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Puritans and America
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History Essay
In the 1500’s people were punished for their religious beliefs. Well, that’s sort of why a group of separatists known as the pilgrims broke away from Great Britain and settled in a part of Massachusetts they called “Plymouth”. Even though all of the colonies played a major role in forming America as it is today, Massachusetts Plymouth was the most important because there was religious freedom, the settlers befriended the natives, and they had their own government system.
To start, even though the pilgrims went through many hardships making forming the Massachusetts Plymouth colony, they had religious freedom. This was a big thing back in the 1500’s because people had to succumb to an “official religion”. The pilgrims originally
settled in Holland in search of religious freedom, but didn’t find it so they made an agreement to travel to the “New World”. They did this via a ship called the “Mayflower”. This proves that Massachusetts Plymouth took the biggest role in shaping our country because freedom of religion is essential to American life (History.com 1). Second, although many of the other settlements feared the natives, that was not the case for the pilgrims. Instead of fearing the natives, the pilgrims befriended them. The natives were very crucial to pilgrim survival. They not only taught them how to farm corn and hunt deer, but also taught them how to survive the harsh climate in which they had been living in for many years. This shows Plymouth took the biggest role in shaping America because the pilgrims showed signs that Americans could coexist with natives (Zuchowski 1). Third, because Plymouth wasn’t part of Virginia, their patent was useless, so they had to make their own government. Their government aimed for an agricultural society centered around God. This shows Massachusetts Plymouth took the biggest role in forming America today because it was the first colony to have its own government separate from Britain’s. Again, in the 1500’s it was against the law to follow your own religion which is the main reason the pilgrims traveled to the “New World”. Again, Although every single one of the colonies took a major role in forming America today, Massachusetts Plymouth took the biggest role because they had religious freedom, they befriended the natives, and they had their own government system.
The settlers of the Jamestown were members of the great Anglican Church, which was the official Church of England while the Pilgrims were dissenters from the Church and established the Puritan faith. Due to the Jamestown settlers being a part of the Anglican faith, they were not under any fear of religious persecution. They remained loyal to their superiors. The Puritans were separatists, which was considered an act of treason at the time. They believed that the Church was still too connected to the old ways.
When the Mayflower sailed over to the New World, on the boats were Puritans that were looking for a change in the way that their religion was practiced where the Chesapeake settlers came over for gold. Alongside the Puritans were the Separatists who wanted everything their way and wanted to perfect the ways of the Puritans. When they landed in New England, they immediately settled down because they didn’t have an economic reason for coming. Both sets of religions ventured overseas so that they could create a new religion that would work for them in their favor and not be prosecuted for practici...
The colonists had different reasons for settling in these two distinct regions. The New England region was a more religiously strict yet diverse area compared to that of the Chesapeake Bay. The development of religion in the two regions came from separate roots. After Henry VIII and the Roman Catholic Church broke away from each other, a new group of English reformers was created called the Puritans. The Puritans came from protestant backgrounds, after being influenced by Calvinistic ideas. When their reforms were thwarted by King James I of England, they fled to the New World in what is now known as the "Great Migration". The Puritans were then joined by Quakers, Protestants, and Catholics in the religiously diverse New England area. These diverse religious factions were allowed to live freely but under the laws of New England. It was due to this religious freedom that these people came to escape religious persecution back home. The New Englanders had a religion-based society and religion was based on family. As the Bible highly regarded family, it condemned adultery. Adultery was considered a punishable crime. Adulterers were marked as impure by a letter "A" stitched on their clothing, as in the book "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne. As religion was a very high priority in New England, it was very much less severe in the Chesapeake Bay region. The one established church in the region, the Anglican Church of Jesus Christ, was only then established in 1692, more than 70 years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.
During the time of the Salem Witch Trials the intertwining of religion and government did not allow citizens of Salem, Massachusetts the right to a fair trial, so it was the states responsibility to separate the two. In the 1600’s the Puritan religion was greatly enforced by the government. It wouldn’t be until many years later that separation of church and state became a law.
Massachusetts's inhabitants were Puritans who believed in predestination and the ideal that God is perfect. Many Puritans in England were persecuted for their nihilist beliefs in England because they felt that the Church of England, led by the Kind, did not enforce a literal enough interpretation of the Bible. Persecution punishment included jail and even execution. To seek refuge, they separated to go to Holland because of its proximity, lower cost, and safer passage. However, their lives in Holland were much different than that of England. The Separatists did not rebel against but rather preferred the English culture. They did not want their children to be raised Dutch. Also, they felt that Holland was too liberal. Although they enjoyed the freedom of religion, they decided to leave for America. Pilgrims, or sojourners, left for America on The Mayflower and landed in Cape Cod in 1626. They had missed their destination, Jamestown. Although the climate was extremely rocky, they did not want to move south because of their Puritan beliefs. They thought that everything was predestined, and that they must have landed on this rocky place for a reason. They moved slightly north to Plymouth Rock in order to survive more comfortably. Also because of their Puritan beliefs, they had good relations with the Native Americans. Their pacifist nature led the Indians to help with their crops. In thanks, the Pilgrims celebrated the first thanksgiving in 1621. A second group of Puritans in England, the Massachusetts Bay Company, came to Massachusetts for more economically motivated purposes due to their non-minimalist beliefs.
