Part 5 (2/2)
[Sidenote: New Haven founded, 1638. _Higginson_, 72-73.]
54. New Haven, 1638.--The settlers of New Haven went even farther than the Ma.s.sachusetts rulers and held that the State should really be a part of the Church. Ma.s.sachusetts was not entirely to their tastes.
They pa.s.sed only one winter there and then moved away and settled New Haven. But this colony was not well situated for commerce, and was too near the Dutch settlements (p. 41). It was never as prosperous as Connecticut and was finally joined to that colony.
[Sidenote: Reasons for union.]
[Sidenote: Articles of Confederation, 1643.]
[Sidenote: New England towns. _Higginson_, 47-79.]
55. The New England Confederation, 1643.--Besides the settlements that have already been described there were colonists living in New Hamps.h.i.+re and in Maine. Ma.s.sachusetts included the New Hamps.h.i.+re towns within her government, for some of those towns were within her limits.
In 1640 the Long Parliament met in England, and in 1645 Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans destroyed the royal army in the battle of Naseby. In these troubled times England could do little to protect the New England colonists, and could do nothing to punish them for acting independently.
The New England colonists were surrounded by foreigners. There were the French on the north and the east, and the Dutch on the west. The Indians, too, were living in their midst and might at any time turn on the whites and kill them. Thinking all these things over, the four leading colonies decided to join together for protection. They formed the New England Confederation, and drew up a const.i.tution. The colonists living in Rhode Island and in Maine did not belong to the Confederation, but they enjoyed many of the benefits flowing from it; for it was quite certain that the Indians and the French and the Dutch would think twice before attacking any of the New England settlements.
[Ill.u.s.tration: A CHILD'S HIGH CHAIR, ABOUT 1650.]
[Sidenote: Education.]
56. Social Conditions.--The New England colonies were all settled on the town system, for there were no industries which demanded large plantations--as tobacco-planting. The New Englanders were small farmers, mechanics, s.h.i.+p-builders, and fishermen. There were few servants in New England and almost no negro slaves. Most of the laborers were free men and worked for wages as laborers now do. Above all, the New Englanders were very zealous in the matter of education. Harvard College was founded in 1636. A few years later a law was pa.s.sed compelling every town to provide schools for all the children in the town.
CHAPTER 7
NEW NETHERLAND AND NEW SWEDEN
[Sidenote: The Dutch East India Company.]
57. The Dutch.--At this time the Dutch were the greatest traders and s.h.i.+powners in the world. They were especially interested in the commerce of the East Indies. Indeed, the Dutch India Company was the most successful trading company in existence. The way to the East Indies lay through seas carefully guarded by the Portuguese, so the Dutch India Company hired Henry Hudson, an English sailor, to search for a new route to India.
[Sidenote: Henry Hudson.]
[Sidenote: He discovers Hudson's River, 1609. _Higginson_, 88-90; _Explorers_, 281-296.]
[Sidenote: His death. _Explorers_ 296-302.]
58. Hudson's Voyage, 1609.--He set forth in 1609 in the _Half-Moon_, a stanch little s.h.i.+p. At first he sailed northward, but ice soon blocked his way. He then sailed southwestward to find a strait, which was said to lead through America, north of Chesapeake Bay. On August 3, 1609, he reached the entrance of what is now New York harbor.
Soon the _Half-Moon_ entered the mouth of the river that still bears her captain's name. Up, up the river she sailed, until finally she came to anchor near the present site of Albany. The s.h.i.+p's boats sailed even farther north. Everywhere the country was delightful. The Iroquois came off to the s.h.i.+p in their canoes. Hudson received them most kindly--quite unlike the way Champlain treated other Iroquois Indians at about the same time, on the sh.o.r.e of Lake Champlain (p. 20). Then Hudson sailed down the river again and back to Europe. He made one later voyage to America, this time under the English flag. He was turned adrift by his men in Hudson's Bay, and perished in the cold and ice.
[Sidenote: The Dutch fur-traders.]
[Sidenote: Settle on Manhattan Island.]
[Sidenote: New Netherland.]
59. The Dutch Fur-Traders.--Hudson's failure to find a new way to India made the Dutch India Company lose interest in American exploration. But many Dutch merchants were greatly interested in Hudson's account of the ”Great River of the Mountain.” They thought that they could make money from trading for furs with the Indians. They sent many expeditions to Hudson's River, and made a great deal of money.
Some of their captains explored the coast northward and southward as far as Boston harbor and Delaware Bay. Their princ.i.p.al trading-posts were on Manhattan Island, and near the site of Albany. In 1614 some of the leading traders obtained from the Dutch government the sole right to trade between New France and Virginia. They called this region New Netherland.
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