Plymouth Colony

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Map of Plymouth Colony with the settlement names

Plymouth Colony was an English colony founded by separatist Congregationalists and Anglicans in 1620 on what is now the US state of Massachusetts .

The religious beliefs of the separatists, for which they were persecuted in England , shaped the social and legal system of the colony ( Mayflower Treaty ). Americans celebrate every year on Thanksgiving Day , the memory of the first Thanksgiving the Pilgrims .

prehistory

William Bradford's copy of the Mayflower Treaty

To avoid persecution by the Anglican State Church, a group of separatists under the leadership of Pastor John Robinson , William Bradford and William Brewster , a church elder, emigrated from Scrooby (Nottinghamshire) to the Netherlands in 1608 , first to Amsterdam , then to Leiden . There they enjoyed freedom of belief , but were only allowed to do poorly paid work. They also feared that their children would become estranged from their parents. Therefore, some of the separatists returned to England temporarily in 1619. With a land patent from the London Virginia Company, they reached the North American coast a few months later on the Mayflower , a chartered merchant ship. There were also Anglican emigrants on board, called "Strangers" by the separatists. Since a strong storm prevented the landing in Virginia, but the land patent was only valid for this colony, some "strangers" feared that they would not be treated fairly in the new colony. Therefore 41 Congregationalists written before landing at Cape Cod (December, 1620) the Mayflower Compact (Mayflower Compact), which determined that the colony should be governed by fair and for all residents equally applicable laws.

Beginnings, growth and end of the colony's independence

The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth Colony  - painting by Jennie Augusta Brownscombe (1914)

In their settlement of Plymouth , almost half of the colonists died in the winter of 1620/1621, although they received food from neighboring Indians. Nevertheless, tensions arose between the two groups. A peace treaty was signed, and the first Thanksgiving was celebrated together in October 1621. Due to the strong influx of other British people, there were military conflicts between the settlers and the indigenous population. The end of the Plymouth Colony, which had grown to around 7,000 residents, came in 1691, when it was united with the much larger Massachusetts Bay Colony on royal orders and placed under a governor sent from England.

religion

The separatist congregationalists were a group within the Puritan movement in England. Puritans in the narrower sense, as they settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1628 , remained within the Anglican Church , but wanted them from all "Catholic" structural elements such as the use of Latin in worship and liturgical vestments, but above all from the episcopate " to purify ”(purify). In contrast, the separatists had completely separated from the Church of England. Theologically they differed little from the Puritans. Both groups were staunch Calvinists . Shaped by the Calvinist federal theology , they were convinced that God had made a covenant or contract (covenant) with them and that they had also brought them together to form a community of the chosen and redeemed. Out of gratitude and obedience, they felt obliged to live what they believed the Bible dictated: diligence, thrift, a sense of duty and responsibility, renunciation of luxury, and excessive exuberance. But they also knew how to celebrate festivals, e.g. B. Thanksgiving. There was strict church discipline . All colonists, including the Anglicans, were obliged to attend church services.

According to the congregational view, every church community (congregation; hence the term congregationalism) is directly subordinate to God or Christ and is governed by him. The laity are on an equal footing with the clergy . The parishes have a democratic structure. Pastors, teachers and church elders ( presbyters ; parish councils), i.e. lay people, are elected by the parish and are responsible to it. This church government was made possible theologically by Martin Luther's teaching on the priesthood of all believers and Johannes Calvin's church ordinance , according to which church elders are equally involved in the leadership of the community. Since Pastor Robinson had stayed with part of the congregation in the Netherlands, Church Elder William Brewster led the Separatists in Plymouth until Pastor Ralph Smith, who had recently immigrated from England, took over this task in 1629. As more and more immigrants arrived, the importance of the laity grew even stronger due to an acute shortage of pastors. Often it was they who founded new church congregations, held church services and ensured the continued existence of the congregations.

Law and administration

The Mayflower Treaty, a social contract, formed the colony's constitution. Based on the model that the Congregationalists used for the founding of new church congregations, he guaranteed “just and equal laws” for all residents of Plymouth Colony. The congregationalists transferred the representative democracy practiced in their parishes to the regulation of the secular affairs of their community. They were convinced that democracy was the form of government that God wanted. The "free" (freemen) were entitled to vote. H. the adult male settlers who were economically independent and of good repute; Initially, this included a number of "strangers". A religious test was later introduced, in particular to prevent Quakers from gaining freemen status. The "free" formed the "General Assembly" (General Court), which elected a governor and his seven "assistants" for one year . Re-election was possible. William Bradford was governor five times (28 years in total) and Edward Winslow three times. The general assembly was legislative and judiciary , the governor and his assistants formed the executive . This separation of powers followed a recommendation by Calvin, who, in order to prevent or at least minimize the abuse of political power, proposed a system of mutually complementary and controlling state organs.

The laws passed by the General Assembly based on the Mayflower Treaty were a mixture of English common law and Bible law . They were codified in the Book of Laws in 1636 . When the settlers had paid off the debts they had made with an English corporation to partially finance the crossing in 1625, they were the sole owners of the colony. Since neither an English trading company nor the king or the London Parliament exercised any influence over the colony, it was a representative democracy , de facto a republic ("self-rule").

