Early north American Colonies
Uploaded by jrrohan on Oct 19, 1999
With the General success of the Jamestown colony, the idea of having more people sent to the new world was not far from the minds of the crown.
In 1620 a group of people know as puritans left England to purify them selves from the church of England. In England they were persecuted. A man by the name of William Bradford, with precision from the king, lead the puritans to the new world.
In 1630 William Bradford wrote down his recollections of the founding of Plymouth, and began keeping record of annual events in the settlement, a practice he continued until 1647. His manuscript contained about 270 pages. This was consulted by other Puritan historians for many years, but was never published. In 1856 the History of Plymouth Plantation was publish for the first time.
"The First American," as Benjamin Franklin has been called, was born in the capital of New England Puritanism, Boston, just as Puritanism was dying out. He left Boston at the age of 17. By cleverness and hard work he changed himself from the poorly educated son of a candle- and soap-maker into a world-famous scientist, diplomat, philosopher, and writer.