This story begins in the 1620s, when the first puritans came to New England. They called themselves the Mayflower pilgrims and settled in Plymouth. The reason they left England was that they were dissatisfied with the religious situation in their home country. The strength of the puritans was that they feared nothing, and no problem was too hard to solve, at least not when dealing with the creation of "the city of God", and that was their greatest goal.

John Endecott and his group of people settled in what they started to call Salem. Together with other villages nearby, they built up trade and business in the area. They also founded the "Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay in New England", an organisation with a royal charter.

Other puritans in England sold their land and goods to afford the ticket over the sea. In 1630, about 1000 men, women and children came to New England to settle. And the migration continued: in 1634, about 10 000 people had settled in New England.

While in New England, the English puritans settled in areas around today’s Boston. And they tried to create a community where they could attain their ideal society. They saw this as a mission from God, the Almighty had set up an experiment in Christian living, which they were in.

In 1637 the situation in England became worse, ending up with the Civil War. Now the migration to New England stopped. This event is said to be the first major American depression. Before this, the main business in Massachusetts Bay had been cattle raising, fur trade and fishing, but now they had to look for other markets than England to sell their goods. By selling their goods to the West Indies instead, they could continue to buy goods from England, even though the war was going on.

New England was not governed by a royal governor or judge, no English army or parliament. This led to New England being very independent of England.

In 1644, the general court of New England was divided into two houses, and became a modern state government. In was not quite a democracy, but it was a step towards it. The government wrote down a body of law and bill of rights, and these are quite the same as America’s Bill of Rights. Torture and cruel punishment were forbidden, foreigners were given equal protection of the law and cruelty to animals was also forbidden. Men were no longer allowed to beat their wives, unless it was in self-defence. The Massachusetts Bay Colony government was copied in other colonies in New England. Each colony wrote their own constitution.

The Colony of Rhode Island differed a lot from the other colonies. Left-wing puritans, who protested against the system of church and state, established the colony. The founders of Rhode Island had been banished from Massachusetts as troublemakers. In this colony, religious liberty was accepted. Not until 1964, was religious liberty accepted in the Christian Church. William Penn, the most beloved colonial founder, said that God equally accepted the Indian religion and Christianity. Penn led them out of starvation and respected their borders, which many other puritans didn’t.

In the time area of the British Civil War (1641-1648) the New Englanders were pretty much left to themselves. Not until the 1660s, did the English start to care about New England again. Almost all of the New Englanders were on the Roundhead’s side (the parliament and the puritans verses the royalists (the Cavaliers)) in the Civil War, but Massachusetts declared themselves neutral in the conflict. In 1643, the New England Confederation was founded, and this showed that the New Englanders were very independent of England. This confederation was a precursor of the Confederation of 1781.

The emigrants who had came to New England were middle-class farmers and tradesmen. All the men who were members of the church (which almost everybody was) could vote. No matter which occupation, rich or poor, all the New Englanders (men) had the same value, and the same belief in the Bible.

In the five major colonies, and the two minor, all the inhabitants continued to fancy English culture. Sports, hunting and fishing were still popular, not only as something to make a living out of, but as amusements.

One of the main things that the New Englanders left behind them to the United States was the free education. The schools in England were closed for puritans, so a lot of people immigrated just for that reason. A village of 50 people or more, had to have a schoolmaster, and a village of 100 people or more, had to have a grammar school. Boys from six years old and up could begin in the grammar school. The basis in school was religious and humane, so two of the main classes were Latin and Greek. Great colleges were also built up, and some of them remain today, as America’s finest colleges.

Another thing that the New Englanders also left behind them to the United States was industry. The organised industry began in the middle of the 1600s. The main products were textile from the textile factories and pots and pans from the iron factories. This lay the ground for the rise of America’s iron and steel industry.

The organisation of the New England churches gave almost every man a say in religious affairs. The local government had town meetings, where also ordinary people could say their meaning. The whole society participated in questions dealing with the society they were living in. The Massachusetts Bay Confederation embodied the seeds of democracy.

They also lay the ground for nationalism. Other colonists in America saw themselves as countrymen from the nation they came from, but not the New Englanders. They didn’t talk about when they were going "home", as the other colonialists did. In 1684, the word American was used for a European colonist for the first time.

But as you all know, something went wrong. In 1692 the witch trials in Salem took place, and those were not based on the democracy and understanding that the Massachusetts Bay Confederation stood for. What made these Christian people do such things to their countrymen? It is of course very hard to say, but one answer may be the isolation of the puritans. Even though they had developed trade and some of them travelled to other villages, the life in the villages was very isolated. The conditions in the areas they were living in weren’t too good either. Forests with wild animals and Indian villages surrounded them, and they feared them both a lot. Also the climate was very rough with cold winters and it was hard to find food. These conditions may be the answer to why such terrible things might have happened. But they only happened in Salem, not in other villages. Isn’t that strange?