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The Puritans, a much larger group than the Pilgrims, established the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]] in 1629 with 400 settlers. This group was the Puritans who sought to reform the [[Church of England]] by creating a new, pure church in the New World. Within two years, an additional 2,000 arrived. The Puritans created a deeply religious, socially tight-knit and politically innovative culture that still lingers on in the modern United States. They hoped this new land would serve as a "redeemer nation." Seeking the true religion, they fled England and in America created a "nation of saints" or the "City upon a Hill," an intensely religious, thoroughly righteous community designed to be an example for all of Europe. [[Roger Williams (theologian)|Roger Williams]], who preached religious toleration, [[separation of Church and State]], and a complete break with the Church of England, was banished and founded [[Rhode Island|Rhode Island Colony]], which became a haven for other religious refugees from the Puritan community. , including [[Anne Hutchinson]], a preacher of [[Antinomianism]] likewise was exiled to Rhode Island.

Economically, Puritan New England fulfilled the expectations of its founders. Unlike the cash-crop oriented plantations of the Chesapeake region, the Puritan economy was based on the efforts of individual farmers, who harvested enough crops to feed themselves and their families and a surplus to trade for goods they could not produce themselves. There was a generally higher economic standing and standard of living in New England than in the Chesapeake. On the other hand, town leaders in New England could literally rent out the town's impoverished families for a year to anyone who could afford to board them, as a form of [[alms]] and as a form of cheap labor. Along with farming growth, New England became an important mercantile and shipbuilding center, often serving as the hub for trading between the South and Europe.