To show the relevance of the Stour Valley to the United States of America we must go back to a time before the USA existed, before the time of King James 1st of England, to a time when this part of England was both one of the most highly populated, the most wealthy and the most literate. The wealth came from the wool industry and with wealth came education. When the King James Bible was published in English, the lay clergy of the villages around the Stour valley could finally read and understand it, drawing their own interpretation of it. At this time the Church was highly influential in controlling the populous but the new and independent interpretations of the message of the Bible lead to many independent churches being set up and Sudbury, for example, had a remarkable number considering the size of the population at that time. 

So the independent churches taught a Christian understanding that differed from the "official line" from the Church of England and seeing that this Church no longer controlled the people, an edict went out to the clergy at the behest of the Crown. "Teach it our way or else" was, in essence, the message. But the independent clergy and their congregations did not heed the dictate and a period of religious repression ensued.