Dreams and the invisible world in Colonial New England: Indians, colonists, and the seventeenth century

2015 ◽  
Vol 52 (09) ◽  
pp. 52-4977-52-4977
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
New England ◽  
Colonial New England ◽  
New England Indians ◽  
The Invisible

Religious Enthusiasm and Separatism in Colonial New England

1945 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-140
Author(s):  
Maurice W. Armstrong
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
New England ◽  
Modern Democracy ◽  
English History ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Liberty Of Conscience ◽  
Colonial New England ◽  
Established Church

Thomas Underhill, a citizen of London during the Commonwealth, described that period of English history as “Hell Broke Loose.” Partly as a result of Anabaptist influence, and partly as a continuation of the indigenous Lollard movement, large numbers of persons in every part of England separated themselves from the Established Church and formed themselves into independent religious societies. Some of these groups were very eccentric in their beliefs and practices. Thomas Edwards, their bitter opponent, made a Catalogue of “the Errors, Heresies, Blasphemies and Pernicious Practices … vented and acted in England” between the years 1642 and 1646, which he called, Gangraena. In it he distinguishes no less than two hundred and ten errors which were held by one or other of the sixteen groups into which he divides the sectaries. The sixteen were, “Independents, Brownists, Chiliasts or Millenaries, Antinomians, Anabaptists, Manifestarians or Arminians, Libertines, Familists, Enthusiasts, Seekers and Waiters, Perfectists, Socinians, Arians, Anti-Trinitarians, Anti-Scripturalists, Sceptics and Quietists.” The Parliamentary army especially abounded with men whose “great religion” was “liberty of conscience and liberty of preaching.” G. P. Gooch and others have shown how deeply the roots of modern democracy are embedded in the religious struggles of these seventeenth century sects. Most of them disappeared with the Commonwealth, or were absorbed in the rising Quaker movement, but certain fundamental principles for which they stood continued to exist and to mold public opinion.

“The English Did Wrong Them About Their Lands”

2018 ◽  
pp. 176-202
Author(s):  
Jenny Hale Pulsipher
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
New England ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
Indian Land ◽  
Returning Home ◽  
New England Indians ◽  
Indian Leadership

This chapter details John Wompas's experience of returning home and finding an English family occupying his house, which was emblematic of the situation facing New England Indians in the last quarter of the seventeenth century, a situation dramatically accelerated by the recent war. Everywhere, the English had taken possession of Indian property, shutting Indians out with their fences, their livestock, and their laws. Not just barriers and deeds, but also colony-wide restrictions on Indian activity made what once had been Indian land off limits. This seems to have triggered a radical change in Wompas, turning him from a man who moved fluidly between Indian and English worlds in pursuit of his own interests to one who consistently represented himself as an Indian, championed Indian interests, and aspired to Indian leadership.

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