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Religions impact on colonial america
Religions impact on colonial america
Us history chapter 3 colonial life
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In the 1600s, the New England colonies were quickly developing because of the Puritans. Many great ideas and ethics were brought to the New World from England in a short amount of time. There was always a sense of order in their society, which was spread throughout the colonies. The importance of unity, education, and money greatly shaped the systematic life of Puritans.
John Winthrop, the governor of the Massachusetts Bay colony, gives a speech while coming to New England in which he says, “Wee must be willing to abridge ourselves of our superfluities, for the supply of others’ necessities” (Doc. A). Unity was a key role in the Puritan life and without it, they would've fallen apart; Winthrop is telling everyone that they have to support each other in any situation in order to survive in the New World. Nathaniel Ward adds to the idea of unity that if people are “willing to tolerate any religion… besides [their] own,… the fiddle will be out of tune” (Doc. G). Simply put, Ward is trying to say that if people don't follow the same religion,
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they would not follow the same laws, which, in the end, would lead to disaster. On the other hand, Roger Williams says that “God requireth not a uniformity of religion to be enacted and enforced in any civil state” (Doc. F). Williams believes that people should have the right to choose their religion; forcing someone to follow a specific religion is not going to unite society, so it’s better to let the colonists have freedom of religion. In addition to unity, another important concept was education. A great amount of emphasis was put on education in the Puritan lifestyle. All towns were centered around three things that Puritans valued most: school, church, and the town hall (Doc. B). Puritans especially valued education; therefore, it was required to have one teacher per 50 households. One of the things they “… longed for, and looked after was to advance Learning… dreading to leave an illiterate Ministery to the Churches…” (Doc. E). This shows that they initially valued education so that the churches would have intelligent people who would make correct decisions in the future; it would also benefit them by allowing them to communicate better with Native Americans or colonists from other colonies and not create any misunderstandings. Eventually, their settlement became the birthplace of Harvard, which is the oldest and most prestigious university today. Besides education, the value of money molded their life. Money held a great deal of importance to the Puritans.
Robert Keayne said, “I have not lived an idle, lazie or dronish life… but have rather studyed and endeavored to redeeme my tyme…” (Doc. I). Keayne believed in hard work and knew that nothing in life would come easy; this taught him the value of money and showed him that being lazy is not the answer to anything. He felt that money is the most important aspect in life and nothing else would compare to it. In contrast, John Higginson said that “…New England is originally a plantation of Religion, not a Plantation of Trade…” (Doc. J). Higginson is attempting to say that above all else, religion is the most vital part of New England. It isn't about earning money or trading, its about one’s relationships with God and the dedication towards one’s religion. When one doesn't have money, he will look for peace and comfort in his religion. Without religion, a person ceases to
be. In Puritan society, unity, education, and money played a huge role in the development of its colony. With these ideas and ethics, it spread its knowledge to the other New England colonies, helping them develop as well. Over the years, it helped build a foundation for new colonies. In any community today, the basic values of unity, education, and money all exist somehow; it may not be too visible, but society’s basic ideas come from the Puritan lifestyle.
The puritans traveled from England on the Arabella in January of 1630 to escape to a place where they could instill their own religious and political values into their society; Stephen Foster writes about the puritans in the narrative entitled Puritanism and Democracy: A mixed Legacy. Stephen grants the puritans with creating a society based off of religious freedom and reformation of the English church. Their social constructs consisted of hierarchies and accepted inequality. The puritans are credited with laying the foundation to the democratic system of America along with early aspects of political and social constructs found in current day America.
