http://www.greatmigration.org/new_englands_great_migration.

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the term "Great Migration" was coined for a reason: it reflected the greatness of the endeavors purpose rather than its size. The immigrants who came to New England differed from immigrants to other regions in a variety of ways, all stemming from their fundamental desire to obtain spiritual rather than economic rewards. Unlike colonists to other areas, those who migrated to New England had known relatively prosperous lives in England. In fact, it was a greater economic risk to leave than to stay. From the colonists perspective, they traded economic advantages and stability in a corrupt England for a more precarious economic situation tempered by the opportunity to live more pious and worthy lives in a Puritan commonwealth. Great Migration colonists shared other distinctive characteristics. New Englanders had a high level of literacy, perhaps nearly twice that of England as a whole. New Englanders were highly skilled; more than half of the settlers had been artisans or craftsmen. Only about seventeen percent came as servants, mostly as members of a household. In contrast, seventy-five percent of Virginias population arrived as servants. And in much greater proportion than the English population as a whole, New England settlers came from urban areas. The key to success was arriving early enough after a towns founding to become a proprietor and share in the original land distribution, administered and controlled by the town. Proprietors received the best and largest land grants, as well as rights to share in future divisions. This share in future land divisions was extremely important to the settlers because it ensured viable economic futures for their children. the remarkable health and longevity of the population. Many colonists lived to the age of seventy, and a substantial number lived to be eighty. Both male and female settlers in New England lived significantly longer than their English counterparts. This longevity is no doubt due to a variety of factors: dispersed settlement patterns, lack of epidemic disease, the healthful effects of a "little ice age," clean air and water, possibly a better diet, and the original good health of most immigrants. Also, infant and childhood mortality rates were lower in New England, and the settlers produced large and healthy families most having seven or more children. Accordingly, New England experienced tremendous population growth within the lifetime of first generation settlers. (Interestingly, with their disposable income New Englanders chose to forgo the purchase of silverware, pottery and other household goods in favor of books principally the religious books that were so key to Puritanism.)

http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/english2/puritans_intro.html

By 1560, those who wished to continue purifying the Church of England were called Puritans. The Puritans wanted to re-establish the original simplicity of the church by eliminating practices and church hierarchy which were not mentioned in the Bible.

However, the Puritans did not agree among themselves on how far the reform should be carried and exactly what should be changed and how:. The Presbyterians and Congregationalists insisted that they were members of the Church of England; the Separatists broke away, to the distress of the other Puritans. The Presbyterians supported a national church, universal membership with mandatory attendance, a church hierarchy consisting of a national representative assembly or synod, a presbytery or classis, composed of minsters and elders in a region, and local individual parish churches governed by minister and elders The Congregationalists (e.g., Puritans of Massachusetts Bay) wanted each church to be individual and self-governing (there was to be no hierarchy); each congregation elected its own minster; membership was limited to the visible saints after publicly professing faith, presenting convincing evidence of conversion and accepting the covenant. Church attendance was to be mandatory. The Separatists (e.g., Pilgrims of Plymouth) broke away from the Church of England to establish their own communities for worship and some fled to Holland. Since the Church of England was the established or national church, their flight was regarded generally as disloyal, if not quite treason.

Stereotype: The Puritans wore dark, drab clothing, and the men wore black stovepipe hats. Reality: They wore clothing in every color and hue, and the men wore no such hats. Stereotype: The Puritans were killjoys who condemned alcohol and smoking. Reality :They enjoyed both drinking and smoking; what they objected to was excess. As Increase Mather informed his congregation in a sermon, Drink is in itself a good creature of God, and to be received with thankfulness, but the abuse of drink is from Satan; the wine is from God, but the Drunkard is from the Devil.

1647: The law required every town of 100 families or more to provide free elementary instruction, whether through private or public school. A humanistic curriculum was followed.

1692: Plymouth Colony was absorbed into Massachusetts Bay, by royal charter. The Charter of 1692 also appointed the governor and gave the right to vote to male property holders. Consequently, the Puritans began to lose their political stranglehold on the colony, and the church and state were being separated. Accelerating this trend was the tendency of subsequent generations to lack the fervor and commitment of the first generation of Puritans, and the increasing number of non-Puritan immigrants. Gradually, Massachusetts Bay ceased to be a theocracy [theocracy: (1) government dominated by priests/clerics who rule in the name of God, (2) a country ruled by priests/clerics claiming divine authority].

http://iweb.tntech.edu/kosburn/History-201/Puritans%20&%20Indians.htm

In 1616 an epidemic wiped out 3/4 of the New England Indian population, so that Puritans landed in an area where Indians' ability to resist was greatly weakened 3. In 1633-34 another smallpox epidemic hit coast, a. Puritans saw disease as God's way of giving the lands of the heathen to them b. probably used same logic for stealing everything they found, including robbing Indian graves 4. Still, the Puritans didn't believe that Indians were inherently inferior--racism-Rather, saw sin as cause of Indians' heathen inferiority--they thought that the devil had led them to America to keep them from the Gospel

Natick, an Indian "Praying Town" east of Boston. Established in 1651 by missionary John Eliot, Natick consisted of English-style homesteads, three streets, a bridge across the Charles River, as well as a meetinghouse, which housed a school, and the governing body. The Indian residents of Natick were taught to read and write in their native language of Massachuset, using letters from the Roman alphabet. Reuben, Paul P. "Chapter 1: Early American Literature to1700 - A Brief Introduction." PAL: Perspectives in American Literature- A Research and Reference Guide. WWW URL: http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap1/1intro.html Total Depravity - through Adam and Eve's fall, every person is born sinful - concept of Original Sin. 2. Unconditional Election - God "saves" those he wishes - only a few are selected for salvation - concept of predestination. 4. Irresistible Grace - God's grace is freely given, it cannot be earned or denied. Grace is defined as the saving and transfiguring power of God.

