Brewster studied at Peterhouse, Cambridge. Cambridge was a university where many people wanted to change the Church of England. People who agreed with this started different religions. They were called Separatists. In England, Separatists were put into jail.
Brewster worked for a time for William Davison in the Netherlands. Davison went to jail because he was a Separatist. When Davison went to jail, Brewster went back home to Scrooby for a time. He became a postmaster. Brewster began a Separatist church in his house. In 1607, He also went to jail for a short time for doing this in. Brewster and other members of the Church decided to move to Netherlands in 1608. They hoped that would be able to practice their religion there. To leave England without permission was illegal, so they left in secret. In 1609, he was chosen as the leader of the congregation.
In Leiden, Brewster taught English. In 1616 he was a printer and made religious books for sale in England. In 1619, Brewster and Edward Winslow published a religious booklet which disagreed with King James I and the Church of England. The King ordered Brewster's arrest. He was forced to hide. The printing press was taken by the English ambassador and Brewster's partner was arrested. The congregation had already decided to leave Leiden for the New World. While Brewster was in hiding, the other members of the church looked to others such as John Carver and Robert Cushman to make the plans. Brewster escaped and, with the help of Cushman, he and Cushman were able to get aboard the "Mayflower" with their friends. His wife and two of his sons, Love and Wrestling, were also passengers.
The Mayflower left Plymouth, England on 16 September 1620. There were 102 passengers and 30–40 crew. On 19 November 1620, the "Mayflower" reached land at Cape Cod hook. They landed on November 21. They wrote the Mayflower Compact, which made rules on how they would live and treat each other.
Brewster became the senior religious leader at Plymouth Colony. He also served as an advisor to Governor William Bradford.
The Brewster and his wife Mary had six children: Jonathan, Patience, Fear, who married Isaac Allerton, Unnamed child, Love Brewster, and Wrestling Brewster
Brewster's son Jonathan, arrived the next year on the ship "Fortune". Brewster's daughters Patience and Fear arrived aboard the "Anne".
Brewster was given land on the islands of Boston Harbor. Four of those islands are named after him. In 1632, Brewster also received lands in nearby Duxbury and moved there from Plymouth Colony to build a farm.
An epidemic killed many English and Indians in the region. William Brewster lost two daughters, Fear and Patience in 1634.
William Brewster died and was buried on 10 April 1644 at Burial Hill, Plymouth, Massachusetts. There is a memorial for him which says it is in honor of "Elder William Brewster Patriarch (father) of the Pilgrims and their Ruling Elder 1609–1644". The burial place of his wife Mary is unknown.
Civil rights movements
The civil rights movements was a series of worldwide political movements for equal civil and political rights. Many times in history, people have used nonviolence to show that they are equal without hurting anybody. Other times were more violent with people who began to rebel against others. Many of these movements did not fully achieve their goals. However, many of them helped make steps toward equality.
The main goal of the civil rights movements is that all people's rights are equally protected by the law, including the rights of minorities. Civil rights movements are different from each country. The LGBT rights movement, Women's rights movement, and many racial minority rights movements are still continuing to fight for equal rights.
The Angolan War of Independence was fought from 1961 to 1975. Angola fought against Portugal. Portugal was making people in Angola farm cotton. Three different groups in Angola were against Portugal. Millions of people died during the war.
Before 1974, the Portuguese Empire also controlled Portuguese Guinea. From 1963-1974, in the Guinea-Bissau War of Independence, the people in Guina fought for their independence. In 1974 they won, and formed the independent country of Guinea-Bissau.
The Mozambican War of Independence was fought from 1964 until 1975. It was fought between Portugal, which controlled Mozambique; and the Mozambique Liberation Front or Frelimo (). The Portuguese won the conflict, using guerilla soldiers. However, because of a coup d'état in Portugal, Mozambique became independent on June 25, 1975.
In Northern Ireland, the Campaign for Social Justice was formed in Belfast in 1964. Next the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) was formed. These groups wanted to:
These demands for reform caused a backlash by some in the unionist majority. This caused The Troubles to start. The Troubles were a civil war that lasted for more than 30 years.
The NICRA used the same methods used by the American Civil Rights Movement: nonviolent marches, pickets, sit-ins, and protests. The first civil rights march in Northern Ireland was held on 24 August 1968 between Coalisland and Dungannon.
Segregation was an attempt by white Southerners to separate the races. They did this to strengthen white pride and to be more powerful over African Americans. Segregation was often called the Jim Crow system.
Segregation became common in Southern states after the end of Reconstruction in 1877. Reconstruction followed the Civil War (1861-1865). During Reconstruction, Republican governments in the Southern states were run by black people. The Reconstruction governments had passed laws opening up economic and political opportunities for black people. However, by 1877, the Democratic Party had gained control of government in the Southern states. These Southern Democrats wanted to reverse black advances made during Reconstruction. To that end, they began to pass local and state laws that said certain places were "For Whites Only" and others for "Colored". Black people had separate schools, transportation, restaurants, hospitals, and parks. Usually, they were not as good as the white-only places. Over the next 75 years, Jim Crow signs went up to separate the races in every possible place.
The system of segregation also included not letting African-Americans vote (this is called disfranchisement). Between 1890 and 1910, all Southern states passed laws that made it difficult or impossible for black people to vote. For example, some laws said a person had to be able to read and write in order to vote. A lot of black people had no access to education and property ownership. Because black people could not vote, they were powerless to prevent whites from segregating all aspects of Southern life. They could do little to stop discrimination in public places, education, economic opportunities, or housing.
Conditions for black people in Northern states were somewhat better. Black people were usually free to vote in the North, but there were so few of them that their voices were barely heard. Segregated facilities were not as common in the North. Black people were usually denied entrance to the best hotels and restaurants. Schools in New England were usually integrated (with black and white students together). However, those in the Midwest generally were not.