Puritan Ideas And Beliefs Essay

When people think about who shaped early America, they often imagine George Washington, Ben Franklin, or Thomas Jefferson. While these founding fathers did shape America, an earlier group of settlers who impacted how American was formed were the puritans. After settling in New England, the puritan’s ideas and beliefs shaped how their were societies formed and their interactions with others. Puritan ideas and values influenced political, economic and social development by creating a closed and strict society based on religious beliefs, which ultimately lead to the formation of successful colonies.

The puritan religion originated with John Calvin, who believed that from birth humans were predestined by God to go to either heaven or hell,

In document E (John Cotton, “Limitation of Government”), the author says that the power of the government should be limited, and that God should have the ultimate power, not men. This reinforces the idea that puritans followed biblical law and based their society on religious ideas because the author of the document even states that religious figures should limit their authority and only do things that will benefit the people. Additionally, in document D (William Bradford), it’s shown that the puritans are not very tolerant of others. The document was written after the colonists attacked a Pequot river village during the Pequot war. The document’s intended audience is to the puritans of Connecticut, who were at war with the Pequot Indians. Written from the point of view of a Connecticut puritan who was participating in the Pequot war, its purpose is to inspire faith and provide a sense of victory to puritans. It tells them that the burning of the Indian’s village was a victory and sweet sacrifice because the Pequot’s weren’t Christians. This shows that the puritans had a strict society and didn 't tolerate outsiders because they considered the slaughter of Indians a victory. Puritans were intolerant of everyone who didn’t follow their own religion, and even banished one of their own. Anne Hutchinson had simply been interpreting the bible