William Bradford and Thomas Morton

1101 Words3 Pages

In the New World Bradford and Morton were both important men of our history. The stories of both great men give us an insight into the way religion and influence affected Puritan life.

William Bradford said he believed, “Plymouth people were the chosen people to live out their last days in the earthly church” (Daly pg 560). Puritan settlers came to the new world seeking a better life and to get away from the rule of the Catholic Church they wanted to become a primitive Baptist church like in the Old Testament. The Puritans wanted to live their lives in Old Testament biblical way of life; when the settlers came to the, “New England they thought they had landed in God’s country” (Callicott). They thought they were the chosen ones the new Israelites.

William Bradford was a well educated man and was a son of a preacher and was governor of Plymouth. William Bradford came to the New England in 1620. He felt that the Puritans were God chosen people. They believed God gave them signs and things happened to people that went against Gods will.

Thomas Morton came to the New England in the year 1622. Morton was educated for the law at Oxford. Upon his arrival to Plymouth people had already heard he came with shady past. He had come by his inheritance from which he was “plaintiff, lawyer, and beneficiary” (McWilliams pg 5).

Bradford disliked Morton from the beginning feeling that he was not there for the good of the Puritan people. Morton “offered servants their freedom and equal partners in the fur trading business if they would kick Wollaston’s Lieutenant” (McWilliams pg 5). This was one of many things that Morton did that lead to the big rivalry or dislike of Bradford and Morton. “He was considered, by Bradford, to be a partier and ...

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Kupperman, Karen Ordahl. “Thomas Morton, Historian”. The New England Quarterly, Vol. 50, No.4 (Dec., 1977), pp. 660-664. The New England Quarterly, Inc. .

McWilliams, Jr., John P. "Fictions of Merry Mount." American Quarterly, Vol. 29, No.1 (1977), pp. 3-30. JSTOR. Web. 23 Feb. 2011. .

"Morton, Thomas - Introduction." Literary Criticism (1400-1800). Ed. Thomas J. Schoenberg. Vol. 72. Gale Cengage, 2002. eNotes.com. 2006. 21 Feb, 2011

Zuckerman, Michael “Pilgrims in the Wilderness: Community, Modernity, and the Maypole at Merry Mount”, The New England Quarterly, Vol. 50, No. 2 (Jun., 1977), pp. 255-277. The New England Quarterly, Inc.

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