Pure Payback

Pure Payback

Not only did Charles dislike the Puritans in England, he also did not act kindly towards them in the American Colonies. The Puritan Colonists did not like the Navigation Acts. It cut into their profits. Many of them began to smuggle. In 1684, King Charles II began to crackdown on these people in Massachusetts.

The English were having a hard time getting the Puritans there to obey there laws. So they revoked the Puritan charter. Massachusetts then became a royal colony, under the control of the crown.

James II came into power in 1685. He placed the Northern colonies under a single ruler in Boston. All the land from Maine to New Jersey became one big colony called the Dominion of New England.

James II chose Sir Edmund Andros, an aristocrat to rule.

He was not the nicest person. “You have no more privileges left you, than not to be sold for slaves.” Puritans disliked him because he questioned the lawfulness of their religion.

He enforced the Navigation Acts.

Punished smugglers.

Restricted assemblies.

The Puritans tried to send a minister back to England to have him removed, but they were unsuccessful.

King James II was unpopular in the colonies. The fact that he was Catholic and disrespected Parliament made him liked less back in England.

When he had a son in 1688 the British decided that they could not have a Catholic Dynasty.

The Parliament invited William of Orange from Holland and his wife Mary to take over the country.

William was the husband of James Protestant daughter Mary.

King James II fled the country and they took the throne.

A series of laws were passed by parliament which established its laws over the Monarchy. This series of events was known as the Glorious Revolution.

When the colonists heard about the Glorious Revolution, they had their own bloodless revolt.

They arrested Andros and his royal councilors.

Parliament gave them back their charter, but required the Puritans to be more tolerant to other religions and made them allow non-puritan representation in the colonial assembly. So the Puritans could no longer persecute Quakers and Anglicans.

England Loosen its Reigns

In 1688, England stopped worrying about the colonies and began concentrating on France. For they were competing with England over control of Europe. The colonies were making England money so they did not worry about sending soldiers over to enforce laws.

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However, this neglect came after a failed attempt to control the colonists. After the Glorious Revolution England tried to strengthen the Navigation Act by

1. Trying smugglers by English judges2. Creating a Board of Trade to monitor colonial Trade.

The judges were not to hard on the smugglers. The officials only lightly enforced the new measures.

Salutary Neglect became known as the policy of Parliament not supervising the colony closely as long as raw materials continued flowing into the homeland and the colonists continued to buy English-produced goods.

Governors of the colonies were put in charge by the king. The colonial assembly paid the governors salary.

So the colonialists influenced the governors by ways like the approval of laws and appointments of judges. This gave the colonists a taste of self government.