NEW ENGLAND. That portion of the eastern coast of North America lying between the 41st and 45th degrees of North Latitude received its name of New England in 1614 from Capt. John Smith who explored those shores on behalf of the Virginia Company of English merchants.
Physiographically, New England possesses great variety and also a unity derived from isolation. Such physical isolation and unity is, however, deceptive, for New England faces on three fronts. The long and deeply indented coast line from its eastern most point on the Bay of Fundy to the tip of Cape Cod, turns New England toward the maritime provinces of Canada, toward the fishing grounds of the Newfoundland banks and toward the ports of northern Europe from which it is some hundreds of miles less distant than are its rival ports in the middle States. New England's southern shore from Cape Cod to the Hudson river invites close relations with the States to the south, that part lying west of the Connecticut river, especially falling within the area of the metropolitan influence of New York rather than any New England centre. The north-western region, on the other hand, turns its back on the rest of New England and finds its outside connection through Lake Champlain and the Richelieu river or through Lake Memphramagog with the Canadian prov ince of Quebec.
The very characteristics of location, climate, topography and soil conditions and lack of natural products of a highly prized sort, which discouraged the exploitation of New England in the early years of American colonial development, were admirably calculated to make it an attractive seat for political and religious refugees whose primary consideration was living conditions and freedom from external molestation. While substantial financial resources assured the success of the Puritan colony of the Massa chusetts Bay company, the survival of the feeble and ill-supported settlement of the Pilgrims at Plymouth proved that a living could be won from the wilderness by extraordinary effort and self discipline. Both examples prompted other undertakings. Roger Williams, Ann Hutchinson and Wheelwright, refugees from the strict theocratic government of Boston, with no backing from the home government, set up tiny political States at spots just beyond the boundaries set by the Crown to the jurisdiction of Massachusetts Bay Company. On the other hand, new immigrant groups enlarged by malcontents from Massachusetts established strong settlements on the southern coast and secured royal recog nition as the colony of Connecticut in 1661. In four directions colonial attempts of a distinctly different type were attempted. Based on Champlain's discovery in 1609 of the lake which bears his name, the French Government in Canada attempted to estab lish seigneuries on the slopes of the Green mountains bordering that lake. On the coast of Maine, Sieur de Mont in 1604 and a band of Jesuits in 1613 tried to found colonies. North of the Merrimac river Capt. John Mason received a grant from the Crown and sent settlers to the mouth of the Piscataqua (Ports mouth). His plans for an aristocratic domain modelled on the mediaeval County Palatine as well as his appointment as royal governor-general of all New England came to naught with his death in 1637. His settlers fell under the rule of the Massachu setts Bay company until created into a royal province in 1679. Further north-east another royal proprietor, Gorges, planned to colonize but failed in competition with the Puritan settlers. His
heirs sold their claims to Massachusetts in 1674 and the region under the name of the District of Maine remained a part of Massachusetts until erected into an independent State in 1820.
The New England colonies had attracted little attention from the restored Stuarts until complaints of the independent attitude of the Massachusetts authorities in the persecution and exclusion of Quakers and Anglicans and a disregard of the Navigation acts drew down the royal displeasure. James II. attempted to systema tize his northern colonies by consolidating all the New England colonies with New York and New Jersey under a single royal governor. From an administrative point of view the scheme was sound. This new "Dominion of New England" would also have enabled the English to oppose the threatened aggressions of the French more effectively, but the methods of James's agent, Ran dolph, and his governor, Andros, roused bitter opposition in New England. The cancellation of their charters the colonists regarded as a destruction of their constitutional rights. When the news of the glorious revolution in England reached Boston, Andros was overthrown, Connecticut and Rhode Island quietly resumed their old charter governments and Massachusetts obtained at the court of the new sovereigns, William and Mary, a restoration of many of her old rights under a new "province" charter (1691). The qualities and characteristics which have distinguished the New Englanders and the institutions which New England has given to America were developed in the colonial period. At first, the most pronounced characteristic was the capacity for co-operative action. From this sprang the public school system, the town government, the Congregational Church organization. By the Revolution, how ever, the individualism which appeared sporadically in the early years came to be general and reached its height in the political philosophy of the Adamses, in the transcendentalism of Emerson, in the educational theories of Charles William Eliot. Much has been said of the spiritual heritage of the Puritans and Pilgrims, and ideals with which they came to New England ; there seems to be ample grounds for explaining the peculiar features of New England life with reference to the economic situation. Unquestion ably the New England colonists suffered from lack of division of labour. The nature of the soil, the lack of easily accessible markets, the difficulty of securing a surplus of any great staple to exchange for other necessities forced each family to provide for its own wants. This produced a people of singular ingenuity and resourcefulness but without specialized skills. It offered no pre mium for systematic development of agriculture or industries except the few in which New England had a natural advantage both in production and in marketing. Of these the greatest was ship-building. This industry began almost at once with Win throp's "Blessing of the Bay" launched on the Mystic river in 1631. On nearly every navigable stream in close proximity to the supply of timber arose small ship-yards where the neighbouring farmers, trappers or fishermen employed their time in off-seasons in turning out vessels for which they found a ready sale, because the English Navigation acts admitted colonial-built vessels to the status of English ships in the monopoly of the carrying trade of the expanding empire.