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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. Social aspects of the puritans life has lead to numerous social aspects in the average
life of an American. The puritans believed in creating a system of blatant inequality. When they arrived to New England their leader John Winthrop became their self appointed leader and every year after that was put into the same position of power. Although the puritans adhered to Christian ideologies and held the bible in high regard they had the goal of reforming their practices to support their own religious needs. Life for the puritans was centered around their work ethic and adherence to the rules of their civilization. They valued working toward a goal of security, this connects to current day American social values because of the idea that Americans work tirelessly toward the goal of preservation of freedom and an insurance of economic, social, and political safety. Winthrop referred to freedom as voluntary and continued to govern to the puritans about “civil liberty”, which has found its way into the social constructs we experience every day. The political aspects of the early puritan life was structurally unsound and should've collapsed due to massive mortality and economic dislocation. Yet, the puritans ideals have been universally accepted as the precursor to American democracy. The puritans themselves would have never considered themselves democratic yet after the demise of their community democracy became a more studied and applied system. The voting system of the puritans included most land owning males and included disjointed ideals of a republic. A central ideal that has transferred from the puritan political system was the practice of local organized politics. People would gather in large groups to discuss, this has also become a foundation of small town practices in regards to local laws. The puritans valued freedom of religion, which is the reason they traveled from England, to escape the religious values of King Charles I who was implementing the Eleven Years Tyranny. A highly respected American ideal is the reverence toward freedom of religion and speech. This stems from the revered freedom that the puritans enjoyed when moving to the New World. The puritans held a community that was referred to as “A City Upon a Hill”, this has transferred into the idea of the American dream as well. America is seen as a place where any man can succeed if he works hard enough, this comes from the puritans. The political and social ideologies that have become synonymous with the American lifestyle and practices began with the puritan immigration from England to New England. Although the puritans had radically different social and political values that the average American the basis for our everyday practices stem from what the puritans created.
In the provocative article, Were the Puritans Puritanical?, Carl Degler seeks to clarify the many misconceptions surrounding the Puritan lifestyle. He reveals his opinions on this seventeenth century living style, arguing that the Puritans were not dull and ultra-conservative, but rather enjoyed things in moderation. They had pleasures, but not in excess. The Puritans could engage in many pleasurable and leisurely activities so long as they did not lead to sin. According to the article, the Puritans believed that too much of anything is a sin. Degler writes about the misconceptions of Puritan dress, saying that it was the “opposite of severe”, and describing it as rather the English Renaissance style. Not all members of Puritan society
Puritans fleeing religious persecution in England settled New England. They were a highly religious people. Document A, John Winthrop’s “ City on a hill” speech, shows how they lived according to God’s will and were very community oriented. Their towns were very planned out with a town/ church meetinghouse in the centre, and land plots for everyone in the community. This is shown in Document D, Articles of Agreement in Springfield Massachusetts 1636. Family was also very important. Since they were very religious and family is highly regarded in the Bible, marriage was advocated and adultery was a huge crime. Adulterers were made to wear the letter A on their clothing. Since they were a very close-knit people, they travelled as big families and sometimes as communities. This mass travel is depicted in document B that is a ship’s list of emigrants bound for New Engla...
8.Puritans— ‘Followers' of Puritanism, a movement for reform in the Church of England that had a profound influence on the social, political, ethical, and theological ideas in England and America. In America the early New England settlements were Puritan in origin and theocratic in nature. The spirit of Puritanism long persisted there, and the idea of congregational democratic government was carried into the political life of the state as one source of modern democracy.
While residing in England, the Puritans and faithful Catholics faced prosecution, which led to their immigration to the New World. Most left England to avoid further harassment. Many groups and parishes applied for charters to America and, led by faithful ministers, the Pilgrims and Puritans made the long voyage to North America. Their religion became a unique element in the New England colonies by 1700. Before landing, the groups settled on agreements, signing laws and compacts to ensure a community effort towards survival when they came to shore, settling in New England. Their strong sense of community and faith in God led them to develop a hardworking society by year 1700, which Documents A and D express through the explanation of how the Pilgrims and Puritans plan to develop...
The Puritans were mainly artisans and middling farmers by trade and in the wake of the reformation of the Church of England, left for the colonies to better devout themselves to God because they saw the Church of England as a corrupt institution where salvation was able to be bought and sold, and with absolutely no success in further reforming the Church, set off for the colonies. English Puritans believed in an all-powerful God who, at the moment of Creation, determined which humans would be saved and which would be damned (Goldfield 45).
1) Puritanism originated from a movement for reform in the Church of England. It focused on the impact upon American values, the present paper first discusses the origin and the tenets of Puritanism.
The puritans were very religious. They wanted to show everyone what happens if you are good and believe in god and the heavens. If you do bad things you would be punished or be killed. If you do good things you can be hand chosen to go to heaven.
The Puritan religion had a surprisingly strong claim for the men and women who are hypersensitive to the disturbing forces that transform England in the middle of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Marriages remain far longer in their lives also the Puritan’s family in the beginning of the seventeenth century New England was more stabilized, adapted, and connected unit also the young Puritans was taught in mixture of constructive parts and the girls was taught as a housewife just like their mothers their lives were complicated.
Their exemplary lives and faith, contrary to popular myths, are a high point of Christian thinking. Puritan legal history specifies some of their loyalties and compromises. Today, scholars continue their dispute over the degree to which the Puritan colonists influenced American law, morality, and culture. In the area of law, this image is supplemented by lurid accounts of witch trials and corporal public punishments. The best example of this was during the seventeenth century.
The church and Christian beliefs had a very large impact on the Puritan religion and lifestyle. According to discovery education, “Church was the cornerstone of the mainly Puritan society of the 17th century.”( Douglas 4). Puritan laws were intensively rigid and people in society were expected to follow a moral strict code. And because of Puritans and their strict moral codes, any act that was considered to go against this code was considered a sin and deserved to be punished. In Puritan theology, God h...
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.
The Puritans were Englishmen who chose to separate from the Church of England. Puritans believed that the Anglican Church or Church of England resembled the Roman Catholic Church too closely and was in dire need of reform. Furthermore, they were not free to follow their own religious beliefs without punishment. In the sixteenth century the Puritans settled in the New England area with the idea of regaining their principles of the Christi...
The Puritans were a religious group that came to North America in search of religious freedom, and, in the process, greatly impacted the North American church, government, education, social mores, and economy. Many of the things that they implemented in the first colonies are still seen today in the social and governmental structures of the United States. Their beliefs and traditions are still practiced today and many social mores are still being adhered to, even now.
Puritans are generally viewed as religious extremists. Their religious beliefs were extended to all areas of life, and were zealously enforced. This is true for the most part, especially the way they conducted themselves publicly. They believed in public piety to the extent that once, “a young married couple was fined twenty shillings for the crime of kissing in public” (Kennedy, 45). This couple was already married, so one can imagine the people would come to feel that rules like this served no purpose. As Albion’s Seed reads, Puritans “believed that costume should not be a form of sensual display” (140). Their finickiness even included their refrain from wearing the color black because it was too stylish for anyone but the elect. It would be difficult to see how this relates to any scriptural laws of God, therefore, one can imagine how people would grow tired of such pointless restrictions on every trivial choice and action.
So they travelled by ship to New England in the early 17th century. The New England region became the center for Puritanism. To controll most of the colonies' activity they held a strong connection between church and state. This strong controll could be hold up until the end of the 17th century.