The Puritan Dilemma: The Story of John Winthrop

The Puritan Dilemma: The Story of John Winthrop is a nonfiction account of the early colonization of America, written by acclaimed historian Edmund Morgan. The book is both a biography of John Winthrop—one of the leading figures in the establishment of the Massachusetts Bay Colony—and a chronicle of the settling of New England. First published in 1958, The Puritan Dilemma has since become a classic and is required reading material is many high school and college history classes.

The volume opens with an exploration of Winthrop's childhood in England. Winthrop is born in 1587 into a relatively privileged life in Suffolk, and as a young man, he inherits the estate known as Groton Manor. From there, he attends college at Cambridge and becomes a lawyer (as his father before him). As both a landowner and a lawyer, Winthrop has the authority and resources to pretty much do as he pleases, and he spends a number of years attempting to strike a balance between a more pious life and one filled with worldly pleasures.

In the 1620s, an economic depression hits, forcing Winthrop to seek better-paying work. He becomes a lawyer with Her Majesty's Court, coming into contact with the elites of the ruling class. This new position puts him in the right place at the right time. American colonization has become increasingly popular, and a group of Puritan merchants actively recruits the bright and charismatic Winthrop to join them in chartering a new colony in American. This is an opportunity that Winthrop cannot refuse. He thinks England is in a moral decline, rotted by politics and decadence, and, at home, he is having trouble with his son. However, more than anything, Winthrop deems it God's will that he set sail for the New World.



The group of merchants he joins eventually becomes the Massachusetts Bay Company, which, in turn, becomes the Massachusetts Bay Colony once they stake their claim to a stretch of New England land. They elect Winthrop head of the company and governor of New England. However, Winthrop does not intend to separate from English authority.

The new faction's first winter in New England is a brutal one. Though starvation becomes an unpleasant fact, Winthrop remains intent on governing with a fair and equitable hand. He even pays laborers the maximum allowable wage under the law, garnering much respect from other colonists. Winthrop proves himself sensible, rational, open to compromise, adept at negotiating, and careful with his words.

Yet, in spite of what may seem to be democratic principles, Winthrop does not view the New World as a democracy. He thinks rulers and people in positions of authority are divinely placed in those positions by God. Winthrop uses his own "divine" authority to change key definitions in the founding charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.



Magistrate Thomas Dudley is one of Winthrop's detractors. He finds Winthrop's liberties with the founding charter reprehensible, and during one 1632 meeting, Dudley physically attacks Winthrop. Dudley is not alone in feeling this way. In the 1634 elections, Dudley roundly defeats Winthrop to become Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
From here, Morgan expands his focus to draw in other key players in Colonial America. Religious reformers Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson have a dramatic impact on the governance of New England. Williams rejects the way that Winthrop and others have structured the government and instead advocates for firm church/state separation and freedom of religion. His views get him expelled from Massachusetts by Puritan leaders. Nonetheless, Williams remains a supporter of Winthrop.

With Hutchinson, her strong and unorthodox religious convictions rattle the establishment in the young Massachusetts Bay Colony. Her outspokenness on religious issues particularly shakes Winthrop, who sees her as a threat. Hutchinson espouses a religious philosophy where no mere man has divine rights; only God has such rights. In addition, she believes in religious freedom as a founding principle of colonial life. To silence her, Winthrop drags her into court—a court where he is both accuser and judge. Not surprisingly, he finds her guilty, calls her a heretic, and orders her expelled from the Colony. In his mind, Winthrop justifies all of this as an effort to keep the Colony united.

In 1637, Winthrop again wins the election for Governor. His ongoing dispute with his deputies—they want more power than he is willing to grant them—likely costs him reelection two years later. At this point, his deputies draft the Body of Liberties, which effectively limit much of the power of authority figures, instead, granting certain unalienable rights to individual citizens.



In 1642, Winthrop once more claims the Governor's seat. The English Civil War begins, and its effects reverberate in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. For one of the first times in American history, the events of overseas wars have practical and economic impacts in the Colonies. Winthrop guides the new nation through these uncertain waters, again facing challenges to his religious authority, this time from reformer Robert Child; Child is eventually convicted of sedition and deported back to England.

A year before his death in 1649, Winthrop establishes a new set of laws that become a template for future laws in New England.