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The Importance Of Puritans In Modern America

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Donald Trump: America 's favorite politician with no regard to political correctness. Once quoted to have said, “If Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps I’d be dating her,” it is no wonder countless find him crazy (Latest News). Trump’s campaign claims to “Make America Great Again,” but what if America is already at the level it was before? America 's fear of immigration and scientific discovery is on par with the Puritans fear of Native Americans and medical advances. This fear caused one of the greatest small town tragedies in United States history: the Salem witch trials. While witchcraft is no longer a push button topic, modern society still holds numerous of the same flaws in judgment as those of the Puritans. Although the preponderance …show more content…

Both American and Puritan societies are highly religious societies. The Puritans use their religion to justify their actions against the Native Americans. When European disease hit the natives over 75% died within a few years (Henretta 45). Mistakenly the Puritans took this as a sign from God that they were a superior race. Consequently the Puritans had no qualms with killing for land. A similar situation occurs in modern America. Everyday, American citizens justify refusing marriage licenses to gay couples on the ground their religion deems others inferior. This idea of inferiority also exists in Puritan gender roles. Puritanistic beliefs dictate that while men and women are equal in their ability to achieve saintliness their equality stops there. Similarly, the United States is also a patriarchy; therefore, there has never been a female president and the bulk of companies are run by men. Even though women can vote, they continue to earn a lower wage and are often treated differently than …show more content…

In refutation others might claim that not all of America is religious and there are some women in power. Although this is true, it 's not a reason modern society is unlike Puritans. Even though some people don 't act akin to the Puritans, the majority do; not every Puritan could be a crazy witch hunter, it only takes a few. For example, take the character of John Proctor in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. When accused he cries, “No more! Let you look sometimes for the goodness in me and judge me not.” (Miller 55) Proctor continues to use logic to deny his involvement in witchcraft, but eventually the majority rules and sentences him to death. Another common argument is that the United States is more accepting now and works with innovative technology galore. This statement turns to support how analogous modern day society and the Puritans actually are. The Puritans forge themselves a new world with a highly functioning society, government and agriculture system that the whole town agreed upon. If anything, modern America is falling behind when compared to the

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In search of religious freedom a group of devout Christians sailed across the ocean only to come across a new land, radically different from the one they left behind. From the initial journey, to the formation of the colonies, and finally their complicated relationship with “non-believers” Puritans strongly held religious convictions has played a key role in all of this. The Puritans were a group of reformed Protestants seeking to reform the English Church. After the fall of the Roman Catholic Church, a new church was established “The English Anglican Church”. While most Puritans sought to reform the church others wanted nothing to do with it these Puritans would eventually be known as Separatists.

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Early Colonial American society during the 17th and 18th centuries is characteristically bound by strong religious beliefs of Christianity. The New England inhabitants from Britain, who have established their respective colonies in the Americas, have brought with them their cultural histories; thus, this culture had been further developed in the new country to strengthen its new identity and culture as the American society. In colonial America, two religions dominated its cultural history: Puritans on one hand, and the Quakers, on the other. Puritanism was borne from the creation of a religion that seeks to fuse and at the same time,

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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).

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Religiousness brought out fearfulness and strictness among others, these all stirred up mischief among the Puritans. People were always worried about someone spying on them or others being a witch. The fearfulness is what caused the strictness. The town feared witches and so they brought out strict laws against any actions. The town people had to obey the rules or else they could be discriminated against.

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People convicted of witchcraft belonged to the Puritan society which is known for its severity and its devotion to Christianity. The environment is thus propitious to all sorts of judgements. It is for example the case when John Proctor is asked why he does not attend Church every Sunday: "In the book of records that Mr Parris keeps, I note that you are rarely in the church on Sabbath Day" (Miller 53). Hale here makes an assumption that Proctor is not a good Christian since he is rarely at the church. He does not ask whether John is a good father or if he helps his neighbours, all he cares about is whether he is physically present at the office every week.

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(Settling 2014) The Puritans must have favored some aspects of their native religion. Entering into a new world would not give them any interferences to reform their religion as they saw fit. The Puritans used religion to be very judgmental toward their community of settlers. They did not let people in their communities practice religion in their own way.

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Puritan men are elevated in Salem and hold pride in their name, anything they might do that can harm the purity of their name is not quickly admitted. John Proctor once the hysteria of witches had just begun still claimed to

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High standards of morality can be considered dangerous because they raise the expectations of peers for one another. We see this warning of extremism in the reactions of the people. When the very thought of witchcraft being involved is brought about by the actions of Abigail Parris, Betty Parris, and others, the townspeople run with it (Miller 9). Also, despite not being 100% sure or having absolute damning evidence, Mr. Putnam says that Tituba, a suspected witch, should be hanged (44). The very beliefs of Puritanism are that one must be perfect.

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Puritan laws were extremely rigid and the members of society were expected to follow a strict code. Because of this, anything that was believed to go against this code was a sin and whoever did deserved to be punished. The Puritans also believed strongly in the wrath of God and did everything they could to prevent themselves from receiving it. This is why the witch scare was taken so seriously and the accused were punished harshly. They also believed the God would protect his servants and keep them out of harm’s way.

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Puritans are among the most-studied people in history. The most essential reason for this concentrated attention is that scholars have an indomitable sense that in studying Puritanism they are uncovering the roots of American culture, “origins of the American self”. Puritanism is so important that some scholars have treated it as a “consensus”, within which all of American civilization has taken shape. However, Puritanism is not responsible for everything about America, but it was assuredly one of the seminal cultural influences from which America historically derived. Overall, Puritanism which originated from a movement for return in the Church of England, had profound influence on social,political, ethical, and theological ideas of the Americas, which shaped American peoples natural character of being hard-working and making them bear a strong sense of mission.

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The debate continues on which causes contributed to mass hysteria in Salem, Massachusetts. After reviewing different sides of the debate regarding leading factors to the Salem Witch Trials, the obvious and logic answer is that religion played a huge role. One must first acknowledge that the Salem society was largely influenced by the strict Puritan lifestyle. Also one must understand that the issue involves Salem people’s belief in the presence of the Devil. Then, one can understand that the town ministers conspired against the community with the witch scare.

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