What were the motivations and ideals of the Puritans who settled the Massachusetts Bay Colony? In this lesson, students source, corroborate, and contextualize speeches from John Winthrop and John Cotton to explore the Puritans’ motivations. Students also practice using historical evidence to construct a written answer to the question: Were the Puritans selfish or selfless?
Image: Lithograph of John Winthrop made by Anthony Vandyke in the 17th century. From the Wikimedia Commons.
