ABSTRACT
Originating from the same country as their Virginia counterparts, New Englanders nonetheless produced a very different colonial society. Compared with the ships sailing to the Chesapeake, those bound for New England carried more Puritans and fewer Anglicans, more families and fewer single men, more "middling sorts" and fewer "sturdy beggars", more who would be free and fewer who would be slaves. In "A Model of Christian Charity", John Winthrop expresses the ideals he hoped would shape New England society in New England. He wrote the sermon that follows in 1630 on the transatlantic crossing to America. Known as "A Model of Christian Charity", it became one of the most influential sermons in American history. Vigorous critics of the Church of England, Massachusetts ministers and magistrates quickly found themselves the targets of criticism in New England. Among the most prominent of those challenging the ideas of Massachusetts's leading figures was Anne Hutchinson, an archetypal American dissenter.
