The New England Colonies and the Middle colonies were founded similarly. The Puritans came to America to avoid being persecuted and to continue their belief system. William Penn founded Pennsylvania (hence the name of the state) because he wanted a safe heaven for all of the Quakers. For the North Colonies they didn’t have to rely on growing crops because their soil wasn’t good and the weather conditions weren’t good for growing crops. On the other hand, The Southern Colonies relied on their soil to grow crops.
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,
They wanted to create pure, moral Christian society based on moral living. By hard working, integration of religion in politics, and social development of certain lifestyle practices, Puritans had a large influence on the development of the New England colonies from 1630s through the 1660s. Puritans believed in hard work as the pathway of success since they thought they were favored by God to succeed (Doc I). They tried to shun idleness and believed that being lazy is not profitable (Doc C).
The Puritans in Massachusetts were very intolerant of other religious beliefs, regardless of the fact that they had been persecuted in England for what they believed. Puritans insisted that regular church attendance was mandatory in order to receive voting privileges. This meant that in order to have a say in anything you had to be a devout Puritan. They often argued about discrepancies within their own religion, such as whether or not sainthood was passed down from generation to generation. Puritans even went as far as to exile other Puritans the did not conform to the standard version of Puritanism.
New England for example had centered their colonies more around religious freedom and were more focused on religion rather than money and power which is why religion had impacted their development a lot more than other colonies. It could be seen in the Chesapeake and Mid-Atlantic colonies that religion had little impact in their development as they focused more on wealth and power. However the colonies like the Chesapeake and Mid-Atlantic focused on wealth and power, religion still had an impact on the development in the colonies. New England colonies like Plymouth/Massachusetts Bay, Providence, Hartford, and New Hampshire were all colonies in the New England region. Religion impacted these colonies more than colonies from the Chesapeake and Mid-Atlantic regions.
Puritans, much like the Pilgrims, immigrated to the New World for one reason; religious freedom. But unlike the Pilgrims, who were small and wanted to stay small, the Puritans wanted to build a religious utopia. They came by the boat loads, and by 1643 there were over 20,000 Puritans in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Because of their population, the Puritans became one of the largest dominating culture in New England. The Puritans would practice rules and regulations for their colonies that would one day inspire the Founding Fathers to write the Constitution.
The colonists wanted religious freedom. One reason they originally left England was to escape the Catholic Church. Some called themselves Puritans. They wanted the church and the state to be more separate.
Puritanism had major effects on the lives of Americans and the development in the colonies during the colonial era and the Age of Reason. To begin, the Puritans contributed greatly to the growth of society. According to Britannica, Puritans struggled with their beliefs and religious practices in Great Britain and believed they should live godly lives for themselves and their communities. For instance, the Roman Catholic Church.
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.
New England’s economy would also be influenced by the British tax later that would cause Americans to revolt many of which trusted in their faith to guide them The Puritans who settled in Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630 were also motivated by religious beliefs. They believed in the idea of a "city upon a hill," a vision of a holy community that would serve as an example to the rest of the world (American YAWP, 2.6). This belief led to a strict social order and a commitment to the moral and spiritual purity of the community. It also led to conflicts with other religious groups, such as the Quakers, who were seen as a threat to the Puritan social order.
People were expected to lead a pure life and if they didn't they would face a cruel punishment. The society was surrounded completely by Puritan beliefs. The Puritans believed in society as a whole not individuality. For example, when John Proctor decides to not sign his name he went outside 0f the Puritan beliefs and became his own individual. He showed everyone that it was okay to stand up for what you believe in.
More than 80% of Americans have Puritan ancestors who emigrated to Colonial America on the Mayflower, and other ships, in the 1630’s (“Puritanism”). Puritanism had an early start due to strong main beliefs that, when challenged, caused major conflict like the Salem Witch Trials. Puritanism had an extremely rocky beginning, starting with a separation from the Roman Catholic Church. Starting in 1606, a group of villagers in Scrooby, England left the church of England and formed a congregation called the Separatist Church, and the members were called The puritans (“Pilgrims”).
They focused on life on Earth, rather than bettering themselves to please a god. The current democracy that is in place in America, although it is much more similar to rationalism than puritanism, hold traits from both governments that could be seen in colonist America. The colonial time period in America was a rather long time period lasting from when the first colony was established in 1607 and ended with the signing of the Declaration of Independence. And during this time period Native American culture was being tampered with, and two very different forms of government, puritanism and rationalism, were being
The Puritans created the Massachusetts Bay colony in the 1620s because they wanted to establish a christian utopia in the New World, free from persecution(Doc A). While the colonists ultimately failed this goal, they still left their mark on New England society, as seen in Document E. In this Document, the Puritans are calling for the regulation of wages in Connecticut . This is because they were against excess, and believed everything should be in moderation. The idea of regulating wages so that they weren’t too big would have been ludicrous to the Virginians.
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.”
