Pilgrims, Puritans, and the Founding of the New England Colonies

The Puritan New England lesson plan has students learn about a few of the founders and key figures of the New England colonies. This History for Humans episode teaches how religious persecution and devotion led to the development of the Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts Bay Colony, and the rest of New England by the Pilgrims and the Puritans. Click here for the 10 -1/2 -minute July 19, 2022 video by History4Humans.

Producer Dan Lewer (above, left) explains that when the Separatists Pilgrims set sail on the Mayflower seeking refuge to build a religious community where they would be free to worship in peace it led to the start of a whole new region of English colonies.

The video covers the Mayflower Compact (above, left), the alliance with the Wampanoags, John Winthrop’s City Upon a Hill sermon (above, right) and the formation of the Massachusetts Bay Colony by thousands of Puritans.

The expansion of this colony, though, led to the brutal Pequot War (above, left) and the near annihilation of the tribe as Puritans spread their cultural values throughout the region. The video also teaches how the strict policies of the Puritans at the Massachusetts Bay Colony led to Thomas Hooker to separate and start the Hartford Connecticut colony with a more liberal government as well as the banishment of the free thinking Roger Williams (above, right) who founded the radically democratic Rhode Island colony.