The Puritans who arrived in America from 1630 to 1649 driven by religious persecution committed themselves to making a "covenant" with God, who had ordered the Puritans to "fly into the wilderness", (Reich, 2011, p.72). This "pact" was supposed to closely unite all residents both from a religious and social point of view. Centered on a common pasture, a village might consist of a meetinghouse, land, and multiple family homes that support the entire group or a “city on a hill” (Brinkley, 2010, p. 76), (Reich, 2011, p . 72 ). The social unit, which was tightly knit in the early years of the Massachusetts colony, began to weaken, and many challenges arose as time went on affecting this social structure, primarily the growing commercialism of the surrounding New England society (Nash, 2010, p. 73 ). In addition to this, the population growth that could not be supported with the current territory, an expansion occurred with families moving further and further away from the center and even breaking up into smaller societies essentially breaking away from the church (Reich, 2011 , pages 74-75), (Brinkley, 2010, p. 77). The response to the growing separation of this utopia has been the incorporation of an authoritarian form of government, limited to those who are filled with God's grace according to the norms or laws established by the group (Nash, 2010, p. 73). This concern about the separation of Puritan communities never abated, but multiplied as other men and women entered the colonies and attempted to impose their power and beliefs such as Roger Williams or Anne Hutchinson (Nash, 2010, p. 74). The leaders of the time, in their response to maintaining this homogeneous society, banished people who were not congruent with their ideals and demonstrated that they would do everything to ensure this... middle of paper......tion : A Concise History of the American People, Vol. I 6th edition. McGraw-Hill New York, NY.Kupperman, K. (2000) Major Issues in American Colonial History: Papers and Essays, (2nd ed.) Boston: Houghton Mifflin.Duiker, W. and Spielvogel, J. (2011). The essential world history (sixth ed.). Boston, Massachusetts: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. (ISBN:978-0-495-90227-0). Nash, G. (2010). Red, White, and Black: The Peoples of Early North America (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.McPherson J. & Hogue J. (2009) Ordeal by Fire: The Civil War and Reconstruction (4th ed.), New York, NY, The McGraw-Hill Company. Reich, J. (2011) Colonial America, (6th ed.) Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. The Columbian Exchange, (2011). Retrieved from http://www.shmoop.com/columbian-exchange.