Question

How did John Winthrop change the government of Massachusetts?

Answer 1

Hint: John Winthrop, the chief figure among the Puritan founders of New England, was the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Complete answer: Winthrop was thus part of a class that became the dominant force in English society, the gentry. Early, in a highly stratified society, he assumed the habit of command appropriate to a member of the ruling class. His religious experience hardened his elitist perspective, but it made him a social activist as well. Winthrop felt increasingly trapped by the economic slump during the late 1620s that diminished his landed income. The colony struggled with the disease. The Puritans used the Royal Charter creating the Massachusetts Bay Company to create a government under which a governor and a single legislative body called the Great and General Court, consisting of "freemen," white males who owned property and paid taxes and thus could assume the duty of governing, were elected. Winthrop set a precedent for the other colonists in their early months by serving side by side in the colony's work with servants and labourers. The colony was wrestling with sickness. The right to vote was originally limited to the "chosen," those whose religious background was thought to guarantee redemption, but the franchise was expanded to property owners and taxpayers after the original charter was repealed and a new one created in 1691. Amendments subsequently extended the right to vote and hold office to both men and women. Winthrop was one of the Puritan colonists' best learned, had great abilities and wisdom in leadership, and was renowned for being very religious. Although his strictness has resulted in a few errors, he is generally respected and revered for making the right decisions to help the colony succeed in the Modern World. He founded his family in Boston, which as the colony expanded across New England, soon became the capital of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Note: Winthrop actively helped coordinate all of the new cities and the churches in those cities as governor. He was responsible for the preservation of a very large group of people's civic and social order. Winthrop was considered to be a compromise, a wise man who tried very hard among thousands of colonists to preserve peace.