The Wordy Shipmates

The central historical figure of the book, John Winthrop was an English religious and political leader who emigrated to Massachusetts Bay in the fleet led by the flagship Arbella in 1630. Born into wealth and formally trained as a lawyer, he became influential in non-Separatist Puritanism and in Boston’s growing civil and religious communities. Winthrop served as governor, deputy governor, and magistrate in Massachusetts Bay throughout the 1630s. He was at the center of the trials that resulted in the banishment of both Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson. In this way, he helped shape and police the character of the colony from a position of continual wealth and power.

Winthrop delivered the now-famous “A Model of Christian Charity” speech on the eve of settlement, a sermon in which he described his envisioned “city upon a hill” that should serve as the model Christian society that the colonists should establish. He also kept journals that are an important primary source for The Wordy Shipmates, offering his reflections on his paternalistic leadership role and the practical needs of the colony as well as on theology. Winthrop lived long enough to see Boston become an established city that withstood external challenges, like warfare with nearby Native groups and the King of England’s threat to revoke the colony’s charter, and internal ones, like the dissent delivered by Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson. 

John Cotton was a highly influential religious figure. After an elite religious education and a 20-year career as a minister, Cotton went into hiding due to changing British religious policies and an increasingly anti-Puritan system. By 1630, he had become “the most respected, famous, and beloved Puritan minister in England” (3), whom he eventually joined in 1633, becoming the teacher of the Boston congregation.

Cotton bolstered the Boston church’s membership, winning converts as soon as he began his employment. Soon after, he got centrally involved in some of Boston’s leading controversies, namely the banishment of Roger Williams and the Antinomian Controversy that led to the banishment of Anne Hutchinson and her followers. Roger Williams maintained a lifelong grudge against Cotton, blaming Cotton for his worsening circumstances. Though Hutchinson was a devout follower of Cotton, he broke ties with her, claiming that she and others like her expanded his sermons to unorthodox and blasphemous beliefs. Cotton remained employed in Boston until his death in 1652.

Roger Williams emigrated from England to Massachusetts Bay in December 1630. He had a contentious relationship with the Boston congregation. He called on the Massachusetts Bay colonists to formally separate from the Church of England, challenged the rightful authority of town magistrates in matters related to religion, and advocated for fair dealings with Native Americans, including the formal purchase of land.

When the nearby Salem congregation invited Williams into their ranks, Bostonian magistrates bullied Salem into rescinding their offer. Williams relocated to Plymouth Colony, but he disapproved even of Plymouth’s substantial degree of separation from the Church of England. His continual gripes brought him before the Boston Court, which tried to persuade him to conform to their society and stop attacking the King for granting the colonists what Williams saw as an invalid charter because it had bypassed Native American consent and participation.

Unwilling to back down from his beliefs and frustrations, Williams accepted a sentence of banishment, and then fled into Narragansett territory, where, after negotiating a land grant, he established Providence, Rhode Island. From the beginning, Providence allowed religious freedom and the separation of church and state. Williams served as an informal ambassador to the Narragansett and the Pequot during the Pequot War.

Williams wrote A Key into the Language of America, which transcribed Algonquian phrases. It was the first English dictionary of a North American Indigenous language and reflected a positive valuation of Narragansett hospitality and society. 

Uncas was the sachem of the Mohegan in modern-day Connecticut during the Pequot War and well beyond. The Mohegan and the Pequot had historically had a contentious relationship, so allying with the English against made political sense for the Mohegans. The Narragansett, led by Miantonomi, similarly allied with the English against the Pequot.

During the Pequot War, Uncas helped lead forces at the Mystic Massacre, though he did not order the burning of the village. The defeat of the Pequots expanded Mohegan power and influence in the region.

The regional sociopolitical reorganization that resulted from the Pequot War heightened tensions between the formerly allied Mohegan and the Narragansett. Miantonomi planned to attack the English to prevent what he understood to be a plot to annihilate Native people, but Uncas intervened and had Miantonomi executed, again solidifying his alliance with the English.

Uncas continued to support the English during King Philip’s War, which aided English colonialism and was ultimately ruinous to Native communities by and large. His leadership did, however, expand Mohegan influence and ensure Mohegan survival in their ancestral homelands.