The ‘Mayflower’ settlers reached New England in 1620, and within a few years the Puritans among them had established the Massachusetts Bay Colony, with about 20,000 additional migrants swelling the population during the 1630s. The Colony’s founding fathers were very clear as to their purpose: they wanted to form a Puritan Commonwealth, one which would serve as a model, an example for all others. As John Winthrop (a later Governor) put it: ‘We shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us’. To bring about this model Puritan colony, the citizens were heavily policed by the ministers, men who were committed to the enforcement of Calvin’s threefold use of the law, and, in prosecution of their aim, highly intolerant of all dissent. |
