John Winthrop A Success Or Failure

Starting a colony is not an easy accomplishment but John Winthrop proved that he was capable of gathering people, taking them to a new country and settling in a town. John Winthrop was a good leader. He was raised in a wealthy family and his father was an excellent businessmen. Winthrop was following into his father’s footsteps which lead to taking over his father’s business. Attending college at the age of 17 converted Winthrop into a great leader and noble hardworker. Having these characteristics really helped Winthrop to build the colony and governed it. His first act was when Charles I became king and his wife was a catholic. King Charles I was persecuting many Puritans which made the Puritans worry and not feel safe. Winthrop quickly thought

(Morgan,41) Winthrop’s first time being elected governor was hectic for him being the reason of having to be in charge of the arrangements for the whole expedition: ships, provisions, and passengers.(Morgan,45) This was a huge responsibility for Winthrop to handle and accordinate everything perfectly for the journey to be a success. Gathering a handful of passengers willing to leave their home and settle elsewhere blindly was the most difficult task Winthrop had to face. But John Winthrop did not fail because of his fever of puritanism, it help him become a social activist and a leader where people looked up to him. A year later, the journey to the Americas had finally begun and included in the journey were approximately two thousand Puritans. Winthrop was sailing in the Arbella for two months in the cold, windy, crowded enviroment. To lighten up the mood, Winthrop acting like a leader set playing games on the deck and routed them out regularly helping the travelers to not get impatient.(Morgan, 49) Just as how he acted during the journey to the Americas, trying to keep the puritans contented is what he did when they settled in the Americas.

They agreed that they weren’t going to be prudes or prohibitionist or live like drabs. Which was a great decision to do which develops the society and way of living instead of being ignorant and living by the old rules in England. They were looking forward to new things that better themselves in their community and becoming a paragon for others. Although, since they were still Puritans they had to attend church every sunday, tried to punish every sin in Massachusetts and was obligated to live with a family if you did not have any in the New World.(Morgan, 64) These rules were unneccessary to make, instead of making these rules on how to live your life, they should have shifted their focus on duties that had to be done to actually have a successful society. The Puritans had the people to run a community but weren’t brillant thinkers. They didn’t open their minds to a sense where they should have people working on different tasks such as someone working the farm, plant crops, hunting and making reasonable laws. Also, the Puritans were close minded and ignorant when it came to God. No one was allowed to worship any religion and couldn’t belive in God differently or think about God differently. Which lead to conflicts because there were several people who were smart enough to think differently than the Puritans. The people wanted to do things their way and each of them thought