Wednesday, August 14, 2019

What were the major differences between Governor John Winthrop of Massachusetts Bay and Governor William Berkeley of Virginia?

John Winthrop, who served multiple terms as the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (MBC),  was not one its founding members.  A trained lawyer, he traveled to the colony in 1630 to lead other Puritans fleeing the prohibition (by Charles II) of their religion in England. Though the MBC was conservative, Winthrop's governance tended to be more moderate than some of his contemporaries. It was, however, considered rigid and authoritarian, and later arrivals who became prominent in colonial politics quickly became embroiled in theocratic disputes that ultimately divided the colony. Antinomianists like Anne Hutchinson and John Wheelwright espoused a freer form of worship that Winthrop saw as heresy.
Unlike Winthrop, William Berkeley supported King Charles II and was, in fact, appointed colonial governor of Virginia by him.  Berkeley's reasons for being in the English colony had nothing to do with religion; he was a proponent of agriculture and concentrated on diversifying the crops grown there and encouraging others to do the same. Berkeley also promoted the expansion of manufacturing and domestic trade.  Unlike Winthrop, Berkeley did not engage in the persecution of religious dissenters, remaining focused primarily on economic concerns over the philosophical.

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