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Puritan Influence On Society

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The main arguments that the authors are stating is how much influence the puritan religion had on society. The article “The Puritans and Sex” was arguing that the puritan religion did not hold a whole lot of influence because it refers to how the population did not always follow their rules on sex. The article “When Cotton Mather Fought the Smallpox” was also arguing against the puritan church having lots of influence because even though Cotton Mather was a preacher in the puritan church the population didn’t believe in his methods of inoculation. The article “Persistent Localism”states that the central religion that had power in the colonies were the Puritans. The article “ The Puritans and Sex” explores the values of puritans during the colonial days of America. The article talks about how the puritans viewed sex. In the article it states ‘ Intercourse was allowable too, though of course between persons who were married to each other”. This evidence means that the puritans were not against sex just as long as the people were married. But also in the article it states “ The Puritans became inured to sexual offenses, because there were so many. The impression one gets from reading the records of seventeenth-century New England courts is that illicit sexual intercourse was fairly common”. The previous piece of evidence states that Puritans allowed …show more content…

The article “The Puritans and Sex” and the article “When Cotton Mather Fought the Smallpox” both talk about how the Puritans did not have a lot of influence. Whereas The article “Persistent Localism” talks about how they did. The top two article gave a more compelling case then the bottom one because the bottom article talks about how the Puritans had central control of the religion but the top two article talked about how they had the central religion but they people didn’t always follow

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The author, Edmund S. Morgan thesis is that the Puritans were not simply a strong religious group of fanatics who prohibited all earthly pleasures, but were actually influenced by human desires and weaknesses. The author uses many main points to support his thesis, one main point is that sexual intercourse was a human necessity and marriage was the only supply for it, but for some puritans marriage did not matter. A few more main points are that, sex could not interfere with religion, on days of fast sexual intercourse was not permitted but some did anyways. Many laws were passed to prohibit adultery Another point is that it was necessary for a servant to go outside his master’s house in order to satisfy his sexual urges. Also marriage was

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46 Words | 1 Pages

The Puritans influenced the development of the New England colonies, including Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island, and Connecticut through the Puritans’ extreme theological values and ideas that create the theocracy, their hard work ethic that increases their economic stability, and their resistance to tolerate other’s different opinions.

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2069 Words | 9 Pages

From its earliest days, religion played a vital role in the colony of Virginia like it did in England. Its first charters enforced social and religious norms by threatening settlers with imprisonment if they disobeyed. A great example is the sin of fornication. One of the main themes in Anne Orthwood’s Bastard, Fornication was seen as a big crime in the eyes of the church. The church taught that all acts of fornication was sinful and as a response, the public would humiliate people challenging the sexual norms.

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1729 Words | 7 Pages

In the year of 1630, a group of people known as the Puritans arrived to America and settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in Boston. The Puritans were similar to the Pilgrims in which they were Protestants from England who thought that their reforms of their church were “too Catholic” and needed to be changed further. The Puritans being unhappy with their reforms was the primary reason for leaving England and settling in America, while the Pilgrims stayed behind and were determined to change their reforms. When they came to America, they decided to keep some of their strict rules. For example, church was mandatory and if someone missed a day,

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810 Words | 4 Pages

Christian faith and belief permeated domestic life, and Puritans “invested family life with religious values. ”10 The church had become not only a center of worship, but also of identity and of culture. Communal life was played out centered in the church, and the “village church [was ] both the locus of religious activity and the focal point of the culture, the institution through which communal ideas and values achieved their fullest expression”11 Identifying with the Christian faith enabled the community to come together and become a society and then to become a state. Christianity had become a way of life and way of identification with the New World that was now predominantly Christian, and as stated earlier, the federal government does not determine the will of the people, but rather it is the local government that is the true voice of the

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739 Words | 3 Pages

Through strict adherence to religious doctrine, the Puritans demonstrate their honesty, honor, and faithfulness. They want to establish a community that shines as a beacon of God 's greatness to the world, and they consider material and physical wants---in particular, sexual desires as the devil 's work and a threat to the society. The Puritans have no tolerance for

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1644 Words | 7 Pages

Inside the World of Hawthorne During the time period of the 1800’s, Puritans obeyed their censorious moral beliefs, focusing on worship of one’s God. Honor, honesty, and virtue were heavy traits that Puritans could be defined as. Within the seventeenth century, it was unlikely for Puritans to break the laws, and commit severe crimes; one of the most disapproving being adultery. Nathaniel Hawthorne, an American author during the 1800’s published one of the most impactful novels describing Puritan society and the downfall of characters who have committed the sin, adultery. His work takes readers on a journey through a different time period, style of living, and laws that people in today’s society do not have a connection with.

