ght to vote as there was in Massachusetts.

[Sidenote: The New Haven settlers.]

[Sidenote: New Haven founded, 1638. _Higginson_, 72-73.]

54. New Haven, 1638.--The settlers of New Haven went even farther
than the Massachusetts rulers and held that the State should really be a
part of the Church. Massachusetts was not entirely to their tastes.
They passed only one winter there and then moved away and settled New
Haven. But this colony was not well situated for commerce, and was too
near the Dutch settlements (p. 41). It was never as prosperous as
Connecticut and was finally joined to that colony.

[Sidenote: Reasons for union.]

[Sidenote: Articles of Confederation, 1643.]

[Sidenote: New England towns. _Higginson_, 47-79.]

55. The New England Confederation, 1643.--Besides the settlements
that have already been described there were colonists living in New
Hampshire and in Maine. Massachusetts included the New Hampshire towns
within her government, for some of those towns were within her limits.
In 1640 the Long Parliament met in England, and in 1645 Oliver Cromwell
and the Puritans destroyed the royal army in the battle of Naseby. In
these troubled times England could do little to protect the New England
colonists, and could do nothing to punish them for acting independently.
The New England colonists were surrounded by foreigners. There were the
French on the north and the east, and the Dutch on the west. The
Indians, too, were living in their midst and might at any time turn on
the whites and kill them. Thinking all these things over, the four
leading colonies decided to join together for protection. They formed
the New England Confederation, and drew up a constitution. The colonists
living in Rhode Island and in Maine did not belong to the Confederation,
but they enjoyed many of the benefits flowing from it; for it was quite
certain that the Indians and the French and the Dutch would think twice
before attacking any of the New England settlements.

[Illustration: A CHILD'S HIGH CHAIR, ABOUT 1650.]

[Sidenote: Education.]

56. Social Conditions.--The New England colonies were all settled
on the town system, for there were no industries which demanded large
plantations--as tobacco-planting. The New Englanders were small farmers,
mechanics, ship-builders, and fishermen. There were few servants in New
England and almost no negro slaves. Most of the laborers were free men
and worked for wages as laborers now d