Big Picture

Questions

1. How did the Puritan colonists rationalize bouts of starvation and Indian attacks?
2. What was the first major English settlement on the North American mainland?
3. What is John Locke's "social contract" theory?
4. Was slavery permitted in colonial New England?
5. How was the church connected to the state in Puritan society?

Answers

1. When they experienced starvation and Indian attacks, they reasoned it was God's will and possibly also His punishment for their materialism and other sins.
2. Jamestown
3. His theory was that people in a society can enter into a voluntary union for the purposes of mutual stability and security.
4. Yes, but very few New Englanders owned slaves, so there were few in the region.
5. Puritans were taxed to support the church, and they were had to attend church services.