Order Description
John Winthrop, Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, called for the creation of a “city on a hill,” an idea that some historians say permeates all of American thinking from his day to ours. Discuss the colonization of Massachusetts and other English settlements in New England during the 1600s. In your discussion, analyze the degree to which the Puritans were successful in creating a new utopia. To what degree do you think that Winthrop ‘s views permeate American thinking?

As New England evolved, so, too, did the so-called “middle colonies” ? Maryland, New Amsterdam (New York), and Pennsylvania – and Carolina farther south as well. Discuss how they developed in the seventeenth century and how they differed from Virginia and Massachusetts . In your final analysis, discuss how the English colonies differed from the French and Spanish colonies by 1700.

Required reading: chapter 2 and 3. Paul S. Boyer, et al. The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People, Vol. 1; 7 th ed.