ABSTRACT
In 1620, a group of Christian dissenters, primarily drawn from Scrooby, England, arrived in Cape Cod Bay and established Plymouth Colony. Within six months, half of the colonists were dead. The survivors struggled on, and by 1640 their community had gained “a measure of stability, at least in institutional terms.” 1 A substantially larger and better organized group followed in 1630, led by John Winthrop. Settling to the northwest of Plymouth, the Massachusetts Bay Colony attracted another 25,000 colonists over the next two decades, the legendary “Great Migration.” Settlers soon spread into the Connecticut territory, as well. By 1640, these communities also exhibited a remarkably stable social order.
