The Massachusetts Bay Colony continued to thrive until the Restoration of England. It had grown into a successful independent community, largely due to internal conflicts within England. That changed during the reign of King Charles II. The colony needed more than just a fervent church to survive.
Many dissenters, Christian men and women who did not convert, also lived within the ranks of Massachusetts Bay. Cities like Marblehead were founded by non-Puritan settlers. The Puritans allowed it for the sake of commerce. A lot of skills were needed for a dynamic economy.
It is important to understand the historical context behind the founding of the Massachusetts Colony. In the 17th century, England was going through a lot of religious and political changes. The Puritans, who founded the colony, believed that the Anglican Church (the official church of England) had been corrupted and needed to be reformed. Its name comes from the fact that they believed that the church needed to be purified.
Unable to reform the church themselves, they sought to establish colonies where they could build settlements based on the religious principles of Puritanism. What made the Massachusetts Bay Colony unique was that migrants quickly filled the colony. Other colonies generally grew slowly over many years. This was called the Great Puritan Migration.
In Massachusetts, the colony was quickly populated by migrants looking to leave to practice Christianity the way they wanted. A wealthy group of Puritans formed the Massachusetts Bay Company, a public limited company that hired 17 ships to transport the Puritans to their new home in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Affairs with the crown became more tense and, in 1684, the charter that established the Massachusetts Bay Colony was declared null and void. This location was chosen to give settlers access to clean water and an easier way to farm under the sometimes harsh conditions of New England's climate.
Charles sent a delegation to the colonies to assert their authority, but the Massachusetts Bay Colony was not willing to give up independence after nearly three decades of self-government. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was a theocracy, which meant that government was closely linked to religion. Although better prepared than previous colonies and supported by the frequent arrival of supply ships, the early days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony were as arduous as the colonies founded in Virginia and Maryland. To live in Massachusetts Bay, one had to take the oath of office and adhere to the religious principles that governed the colony, but the Quakers didn't.
The Massachusetts Bay Colony was founded in 1628 by members of the Massachusetts Bay Company, a public limited company incorporated by the English crown. Although the Plymouth Colony also believed in the importance of spreading the Christian message to Native Americans, they were less zealous, at least initially, than the Massachusetts Bay Colony and, in their early years, did not apply expansionist policies. Although the Puritan faith eventually diminished, the Massachusetts Bay colony prospered and was a good start for the New World. The settlers had considerable resources and a firm determination to establish a permanent colony free from external influences.
The Puritans who had the resources and the money formed a group called the Massachusetts Bay Company to achieve this. Disagreements over politics and punishment were quite common in Plymouth, but not so much in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. As cities and other communities appeared in the colony, settlers grew a variety of crops, including pumpkins, corn, rice and beans. .
