Puritan's Travel

More Puritans continued to travel over from England and the number of colonies in New England expanded to a total of four: Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut and New Haven.These colonies included many villages. Each village consisted of houses, a community garden and a meetinghouse to host church services.Schools were also built, including the first American public school, called the Boston Latin School, and laws were passed requiring a school in every town with more than 50 inhabitants. In 1643, the four colonies formed a military alliance, known as the New England Confederation, to help defend themselves from Native American attacks.

These colonies included many villages. Each village consisted of houses, a community garden and a meetinghouse to host church services. Schools were also built, including the first American public school, called the Boston Latin School, and laws were passed requiring a school in every town with more than 50 inhabitants. In 1643, the four colonies formed a military alliance, known as the New England Confederation, to help defend themselves from Native American attacks.

The colonists feared the Native-Americans but also felt it was their mission to help “civilize” this New World as well as the Native-Americans who lived there. The original seal of the Massachusetts Bay Colony even depicted an image of a Native-American saying “Come over and help us.” In 1648, the Massachusetts Bay Colony tried and executed an accused witch for the first time. The accused was a midwife named Margaret Jones from Charlestown and she was hanged at Gallows Hill in Boston after she was accused by some of her patients. Diseases brought by the colonists started to ravage the Native American population. By 1650, about 90 percent of the Native Americans living in New England died due to disease. Growing resentment between Native Americans and settlers eventually led to King Phillip’s War in 1675, which decimated the Wampanoag and Narragansett tribes. The Native Americans that survived the war either fled to the west or surrendered and were sold into slavery.

While the Native American population declined, the number of colonists flourished.

By 1676, Boston had 4,000 residents.

The colonists continued to build up the city, constructing its first post office in 1639 and published its first American newspaper in 1690 titled “Publick Occurrences: Both Foreign and Domestick.”

Colonists also declared war on local wildlife that they deemed a threat, such as the local wolf population, according to the book Disguised as the Devil: A History of Lyme

“Wolves were considered flat out pests. They became the pariah of the wilderness – dark, insidious predators biting at the heels of civilization. They had a price on their heads from almost the moment of contact with the English colonists. Well nourished on deer meat, this thriving wolf population was unfortunately not discerning enough to know a domesticated animal from their wild prey. When they began to add pork, beef, and mutton to their diet, it was not tolerated. In 1678 Salem Village was rimmed by a set of wolf traps. The last wolf bounty in Massachusetts was paid in the nineteenth century at the end of a successful eradication program that took over 200 years to complete.”

The population of Boston continued to grow in the 17th and early 18th century, despite small-pox outbreaks in 1690, 1702 and 1721.

By 1730, Boston had over 13,000 residents. Many of Boston’s most famous buildings were built during this time period, such as the Old State House in 1713, Old North Church in 1723, Old South Meetinghouse in 1729 and Faneuil Hall in 1742. By 1750, Boston’s population had risen to 15,000 people.