Over time, more localities (towns) were built and three rural districts (counties) were set up, whose residents were also represented in the general assembly.

Economy and Education

The inhabitants of the Plymouth Colony lived mainly from the fur trade and agriculture. Plant species such as corn, pumpkins and beans , which the settlers took over from the indigenous population, were grown . In addition, the useful plants and animals common in Europe were introduced. For topographical reasons and because of the relatively dense settlement of the area by indigenous peoples, no large estates could arise, so there were no major social differences. Very few families could afford slaves .

It was important to the reformers that every congregation member could read the Bible independently. In the first few years, parents in the colony were obliged to teach their children to read and write. Public schools were later established. Schooling was compulsory for both boys and girls.

Historical meaning

Every year on the fourth Thursday in November, Thanksgiving Day, Americans remember the first Thanksgiving Day celebrated by British immigrants on American soil and the beginnings of their nation. The colony has been the subject of films and stories. For example, leans Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel "The Scarlet Letter" ( The Scarlet Letter ) on the events in the Plymouth Colony and Massachusetts Bay Colony to.

literature

  • James Deetz, Patricia Scott Deetz: The Times of Their Lives: Life, Love, and Death in Plymouth Colony. W. H. Freeman and Co., New York, NY 2000, ISBN 0-7167-3830-9 .
  • Karl Heussi : Compendium of Church History. 11th edition, Tübingen 1957.
  • Clifton E. Olmstead: History of Religion in the United States. Prentice-Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NJ 1960, Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 60-10355.
  • Nathaniel Philbrick : Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War. Penguin Group, New York, NY 2006, ISBN 0-670-03760-5 .
    • German by Norbert Juraschitz: Mayflower: Departure in the New World . Blessing, Munich 2006, ISBN 978-3-89667-229-2 .
  • Allen Weinstein, David Rubel: The Story of America: Freedom and Crisis from Settlement to Superpower. DK Publishing, New York, NY 2002, ISBN 0-7894-8903-1 .

Web links

Commons : Plymouth Colony  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Allen Weinstein, David Rubel: The Story of America: Freedom and Crisis from Settlement to Superpower. DK Publishing Inc., New York, NY 2002, ISBN 0-7894-8903-1 , pp. 60-61.
  2. ^ Addison, Albert Christopher (1911). The Romantic Story of the Mayflower Pilgrims, and Its Place in the Life of To-day. Boston: LC Page & Company. P. 51
  3. ^ Nathaniel Philbrick: Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War. Penguin Group, New York, NY 2006, ISBN 0-670-03760-5 .
  4. ^ Clifton E. Olmstead, History of Religion in the United States. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs NJ 1960, pp. 64-69.
  5. ↑ M. Schmidt: Congregationalism. In: The religion in past and present , 3rd edition, Volume III, column 1767–1771.
  6. ↑ Clifton E. Olmstead: History of Religion in the United States, pp. 62 ff
  7. ^ Clifton E. Olmstead: History of Religion in the United States, p. 68.
  8. ↑ M. Schmidt: Pilgrim Fathers. In: Religion Past and Present. 3rd ed., Volume V, column 384.
  9. ↑ Karl Heussi : Kompendium der Kirchengeschichte, 11th edition, Tübingen 1957, p. 380.
  10. ^ Clifton E. Olmstead: History of Religion in the United States, p. 64.
  11. ↑ B. Lohse: Priesthood. In: The religion in past and present, 3rd edition, Volume V, column 579 f.
  12. ^ Karl Heussi: Compendium of Church History, p. 325.
  13. ^ Clifton E. Olmstead: History of Religion in the United States , p. 67
  14. ^ Karl Heussi: Compendium of Church History, p. 425
  15. ↑ Allen Weinstein, David Rubel: The Story of America, p. 61.
  16. ↑ M. Schmidt: Pilgrim Fathers. In: The religion in past and present, 3rd edition, Volume V, column 384
  17. ↑ Christopher Fennell: Plymouth Colony Legal Structure. digital
  18. ↑ Jan Werda: Calvin. In: Evangelisches Soziallexikon, 3rd edition, Stuttgart 1958, column 210.
  19. ^ Clifton E. Olmstead: History of Religion in the United States, p. 10.
  20. ↑ Christopher Fennell: Plymouth Colony Legal Structure. 1998.
  21. ↑ Clifton E. Olmstead: History of Religion in the United States, pp. 65, 67.
  22. ^ Charles C. Chartier: Livestock in Plymouth Colony, digital
  23. ↑ James Deetz, Patricia Scott Deetz: The Times of Their Lives: Life, Love, and Death in Plymouth Colony. W. H. Freeman and Co., New York, NY 2000.
  24. ^ Nathaniel Philbrick: Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War. 2006, p. 136 ff.
  25. ^ Walter F. Schirmer, Arno Esch: Brief history of the English and American literature. 1977, dtv Wissenschaftliche Reihe, Tübingen, ISBN 3-423-04291-5 , p. 260

Coordinates: 41 ° 50 ′ 42 "  N , 70 ° 44 ′ 19.3"  W.