church/state.
Mayflower Compact (1620) set the pattern: written covenants, elected assemblies. Town meetings (open to male church members/freemen) became the iconic unit of local direct democracy—budgets, bylaws, officials decided face-to-face.
Massachusetts 1647 "Old Deluder Satan Act" mandated towns of 50+ families to hire a teacher; 100+ to establish a grammar school. Literacy rates far exceeded England or Chesapeake colonies. Harvard (1636) founded to train ministers.
Rocky soil limited staple crops. Instead: subsistence farming + fishing (cod, whaling) + shipbuilding + maritime trade + artisan crafts. Triangular trade (rum, slaves, molasses) linked Boston to Caribbean & Africa.
Merchant elite / clergy (top) → yeoman farmers, artisans, shopkeepers (middle) → laborers, indentured servants, enslaved Africans (bottom). Less extreme than Chesapeake, but slavery existed (phased out post-Revolution).
Strong emphasis on mutual oversight, moral conformity, collective responsibility—roots of later American "town conscience" and reform movements (abolition, temperance, education).
These traits forged a regional identity that profoundly shaped early American politics, education, and culture.