Northern Colonies
From 1630 through 1640 approximately 20,000 Puritans emigrated to New England in a Great Migration. In 1642, after the English Civil War began, a sixth of the male colonists returned to England to fight for Parliament, and many stayed, since Oliver Cromwell was himself a Puritan. In 1643, most of the colonies formed the New England Confederation, a defensive alliance. In the early years of the Commonwealth, there was a pamphlet war on whether England should model itself after its Puritan colonies. The non-Puritan factions successfully convinced Cromwell to go for religious toleration lest there be mutiny in the New Model Army.
Royalist Newfoundland fishermen, with the support of Prince Rupert, fought sea skirmishes with New Englanders until Governor David Kirke was arrested by his replacement John Treworgie in 1651. The sparsely populated High church Anglican Province of Maine was annexed by the most populous Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1652 as the County of Yorkshire.
In 1654, the New England Confederation voted to invade New Netherland to support the Commonwealth during the First Anglo-Dutch War. Massachusetts refused to join which severely undermined the Confederation. Cromwell sent naval reinforcements but the war ended while they were organizing their forces. This expedition was retooled to target Nova Scotia, the former Scottish colony that was ceded to French Acadia years earlier by Charles I. Cromwell claimed the Treaty of Suza and Treaty of Saint-Germain were invalid and that the French did not pay the purchase money. Nova Scotia was taken without significant resistance by Robert Sedgwick. This became an international incident since England and France were at peace but the French were busy fighting the Spanish and ceded the territory to England to secure the Commonwealth as an ally. England returned it to France in 1670 as according to the 1667 Treaty of Breda.
After the Restoration, there was a Fifth Monarchist uprising in London led by New Englander Thomas Venner. This was used in Royalist propaganda to unfairly blame all the upheaval of the last two decades on New England. It was not helped by the fact that the New Haven Colony shelted several regicides. New Haven was merged with the Connecticut Colony as punishment. New England as a whole remained the hotbed of Puritanism where sentiments for the 'Good Old Cause' against the 'Norman yoke' simmered until the Glorious Revolution.
Read more about this topic: English Revolution In The Colonies
Famous quotes containing the words northern and/or colonies:
“That we can come here today and in the presence of thousands and tens of thousands of the survivors of the gallant army of Northern Virginia and their descendants, establish such an enduring monument by their hospitable welcome and acclaim, is conclusive proof of the uniting of the sections, and a universal confession that all that was done was well done, that the battle had to be fought, that the sections had to be tried, but that in the end, the result has inured to the common benefit of all.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“I have often inquired of myself, what great principle or idea it was that kept this Confederacy so long together. It was not the mere matter of the separation of the colonies from the mother land; but something in that Declaration giving liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but hope to the world for all future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)