How Did The Puritans Build A City Upon A Hill

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Olivia Gutierrez
Dr. Veteri
HIS110
21 October 2015
City Upon a Hill During the 17th century, a group of Protestants settled in the New England Colony of Massachusetts Bay searching for religious freedom. These settlers were called the Puritans. They broke away from the Church of England because they believe it became too Catholic and that it needed to be purified. The Massachusetts Bay colony was to serve as a model society. John Winthrop, the first governor of the Puritans, wanted to create “a city upon a hill”. The Puritans had many aspirations including building a church state, a colony of educated settlers, and promoting their religion. Some of the aspirations were achieved while others were unfulfilled. The Puritans were extremist …show more content…

They believed children needed to be educated in order to read and fully understand the bible. Once the populations of settlers had grown they passed the Old Deluder Act. This Act states, “Every town of fifty or more households was to appoint one teacher from whom all children could receive instruction, and every town of one hundred house- holds or more was to maintain a grammar school with a teacher capable of preparing students for university-level learning”(Boyer,48). This act was the first step towards a public education system as well as helped established the colleges of Harvard and Yale. Young girls went to school to learn about house duties and how to be a wife while young boys went to school for grammar and writing. The New England colonies were known to have the highest literacy rate. Bridenbaugh stated that, “It is probable that a majority of townsmen could read and write; at any rate they respected those who did, and where they were able to raise the funds at all were quite willing to devote them to a school”(Bridenbaugh, 36). An educated society was an orderly society. While not everyone received an education, most farmers and townsmen received the necessary education to help them fulfill create social