Title: The Founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony
Headings: The Founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony
Fast Facts: Massachusetts Bay Colony
John Winthrop and the "Winthrop Fleet"
Settling Boston
Unrest and Exile: The Antinomian Crisis
Christianizing Indigenous Peoples
The American Revolution
Sources and Further Reading

Content: This was the first written governmental framework in the New World. In 1629, a fleet of 12 ships known as the Winthrop Fleet left England and headed for Massachusetts. It reached Salem, Massachusetts, on June 12th. Winthrop himself sailed aboard the Arbella. It was while he was still aboard the Arbella that Winthrop gave a famous speech in which he said: " [F]or wee must Consider that wee shall be as a Citty upon a Hill, the eies of all people are uppon us; soe that if wee shall deale falsely with our god in this worke wee have undertaken and soe cause him to withdrawe his present help from us, wee shall be made a story and a byword through the world, wee shall open the mouthes of enemies to speake evill of the wayes of god and all professours for Gods sake...."
These words embody the spirit of the Puritans who founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony. While they emigrated to the New World to be able to freely practice their religion, they did not espouse freedom of religion for other settlers. Settling Boston
Though Winthrop's Fleet landed at Salem, they did not stay; the tiny settlement simply couldn't support hundreds of additional settlers.