American Quotations by William J. Federer 2024

Pocahontas (c.1595-March 1617) was the daughter of the North American Indian Chief Powhatan. In 1607, she befriended the English settlers of the Jamestown Colony. Captain John Smith recorded her intervention which prevented her father from executing him. In 1613, the Indian Princess was baptized into the Christian faith, taking the name Rebekah, by the Reverend Richard Bucke, second chaplain to the Virginia Colony. In 1614, she married John Rolfe, the council member of the Jamestown Settlement noted for having introduced tobacco cultivation in 1612. John Rolfe, a widower ten years her senior, asked the Jamestown officials for permission to marry...

William Bradford (March 1590-May 9, 1657) was a Pilgrim leader who helped establish the Plymouth Colony. Sailing in the Mayflower, he was chosen as governor of the colony in 1621, and was reelected 30 times until his death. In 1650, William Bradford wrote a history Of Plymouth Plantation, which is comparable to Shakespeare's works in literary and historical significance. In it, he traced the events which led to the Pilgrims' departure from England: <It is well knowne unto ye godly and judicious how since ye first breaking out of ye lighte of ye gospell in our Honourable Nation of England,...

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.>...