The Puritan Dilemma: The Story of John Winthrop

In spring of 1630, a thousand new colonists arrived in America after two months’ weary sailing over the Atlantic. The thick forests and hills that greeted them seemed foreboding, and the poor state of the early settlement in Salem redoubled their fears. Many earlier colonists languished in rough hovels, tormented by hunger and hints of scurvy. Indigenous Americans, the French, and Spanish all posed military threats. The new colonists had relatively few supplies due to the constraints of shipping and the inability of many poorer settlers to afford both passage and provisions. 

Winthrop immediately spang into action. He organized the settlers, putting them to work clearing land and planting crops. He dispatched a ship, the Lyon, to England with instructions to John Junior to buy and dispatch more food. He negotiated friendly relations with the neighboring Indigenous peoples and managed to trade for food with them. Most importantly, he realized the defects of Salem as a settlement location and explored the coast looking for other sites with richer farmland and good harbors. He decided on the Boston Bay area, moving most of the settlers there. He established the colony’s headquarters at Charlestown first, but then shifted to Boston to secure a better water supply.