New England/The Northern Colonies (Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire ,Maine, Rhode Island)

Society People were only considered equal in the eyes of God. Many lived on farms and had complete authority over property and wife's. The wealthy created an elite upper class while slaves who were set free were considered a threat. Social class was determined by the cloths one wore. When married woman lost there maiden names and personal identity. They could not file or participate in lawsuits. Woman would marry as young as 13 years old and was considered a disgrace if not married by the age of 25. Once their spouse died they would quickly remarry. Families would usually consist of 6-8 children causing farms to be too small to support single families. When sons got married, Fathers would give gifts of land, livestock or farming equipment while daughters received household goods, farming animals and/or cash.

Culture Children learned to read at an early age because early puritans believed it was necessary to study the bible which required each town to pay for primary school. Most boys learned their skills on their fathers farm or as an apprentice to artisans. Some girls attended formal school, most were able to get some education at “Dame school”, but were taught basic reading and writing at home. Many churches established colleges to train ministers while Puritans founded many places of higher learning such as Harvard in 1636 and Yale in 1701. The only book a family owned was usually the Bible. They would read it and once they finished would read it over, and over, and over. In church they arranged people by social class, gender and age. The sermon would last roughly 2 to 3 hours and the prayer was 10 minutes. After church people would go to the noon house to eat and talk.

System Of Government The system of government that New Hampshire experienced during its time of settlement was a Constitutional monarchy (limited monarchy). This means that who ever is elected as leader of the colony, does not have absolute power of the colony. Very similar to New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay also had the same system of government, constitutional monarchy. If this colony did not exist, New Hampshire would not have gained its independence to become a separate colony. The colony of Rhode Island however had a different system of government. The government was republic, meaning the colony did not have a leader, but people still had the power to make their own decisions of how the colony might work. The last colony to be part of New England/Northern colonies was the Connecticut colony. Their system of government had to deal with a constitutional government.

Political Views In The Northern Colonies, politics had a lot to do with religion. Their political views were based on their strong protestant beliefs and those who did not agree with this, were persecuted. The early New England was remembered by harsh laws and religion intolerant. New England was highly intolerant of anything that was different, but is now known for being Liberals. New England had gotten rid of the Death Penalty before the rest of the United colonies did. New Hampshire and Connecticut are the only New England states that allow capital punishment.

Religion Both New Hampshire as well as the Massachusetts colonies had a very simple type of religion, which was Puritanism. This means that these type of people wanted simple church and religious ceremonies. They were very strict about there religious beliefs. A very good example of this type of religion is “the Salem Witch Trials”. Rhode Island is very unique due to the fact that it has three different types of religion. The three types of religion were Christian, Jewish, and Secular. Secular is a state of not being part of any religion. Examples of this are eating and sleeping because there is nothing religious about these activities. The Connecticut colony had only one type of religion which was Catholicism.

Demographics ConnecticutPopulation-1625, population was close to 150 Founded by Thomas Hooker Government-Charter 1662-1776Ratio of men to women- 10 men to 3 womenReligion-Mainly PuritansOccupations -Skilled crafts men and farmersDate of Settlement -1636 Massachusetts Population-1630, population was close to 506 people Founded by English Puritans Government-Charter 1629-1686, Royal 1691- 1776Ratio of men to women- 10 men to 2 womenReligion-Mainly Puritans Occupations- Skilled crafts men and farmersDate of Settlement -1630 New Hampshire Population-1630, population was close to 500 people Founded by puritans and proprietors Government-Proprietary 1629-1679Ratio of men to women- 10 men to 4 womenReligion-Mainly Puritans Occupations- Skilled crafts men and farmers Date of Settlement -1623 Maine Population-1630, population was close to 400 people Founded by Ferdinando Gorges Government-Charter 1629-1686Ratio of men to women- 10 men to 3 womenReligion-Mainly PuritansOccupations- Skilled crafts men and farmersDate of Settlement -1622 Rhode IslandPopulation-1640, population was close to 250 people Founded by Roger Williams Government-Charter 1644-1776Ratio of men to women- 10 men to 4 womenReligion-Mainly PuritansOccupations- Skilled crafts men and farmersDate of Settlement -1636