Typology: The belief that God's intentions are present in human action and in natural phenomenon. Failure to understand these intentions are human limitations. Puritans believed in cyclical or repetitive history; they use "types" - Moses prefigures Jesus, Jonah's patience is reflected in Jesus' ordeal on the cross, and Moses' journey out of Egypt is played out in the Pilgrims' crossing of the Atlantic. http://public.gettysburg.edu/~tshannon/hist106web/Indian%20Converts/the%20puritans3.htm

The Puritan Mission "To winn and incite the natives of the country to the knowledge and Obedience of the onlie true God and Saviour of Mankinde, and the Christian Fayth." - Charter of the Colony of Massachusetts Bay states John Eliot arrived in Boston in November 1631 from England. In 1643, he began to devote the majority of his time to learning the native language. He acquired the assistance of two interpreters in this endeavor. Their names were Cockenoe and Job Nesutan. With their help, he eventually became fluent in the Algonquin language. His first translations were the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and various other passages of scripture. He first used the Native language to preach to Indians at Dorcester Mill. However, this attempt failed. Eliot said that the Indians treated him with suspicion and did not wish to be taught. His second attempt at Nonantum was much more successful. There, the Indians listened to him preach for over three hours and then continued to ask him questions. He returned to Nonantum once every two weeks, and soon the Indians started showing signs that they had actually converted. They started to observe the Sabbath, abandoned their former religious practices, and prayed as a family in the morning, at night, and before meals. In general, Indian converts were also expected to submit to European rule and many signed documents giving up their right to rule themselves. Eliot was also responsible for the development of the Praying Towns in the Massachusetts area and was a crucial influence in the formation of The President and Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England. This society was formed by the English Parliament with the aid of Oliver Cromwell. It ordered that a contribution be made to the Puritan missionary project by every church in England and Wales. The money that the missionaries received from the society was used to educate young Indian preachers, build the Indian college at Cambridge, print a Bible in the Algonquin language, provide tools for the Indians in the Praying Towns, and pay the salaries of the missionaries. Eliot's Rules for the Praying Indians at Natick I. If any man shall be idle a week, or at most a fortnight, he shall be fined five shillings. II. If any unmarried man shall lie with a young woman unmarried, he shall be fined five shillings.

III. If any man shall beat his wife, his hands shall be tied behind him, and he shall be carried to the place of justice to be punished severely. IV. Every young man, if not another's servant, and if unmarried, shall be compelled to set up a wigwam, and plant for himself, and not shift up and down in other wigwams. V. If any woman shall not have her hair tied up, but hang lose, or be cut as a man's hair, she shall pay five shillings. VI. If any woman shall go with naked breasts, she shall pay two shillings. VII. All men that shall wear long locks, shall pay five shillings. VIII. If any shall crack lice between their teeth, they shall pay five shillings.

http://www.nd.edu/~rbarger/www7/masslaws.html

The Law of 1647 required that towns of fifty families hire a schoolmaster who would teach children to read and write. Towns of a hundred families must have a grammar schoolmaster who could prepare children to attend Harvard College. The Law of 1642 required that parents and master see to it that their children knew the principles of religion and the capital laws of the commonwealth.

Perhaps the most important aspect of the Law of 1642 was that it was a law that had nothing to do with "school" at all. It stated that parents and masters of those children who had been apprenticed to them were responsible for their basic education and literacy. All children, and servants as well, should be able to demonstrate competency in reading and writing as outlined by the governing officials. The idea behind this, once again, was that if all citizens could understand the written language on some basic level, all citizens would be able to understand and therefore, abide by the governing laws of the land. At this point in time there was no concept of a formal school as we know it today; it was understood that each person would be educated enough to meet the individual needs of their station in life and social harmony would be that much closer. Who better to educate their children than their parents? The law did state, however, that should the above mentioned parents and masters grow lax in their responsibility and their children not be able to meet basic criteria it would be the government's right to remove the child from the home and place him or her in a place where he or she could receive adequate instruction.

http://peacebyjesus.witnesstoday.org/Mass.Gen.Laws.html#The

From Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England (1853), II: 203

It being one chief project of that old deluder, satan, to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures, as in former times by keeping them in an unknown tongue [alluding to Rome], so in these latter times by persuading from the use of tongues, that so that at least the true sense and meaning of the original might be clouded and corrupted with false glosses of saint-seeming deceivers; and to the end that learning may not be buried in the grave of our forefathers, in church and commonwealth, the Lord assisting our endeavors.

It is therefore ordered that every township in this jurisdiction, after the Lord hath increased them to fifty households shall forthwith appoint one within their town to teach all such children as shall resort to him to write and read, whose wages shall be paid either by the parents or masters of such children, or by the inhabitants in general, by way of supply, as the major part of those that order the prudentials of the town shall appoint; provided those that send their children be not oppressed by paying much more than they can have them taught for in other towns.

And it is further ordered, that when any town shall increase to the number of one hundred families or householders, they shall set up a grammar school, the master thereof being able to instruct youth so far as they may be fitted for the university, provided that if any town neglect the performance hereof above one year that every such town shall pay 5 pounds to the next school till they shall perform this order. 1642 Also that all masters of families do once a week (at the least) catechize their children and servants in the grounds & principles of Religion, & if any be unable to do so much: that then at the least they procure such children or apprentices to learn some short orthodox catechism without book, that they may be able to answer unto the questions that shall be propounded to them out of such catechism by their parents or masters or any of the Select men when they shall call them to a tryall of what they have learned of this kind.