American Quotations by William J. Federer 2024

John Winthrop (January 22, 1588-April 5, 1649) was the founder of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630), being elected 12 times consecutively as its governor. In England, he was a member of the gentry, having been raised on the 500 acre estate his father had bought from Henry VIII. He had become a successful lawyer and strong Puritan leader. Oliver Cromwell pleaded with him to join the revolution against King Charles I, but he declined. He decided to flee for religious freedom, leading the English "Great Migration" to Salem in 1630. His journal, The History of New England, is a significant...

Thomas Hooker (July 7, 1586-July 7, 1647) was the founder of Hartford, Connecticut in 1636. A Cambridge University graduate, Thomas Hooker was persecuted in England after having gotten involved with the Christian movement known as the Puritans. Exiled from England for his religious beliefs, he fled first to Holland, then to Massachusetts (1633), where he became the minister at the Cambridge (formerly New-Town) settlement. Disputes with the Massachusetts leadership drove him and his congregation to Connecticut (1635-36). In 1638, he stated to the Connecticut General Assembly that he believed people had a God-given right to choose their magistrates. He was a...

John Cotton (December 1585-December 23, 1652) was a powerful Puritan minister and scholar in Boston, Massachusetts. Born in England, he fled to the colonies in 1632 to avoid religious persecution. There he rose to become perhaps the most influential leader in shaping the destiny of Puritan New England, serving at the First Church of Boston, 1633-52. Known for his didactic writings, the principles stated in his sermons were frequently put into immediate practice by civil authorities. In 1636, Rev. John Cotton gave the outline for a code of laws, which included the phrase: <The Law of Nature, delivered by God.>...

Virginia History (1584) from The Original 13-A Documentary History of Religion in America's First Thirteen States (Amerisearch, 2009): <Sir Walter Raleigh named Virginia after Virgin Queen Elizabeth. In 1584, he attempted to found the Roanoke Colony, located in present day North Carolina, but it failed. Jamestown was founded by members of the Church of England, which was the established denomination from 1606 until 1786. Catholics were prohibited, with even Lord Baltimore, a friend of Charles I, being prohibited from stopping in Virginia in 1628 on his way to found the Colony of Maryland as a refuge for persecuted Catholics. The...

Charter to Sir Walter Raleigh (1584) by Queen Elizabeth of England: <Elizabeth, by the Grace of God of England...Defender of the Faith...We give and grant to our trusty and well beloved servant Walter Raleigh...to discover, search, find out, and view such remote, heathen and barbarous lands, countries, and territories, not actually possessed of any Christian Prince, nor inhabited by Christian People... And...upon...finding...such remote lands...it shall be necessary for the safety of all men, that shall adventure themselves in those...voyages, to determine to live together in Christian peace...So always as the said statutes, laws, and ordinances may be as near as conveniently may be...