While the Protestant Revolution raged in Europe, Catholics and other radicals were fleeing to the New World to find religious freedom and to escape prosecution. Because of this, the northern colonies became more family and religiously orientated as the families of the pilgrims settled there. From the Ship’s List of Emigrants Bound for New England we see that six families on board made up sixty nine of the ships passengers (B). Not only did families tend to move to New England, but whole congregations made the journey to find a place where they could set up “a city upon a hill”, and become an example to all who follow to live by as John Winthrop put it to his Puritan followers (A). Contrastingly, the Chesapeake colonies only had profit in their mind, which pushed them to become agriculturally advanced. Since Virginia, one of the Chesapeake colonies, was first settled with the intention of becoming an economic power house, it was mainly inhabited by working-class, single men. The average age of a man leaving for the Americas was only twenty two and a half years old according to the Ship’s List of Emigrants bound for Virginia (C). The harsh conditions of the colony did not appeal to those who wished to settle with a family. Added on to that was the fact that the average lifespan in the Chesapeake colonies was a full ten years or more shorter than that in other more desirable living quarters to the north.
In the 17th century, the British colonies still identified themselves as European, but as the colonies expanded and grew more populous, they developed differing geographic, social, and economic systems. This difference between New England, and Chesapeake, is caused by the motivations for settlement between the two regions. While the New England colonies were mainly settled for religious motivations, most notably by the Puritans, the Chesapeake colonies were settled for economic prosperity. Also, while the Chesapeake colonies were mainly settled by individual young men seeking a profit, the New England colonies were settled by families hoping to settle and expand.
The New England colonies developed a close-knit homogeneous society and a thriving mixed economy of agriculture and commerce. They developed this by creating a group called the New England Confederation. This focused on the protection of the people in the colony in the event of enemies trying to attack them. On page 49, it says “The primary purpose of the confederation was defense against foes or potential foes, notably the Indians, the French, and the Dutch.” They created this as a safety net for the New England colonies. Every part of the New England colonies had two votes, it didn’t matter on the size of the colonies. The ran it as their own because the king of the time didn’t care much for the colonies.
A community is a group of people who work together towards a common goal and share a common interest. Lack of such a quality can and most likely will cause a struggling town or city to fall into the extremes of poverty and wealth. The New England community was so strong and so supportive in comparison to that of the Chesapeake Bay, that it is no wonder they developed into two distinctly different cultures before the year 1700. The Chesapeake region developed into a land of plantations and money-driven owners, with the elite wealthy, almost no middle class, and those in poverty creating the population. New England, on the other hand, had developed into a religion and family based society comprised of mostly middle class families by 1700. Looking at the terrain, ethic, government, and even the people themselves, reveals clues about how the drastic split in society came to be. It was one America, but two distinct societies had developed in it by the 1700's.
To the people of Boston, this treatment to the different was normal; religion was a huge part of their daily life, a reason for living, an idea that seeped into different facets of behavior: hard work, rigid morals, and education, all of which helped them to build a stable society upon which to expand and to try to please the Lord; and anyone who threatened that deserved to be punished. The people of Boston liked to believe that they had a special connection with God unlike anyone else, and prided themselves on it. God was the ultimate answer in times of struggle as well as times of prosperity; to the people of Boston, God mattered more than anything else.
Both authors stress a sense of community and diversity in order to survive in America. Smith could not think of anything to “be more pleasant, than planting and building a foundation for his posterity, got from the rude earth, by God’s blessing and his own industry, without prejudice to any” (Smith 114). This proves Smith believes everyone in the community should join together without showing any type of discrimination. Likewise, Winthrop declares we must have “before our eyes commission and community in the work, our community as members of the same body” (Winthrop 225). He basically wants the settlers to live and share their wealth as one joined community. Smith and Winthrop also agree that diversity needs to exist in each community. “Carpenters, masons, fishers, fowlers, gardeners, husbandmen, sawyers, smiths, spinsters, tailors, weavers, and such like” are the variety of men Smith found in America (Smith 117). All of these types of men contribute a part of their lives to their community. In the same way, Winthrop assumes God ordered “all these differences for the preservation and good of the whole” (Winthrop 21...