American colonies were clearly established with the intent to all live together with Christian beliefs, but with so many interpretations and versions of the same religious scripture, freedom to practice whichever adaptation feels right became most important in colonial life. And as a safe haven for those who were persecuted in their home countries, America truly flourished as a place for the religiously tolerant.
...ere settlers religiously diverse, but the groups also managed to convert some of the natives to their own religions. The colonists were actually more independent than the citizens directly in England.
The pilgrims landing on Plymouth Rock has had a number of important impacts on America today. Whether the impacts were positive or negative, it was the pilgrims that had taken the journey to the New World and made the present what it is today. Originating from England, the English were Puritans who believed that the Church of England was in need of spiritual purification. Instead of altering the church, the English set off on a voyage to the New World for new opportunities. The pilgrims could start over and build a new society from scratch without having the chance of having corrupting influences on the Old World. Religion wasn’t the only temptation of going to the New World, there was famine and the taxes in England that made them want to depart to the New World. The New World had the opportunity to obtain rights and then they could live in the society that they had envisioned (Gray, 48).
Though there were religious concerns that contributed to the settling of British North America, the economic concerns outweighed the notable religious concerns. A religious concern that played a role in British colonization was that the British wanted to have the Indians of North America converted to Protestant Christianity (Boorstin et al. 34). In addition, specific groups that were seeking religious freedom used the British colonizing as a venue to achieve this objective. Such groups included the Puritan separatists who had begun to lose their freedoms in England, and thus they became colonists in New England.
Folklores are stories that have been through many time periods. Folklore include Legends, Myths, and Fairy Tales. Legends are traditional tales handed down from earlier times and believed to have a historical basis. Myths are ancient stories dealing with supernatural beings, ancestors, or heroes. Fairy Tales are fantasy tales with legendary being and creators.
Religion has been around since the discovery of America. Many European immigrants came to America to escape the traditions of the Church of England. The people wanted religious freedom. Most, however, tried to force their religious beliefs on the people who came to settle in their colonies creating a divide. It wasn’t until The Great Awakening, which started in the New England colonies, occurred that people rose up and revolted against the norms of religion and began to worship the way they wanted to. This divisive time period greatly impacted the American colonies by allowing true religious freedom to all the people.
One of the many reasons people left England was because the strict religious practices and they could not practice religion the way they wanted to. Once they were settled in the North American colonies they could tailor their religion more to their beliefs. In contrast, the different colonies had different religions, but one event that help to reform the colonies was The Great Awakening. One important point about the Great Awakening was it attracted thousands of people with different backgrounds, and all were welcome to attend the service no matter what their ethnic background or status in society (The First American Great Awakening: Lessons Learned and What Can Be Done to Foster a Habitat for the Next Great Awakening, pg
The 19th century was well known for its religious expansion in America. Religion had become an essential part of the established American culture, at the same time had great influence on the spiritual lives of individuals. Religion has always aroused a special interest in people, many seek in religion the power to dominate and others selflessly embrace it as a form to live a harmonious life. Nonetheless, the superiority of some established religions from the beginning predominated over those seeking to enter the identity of the religious culture. Alexis de Tocqueville, was a French statesman, that while visiting America made a strong observation about the power of religion,
In Europe during the early 1600s the largest religion was of the Protestant faith, as this had been implemented by King James. However, the basis of this religion had many characteristics that resembled the Catholic Church. Although different at the same time, as religion was governed by the state, and the people were obliged follow the government’s religion under King James rule. There were however a growing number of people who did not agree with how King James interpreted the teachings of the bible. This growing group decided to take extreme measures and flee Europe in hope of seeking religious tolerance, these people traveled to America. In this group was the smart and well educated William Bradford. Bradford and his group known as the pilgrims arrived in America in 1620. The strength of this group relied on their core of common religious reliefs and a strong will to create and thrive in an environment that was free of religious persecution as they know they would have suffered quite horribly for practicing freedom of religion. The pilgrim settlement began its separation from the English Protestant faith, and others soon saw this opportunity to flee to the New World and followed the pilgrims.
When the Massachusetts Bay Colony was established in 1630 with the goal of escaping the corruption of the Anglican Church, the colonists quickly established the precedent that Puritanism was the only righteous form of Protestantism. This belief continued for many years and consequently spurred a number of conflicts between the Puritans and other religious groups that were deemed as threatening to their ideals. Following the Great Migration in the mid-1600s, the Puritans exercised a strict devotion to their religious beliefs in order to “purify” the Anglican Church, thus making Massachusetts Bay Colony an unwelcoming environment to religious dissenters. However, due to the circumstances of the First Great Awakening, by 1750 the Massachusetts