While the local narrative is based wholly upon original records, much use has been made also of the rapidly increasing number of scholarly monographs upon particular topics, the indebtedness to which will be found more particularly set forth in the footnotes. It is true that many points—such as land-tenure, in spite of all that has been written upon it—yet remain to be cleared up before we can be quite sure that we understand a number of matters connected with colonial institutions. Nevertheless, so much work of this character has already been done, which has only in part found its way into popular accounts, that it seems as if the time had come for a serious attempt to recast the story of early New England, and to combine these results of recent research with the more modern spirit, in a new presentation of the period. To those who first encouraged him to undertake the work,—interrupted by the war,—and who, in one way and another, have assisted him in his enterprise, the author takes this opportunity to offer his most sincere and grateful thanks. J. T. A. BRIDGEHAMPTON, NEW YORK, _November 9, 1920_. CONTENTS I. THE AMERICAN BACKGROUND 1 II. STAKING OUT CLAIMS 26 III. THE RACE FOR EMPIRE 41 IV. SOME ASPECTS OF PURITANISM 64 V. THE FIRST PERMANENT SETTLEMENT 86 VI. NEW ENGLAND AND THE GREAT MIGRATION 118 VII. AN ENGLISH OPPOSITION BECOMES A NEW ENGLAND OLIGARCHY 146 VIII. THE GROWTH OF A FRONTIER 175 IX. ATTEMPTS TO UNIFY NEW ENGLAND 206 X. CROSS-CURRENTS IN THE CONFEDERACY 231 XI. THE DEFEAT OF THE THEOCRACY 253 XII. THE THEORY OF EMPIRE 278 XIII. THE REASSERTION OF IMPERIAL CONTROL 310 XIV. THE INEVITABLE CONFLICT 338 XV. LOSS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS CHARTER 364 XVI. AN EXPERIMENT IN ADMINISTRATION 398 XVII. THE NEW ORDER 431 INDEX 457 ILLUSTRATIONS New England in 1640 _Frontispiece_ Manuscript Map of the New England Coast, 1607-8 40 (believed to have been drawn by Champlain) Page from Bradford's _History_, on which is the 98 Mayflower Compact Streams of Emigration from England, 1620 to 1642 120 An Original Share in the Massachusetts Bay Company 128