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The second part looks more closely at particular regions in the Early Modern World, and the way ideas from different institutions cause different effects. The areas covered as aforementioned; it could be considered that the way in which Wiesner-Hanks sets out her chapters provides clear outline of the way in which she historically contextualises the global scope. It is the way in which Merry Wiesner-Hanks uses vast geographical and historical context to structuralise her findings, which sets her book apart from others of the same variety. However, it could also be considered that this is one of the few criticisms of the book, as in order to provide a more in depth view of the world beyond Europe in the Early Modern World, Wiesner-Hanks is observed to generalise beliefs across mass geographical regions and the religious views that those within the country might have. Moreover, it is evident that Wiesner-Hanks develops the ideas of Michael Foucault, it terms of the belief that sexuality is paired with power, which ultimately is paired with the knowledge of ‘The will to know’ (book of reference,

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379 Words | 2 Pages

The Puritan’s goal of coming to the New World was not to create a new life, but to create the ideal model of living for the “corrupt” inhabitants of England. This was coined “The Errand”, the Puritans desire to establish a City Upon a Hill that others could look up to and imitate in order to receive God’s grace. The Puritans failed at building their City Upon a Hill (creating a perfect religious, economic, and political community), however the long-term effects of their efforts have influenced American moral politics throughout its history. The Puritans forever had the attitude of a community that had successfully established a City Upon a Hill. The Puritan lifestyle was heavily influenced not only by religion, but also inside of that, morality.

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118 Words | 1 Pages

In today’s society, many people tend to mischaracterize and stereotype the Puritans with the modern sexual attitudes. The Puritans realized that sex is apart of everyone’s natural behavior, however, they believed that during marriage was the only proper time for it. There was only one main limit placed upon sex in marriage, and that was that it couldn’t interfere with your state religion and relationship with God. The leaders of the Puritans put very harsh punishments on adultery because they realized that people were going to engage in sexual acts regardless if they were married or not. A number of people in the group respected the law, and didn’t engage in sex because they weren’t married to anyone.

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1850 Words | 8 Pages

Chapter 3 Outline: • 3.1 The Protestant Reformation Produces Puritanism • 3.2 The Pilgrims End Their Pilgrimage at Plymouth • 3.3 The Bay Colony Bible Commonwealth • 3.4 Building the Bay Colony • 3.5 Trouble in the Bible Commonwealth • 3.6 The Rhode Island “Sewer” • 3.7 New England Spreads Out • 3.8 Puritans Versus Indians • 3.9 Seeds of Colonial Unity and Independence • 3.10 Andros Promotes the First American Revolution • 3.11 Old Netherlanders at New Netherlanders • 3.12 Friction with English and Swedish Neighbors • 3.13 Dutch Residues in New York • 3.14 Penn’s Holy Experiment in Pennsylvania • 3.15 Quaker Pennsylvania and Its Neighbors • 3.16 The Middle Way in the Middle Colonies   3.1 The Protestant Reformation Produces Puritanism

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1394 Words | 6 Pages

The ideas constructed by the Puritans were not simply a principal starting point for American culture because they were the first in the country, but because they offered distinct ways of thinking that are still deep-seated in our culture today. Although many of the ideas of Puritans have evolved or vanished over time, it is important to give credit to the Puritan writers and thinkers such as John Winthrop and John Cotton who offered ideas that were new at the time and that stayed with the American consciousness—culturally, socially, and politically. “John Winthrop's legacy can be seen primarily in the fields of government, commerce, and religion. It was religion that would most impact John's life; his religion would ultimately impact the

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321 Words | 2 Pages

Puritans were a group of people who left England once they became frustrated with the church; the prospect of persecution looming over their head. The puritans held God’s law as supreme over man’s law and once established in a new area they live a faith filled and strict disciplines life in a close knitted community. In second paragraph it means when it comes to sinful through the choice they make in their life and that they choose to indulge in bad behavior instead of living a good life. In the article the puritans are quoted as saying that they believe in the Bible and I believe as well.

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595 Words | 3 Pages

“Three beliefs [which] pervaded puritan writing and deeply influenced later American culture” where being able to completely have their

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920 Words | 4 Pages

Essentially, Puritans are expected to follow a strict set of religious and moral guidelines from which their actions and morality are derived. According to Hall’s A Reforming People, these moral expectations first introduced by the pilgrims were the driving force behind the power that the Puritan ministry had over society: “Ministers and laypeople looked first to congregations as the place where love, mutuality, and righteousness would flourish, and second to civil society. …Alongside love, mutuality, and righteousness they placed another set of values summed up in the word “equity.” Employed in a broad array of contexts, the concept of equity conveyed the colonists’ hopes for justice and fairness in their social world.”

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