Part 4 (2/2)

[Sidenote: Servants and slaves.]

41. Maryland Industries.--Tobacco was the most important crop in early Maryland. But grain was raised in many parts of the colony. In time also there grew up a large trading town. This was Baltimore. Its s.h.i.+powners and merchants became rich and numerous, while there were almost no s.h.i.+powners or merchants in Virginia. There were also fewer slaves in Maryland than in Virginia. Nearly all the hard labor in the former colony was done by white servants. In most other ways, however, Virginia and Maryland were nearly alike.

CHAPTER 6

NEW ENGLAND

[Sidenote: The English Puritans.]

[Sidenote: Non-Conformists.]

[Sidenote: Separatists.]

42. The Puritans.--The New England colonies were founded by English Puritans who left England because they could not do as they wished in the home land. All Puritans were agreed in wis.h.i.+ng for a freer government than they had in England under the Stuart kings and in state matters were really the Liberals of their time. In religious matters, however, they were not all of one mind. Some of them wished to make only a few changes in the Church. These were called Non-Conformists. Others wished to make so many changes in religion that they could not stay in the English State Church. These were called Separatists. The settlers of Plymouth were Separatists; the settlers of Boston and neighboring towns were Non-Conformists.

[Sidenote: The Scrooby Puritans. _Higginson, 55-56; Eggleston_, 34.]

[Sidenote: They flee to Holland.]

[Sidenote: They decide to emigrate to America.]

43. The Pilgrims.--Of all the groups of Separatists scattered over England none became so famous as those who met at Elder Brewster's house at Scrooby. King James decided to make all Puritans conform to the State Church or to hunt them out of the land. The Scrooby people soon felt the weight of persecution. After suffering great hards.h.i.+ps and cruel treatment they fled away to Holland. But there they found it very difficult to make a living. They suffered so terribly that many of their English friends preferred to go to prison in England rather than lead such a life of slavery in Holland. So the Pilgrims determined to found a colony in America. They reasoned that they could not be worse off in America, because that would be impossible. At all events, their children would not grow up as Dutchmen, but would still be Englishmen. They had entire religious freedom in Holland; but they thought they would have the same in America.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BREWSTER'S HOUSE AT SCROOBY. The Pilgrims held their services in the building on the left, now used as a cow-house.]

[Sidenote: The voyage of the _Mayflower_, 1620.]

[Sidenote: The _Mayflower_ at Cape Cod.]

44. The Voyage across the Atlantic.--Brewster's old friend, Sir Edwin Sandys, was now at the head of the Virginia Company. He easily procured land for the Pilgrims in northern Virginia, near the Dutch settlements (p. 41). Some London merchants lent them money. But they lent it on such harsh conditions that the Pilgrims' early life in America was nearly as hard as their life had been in Holland. They had a dreadful voyage across the Atlantic in the _Mayflower_. At one time it seemed as if the s.h.i.+p would surely go down. But the Pilgrims helped the sailors to place a heavy piece of wood under one of the deck beams and saved the vessel from going to pieces. On November 19, 1620, they sighted land off the coast of Cape Cod. They tried to sail around the cape to the southward, but storms drove them back, and they anch.o.r.ed in Provincetown harbor.

[Sidenote: The Pilgrims Compact, 1620.]

45. The Mayflower Compact, 1620.--All the pa.s.sengers on the _Mayflower_ were not Pilgrims. Some of them were servants sent out by the London merchants to work for them. These men said that as they were outside of Virginia, the leaders of the expedition would have no power over them as soon as they got on land. This was true enough, so the Pilgrims drew up and signed a compact which obliged the signers to obey whatever was decided to be for the public good. It gave the chosen leaders power to make the unruly obey their commands.

[Ill.u.s.tration: map]

[Sidenote: The Pilgrims explore the coast. _Explorers_, 319-328.]

[Sidenote: Plymouth settled. _Higginson_,58-60; _Eggleston_, 35-38; _Source-Book_, 39-41.]

[Sidenote: Sickness and death.]

46. The First Winter at Plymouth.--For nearly a month the Pilgrims explored the sh.o.r.es of Cape Cod Bay. Finally, on December 21, 1620, a boat party landed on the mainland inside of Plymouth harbor. They decided to found their colony on the sh.o.r.e at that place. About a week later the _Mayflower_ anch.o.r.ed in Plymouth harbor. For months the Pilgrims lived on the s.h.i.+p while working parties built the necessary huts on sh.o.r.e. It was in the midst of a cold New England winter. The work was hard and food and clothing were not well suited to the worker's needs. Before the _Mayflower_ sailed away in the spring one-half of the little band was dead.

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