...ve Indians. From the copious use of examples in Winthrop's work, and the concise detail in Rowlandson's narrative, one can imbibe such Puritans values as the mercy of God, place in society, and community. Together, these three elements create a foundation for Puritan thought and lifestyle in the New World. Though A Model of Christian Charity is rather prescriptive in its discussion of these values, Rowlandson's captivity narrative can certainly be categorized as descriptive; this pious young woman serves as a living example of Winthrop's "laws," in that she lives the life of a true Puritan. Therefore, both 17th century works are extremely interrelated; in order to create Winthrop's model community, one must have faith and closely follow Puritan ideals, as Rowlandson has effectively done in her A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson.
The Puritans came to the New World in hopes of establishing their religion as the only accepted faith. In my opinion, they became exactly like those that they fled from in England. Their closed minded views kept them from spreading the word of God and closed themselves off from saving others. Their persecution and intolerance of other religions bound their hands and communities.
In colonial times various American colonists started to realize some serious problems with their home country, England. Conflicts arose whenever the King would restrict multitudes of the colonists’ liberties, and also surfaced when the colonies began to see problems with English enemies that were not their own (Dudley 57). Colonists seeing those issues had started to aspire for their own independence and began developing ideas to leaving England all together. The American colonies would flourish without their association with England and for the future generations of the colonists to prosper, breaking away from England was key.
“Those who think or act independently are seen as a threat to the community and they must be eliminated.” The Puritans believe that they are on the planet to please God. They must devote their lives to God and not act put as an independent person. They must follow God's Law and must be in church. The man of each house is a part of the village where they choose how to run their families. The woman of the house must do chores and are not aloud to act as an individual. Everyone must attend church or will be punished through humiliation. The Puritans ran their village or township with their government and religious beliefs combined. Which was the complete opposite of the Rationalists.
Since most of the first American colonies were founded by Puritans, their lives revolved around God. Puritans sought to glorify God in everything they did by doing things such as living simply or
The name “Puritans” (they were sometimes called “precisionists”) was assigned by the enemies of the movement).They escaped from Europe and sought religious freedom,therefore,the new world that “no one settled before”(Lord, Lewis, and Sarah Burke.)became the best option. Puritans moved to the new world in order to escape from religion prosecution. One thing about Puritan settlement groups,according to History.com,is that Puritan settlers usually move to America with their entire family.They brought their children and spouses with them to the new world.While other groups are filled with young and middle aged men.On the other hand,Puritans were extremely religious.In the early Colonies, Church was mandatory for everyone who lived in the colony.And since they believed that they were doing God’s work,they were extremely intolerance towards people with different belief. People with different belief were hanged in Boston in some case. In early times of the colonies, Puritans are extremely harsh and strict on their rules because they believed that earthly punishment is nothing comparable to God’s punishment. There was no compromise when it is about sins. However,Unlike what people think, Puritans did have fun. They had celebrations and festivals. Children can play games under parent’s permission. Puritans also valued education, they had schools in every community supported by taxes from each community. People were educated in order to read the scripture. Therefore, Puritans were generally well literate .Although women are educated, in the early Puritan society, women and children had no political power at all when it comes to Church decisions. It indicated that Puritans were discriminating against women and believed women should just stay out of men’s business. That is also the reason why Anne Bradstreet was not a role model for the women in the early Puritan settlements. Puritans in the early
Winthrop has reached American exceptionalism in many ways. His phrase, “We shall be as a city upon a hill” is a quote many of us use today. To be a “city upon a hill” means it’s something everyone can view. Hence, meaning Winthrop felt his religious society should be standard for all societies. While his manipulative leadership should not be the standard, his views of wealth, love, and sacrifice should be mirrored throughout society. His society functioned caringly and without turmoil. This is more that can be said about our society
16. Hutson, James H., and Thomas Jefferson. "Thomas Jefferson's letter to the Danbury baptists: A controversy rejoined." The William and Mary Quarterly (1999): 775-790.