Religion was very important to the Puritans in the 1600s. John Winthrop a member of the Puritans gentry, wrote to his wife the ‘I am verily persuaded God will bring some heavy affliction upon this land.” A year later he went and lead a group of a group of puritans to New England. By the 1630s another twenty thousand Puritans would come to America. When John became governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, he told immigrants that will have to guide people toward this holy ideal or they were not welcomed.
Throughout the seventeenth century, religious freedom was essentially a key to the new forming colonies. Many pursued the “New World” looking to gain individual rights for their own personal beliefs- which we understand today as religious freedom. The main group seeking this freedom was the Puritans who came to the New World from England. When the Puritans had reached the land where they wished to settle they called it the Massachusetts’s Bay Colony. The colony was said to be a place where one could express their beliefs freely.
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,
However, they were never successful in doing so. In nearly all of colonial America, there was some religious intolerance, with the exception of few colonial areas. In a quite ironic manner, the Puritans displayed and acted out much religious intolerance, even after facing much scrutiny concerning their religion, in England. This statement is proven, when “Puritan New England: Kahn Academy”, mentions “Although many people assume Puritans escaped England to establish religious freedom, they proved to be just as intolerant as the English state church.” The main and pretty much only, exception, would in this case be Rhode Island, seeing as though it was founded by former Puritan Roger Williams, who had been banned from the colony (in opposition to being executed), as a result of the questioning of their actions towards local Native American tribes, he decided to create Rhode Island, as a place of refuge for those seeking religious tolerance, or who had simply been banned from the previous colony they had resided
Many Puritans immigrated to the New World in the 17th century. Unfortunately for the surrounding Native Americans, and all other no-Puritan groups (Quakers), the Puritans of the tense had no qualms with fatal in the name of God. This led to the adulthood of the New England colonies and westward dilation. I would remonstrate the rise of our formality of government isn't the Puritans, directly, but the philosophies of those that came before them. The origin of this limit can be copy back to 17th century Hegelian Thomas Hobbes.
Freedom to Prosecute Religion Colonial America is often thought of as a safe haven from religious persecution. Future colonists had been persecuted for not accepting their countries ' religious doctrine and were willing to travel long distances in search of religious freedom. Religious freedom would still be far from grasp as Puritans would continue their homelands traditions of persecution for many more years. Puritans, unlike the Pilgrims (who sought to completely separate from the Church of England), wanted to purify the Church.
The New England had very little fertile land, with extreme weather and rocks frozen to the dirt making agriculture hard. In time, they would create a diverse agricultural system to create food for its inhabitants which included fishing as the citizens became top notch shipwrights. So, it turned to industrial endeavours due to the high number of raw resources in the region. The higher population, due to the fertile nature of the inhabitants, could easily support the growing industry of New England. Due to its isolated location with possible enemies surrounding them, the Puritan beliefs tied the families of New England together and united them.
The pursuit of religious freedom is not a contemporary idea. For centuries many have valiantly fought against oppression and persecution in order to worship freely without restraint and judgement. Some of the earliest immigrants who migrated to this country did so with the hopes of being able to worship in a manner than aligned most closely with their religious beliefs. Many of the principles that founded this nation are based on the premise of religious freedom and toleration. Undoubtedly one of the most influential and prominent religious factions to land on these shores in pursuit of this right, were the Puritans.
Protestant Reformation to shape the landscape which they lived in. Protestants and Catholics were constantly trying to reinvent to common social norms that were already in placed in order to please their denomination. In the 1630s the Puritans, led by John Winthrop, settled in Boston with hopes of reforming the Church of England and emplacing their religion and its social values with of those who are already there (primarily Native Americans). Around twelve years later some Puritans, such as Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson, and Thomas Hooker, tried to reinvent the morals and theology of the Puritan Community. Years later in the 1730s and 1740s there is a revival called the Great Awakening which focused on reinventing the way people conducted their life and a call for personal choice.
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.
History tells us that the Puritans were different than the Pilgrims because they wanted to continue to exist with the Church of England but make it better in the New World. (Settling 2014) The Puritans must have felt some type of loyalty to their native religion because they didn’t put their religion totally aside. It is noted that the Puritans did not want the rituals and other beliefs that involved being a member of their native Church of England.
Colonists who left England seeking religious tolerance are known as Puritans. The life of the Puritans was mainly influenced by Christian beliefs and the church. Their laws were harsh and every Puritan needed to follow a moral code. Anyone or anything that went against the code was punished because going against the code was considered
I also have to say that I disagree that the Puritans identify with modern Christianity for a number of reasons. One reason is that the Quakers, unlike the Puritans, had more tolerance for the many different religious beliefs that individuals had. They also believed that each person experienced God directly for themselves. While I think there are people of today who still believe in the notion of predestination, the Quakers reflect modern Christianity in their beliefs and the way they treated everyone. In today's society, we have various freedoms and privileges, where back in colonial times, one would either be banished or executed if rules were broken or were considered ungodly.
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
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”).
