Objective of the Lesson:
To Provide historical background information
To understand why families left England.
Define the characteristics of a protestant.
Define Covenant and Charter
Procedure:
Each student will be given a diary to record their impressions of this period of history. This will serve as their notebook for history notes.
For background information we begin with a discussion of Henry VIII. There is a wonderful record by Hermann' Hermits from the early 1960's " I'm Henry the VIII I am I am". If I could locate I would play. The intent is to give this information without getting bogged down in detail.
Students will record and define in their note book key terms: Protestant, Charter, Covenant.
Simply put:
Henry VIII was the king of England from 1509-1507. He wanted a divorce which the Pope in Rome would not allow so he started his own Church. This is the Anglican or Episcopalian church as we know it.
During that time there were also different church leaders who were dismayed with the power of the current Catholic Church and protested against it. These groups were called the protestants. The protestants wanted to purify the church and felt that the pomp and circumstance evident in the Catholic and Anglican Church were signs of corruption.
What distinguished the protestants was their belief in a covenant. (See essay on Covenant in beginning of this unit) They believed that the covenant Abraham made with god in the Old Testament was the very same covenant they made with God.
In order for families to leave and settle in the new colony they needed to have a charter which allowed them to occupy land which was owned by the king. The King gave this charter to acquaintances who became stockholders. These stockholders invested and financed the cost of the settlement. The people who left were colonists who owed money to the stockholders.
The Plymouth colony was settled by protestants in 1620.
Following the success of that settlement three hundred ships arrived between 1620 and 1640. By 1640 New England's white population was 13,500(Cressy, p.70).
