Puritan Dbq

The Puritans were an extremely religious group of people whose pilgrimage to North America began the development of the lifestyle established in the New England colonies primarily beginning in 1630 and going through the 1660’s. One large component of the newly established lifestyle that the Puritan ideas and values influenced was the social aspect of society that accumulated most of its focus on a sense of community and religion. Another important aspect of this New England lifestyle that Puritan ethics shaped was the community’s politics, which was also influenced greatly by religious beliefs. The third vastly important portion of the New England lifestyle was its economic development, which too, was influenced by Puritan beliefs. Overall, the entire foundation of the New England society’s social, political and economic development was influenced by Puritan ideas and values, which focused on religious values and a strong cohesive community. The social aspect of the New England society took the greatest influence from Puritan ethics in every detail from Puritan life. One vastly reoccurring ideal in the social lifestyle was a sense of family and compassion throughout the community. As stated by John Winthrop, in 1630 at the beginning of New England life, “Wee must uphold a familiar commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience and liberality. Wee must delight in eache other; make other’s conditions our owne; rejoice together, mourne together, labour and suffer together…” (Doc A). These words from John Winthrop speak on an extremely emotional level and preach how living together as one big happy family with ultimately grant success and, always relating to religion, make God happy to witness the community’s unity.
Religion as a whole was a powerful catalyst is the social development in New England. This is prominently shown in the Enlarged Salem Covenant of 1636, which discusses the people of this society, “Promising also unto our best ability to teach our children and servants the knowledge of God, and of His Will, that they may serve Him also; and all this not by any strength of our own, but by the Lord Christ…” (Doc C). Here it is shown how Puritan religious beliefs were strongly incorporated into the New England society so that it would thrive for generations to come.
Another interesting Puritan belief that influenced society was the distribution of power. Already at the very beginning of pre-American society, women were already looked down upon, as John Cotton states in the “Limitation of Government” from 1655, “So let there be due bounds set - and I may apply it to families: it is good for the wife to acknowledge all power and authority to the husband…” (Doc H). This document discusses how power should be distributed politically, but takes the time to mention the position of women in the society as beneath men. The idea of female inferiority has always been controversial in society but it is strange to see that this matter had such early roots and stemmed from religious beliefs.
The political field in New England society was influenced by Puritan beliefs, but in a much different regard than the social evolution in their society. The Puritans very extremely religious and preached their ways to the whole society, but they were excepting of religious freedom. The previous reference from Document C shows how the Puritan religion was desired to be prominent but yet, from “A plea for Religious Liberty” in 1644, Roger Williams states, “God requireth not a uniformity of religion to be enacted and enforced in any civil state… ravishing of conscience… and of the hypocrisy and destruction of millions of souls.” (Doc F). The Puritans fled England and came to North America to practice their beliefs and their strong patriotism towards these beliefs would make one think they would practice only these beliefs. That is not the case; the Puritans were not hypocritical in the practice of religion. It is clear that while the Puritan beliefs were the most prominent religious beliefs, other religions were accepted and allowed to be practiced in the society. This demonstrates the early beginning of freedom of religion, which is maintained as a law in modern society.
In addition to the freedom of religion, the Puritans preached freedom for anyone and everyone. It became clear that the New England colonies were meant to be more than just a safe haven for the Puritans, but a safe haven for everyone who desired to escape oppression. In The Simple Cobbler of Aggawam, from 1647, Nathaniel Ward states, “That state that will give liberty of conscience in matters of religion, must give liberty of conscience and conversation in their moral laws, or else the fiddle will be out of tune, and some of the strings crack.” (Doc G). Here, Ward states how a government cannot choose certain rights to apply to its people has and needs to be consistent. A government must be fair to all its citizens or ultimately collapse due to the distasteful feedback from the citizens that would suffer from prejudice.
From an economic viewpoint, the Puritan influence was much less prominent really did not affect much, since their primary sights were religion and a strong and unified community. Not only that, but in this era the economy only existed from one town to maybe neighboring towns with careers being family based and passed down through the generations. The only major influence from Puritan ideas and virtues was in education. In a statement about education in New England, from 1643, it was said, “One of the next things we longed for, and looked after was to advance learning, and perpetuate it to posterity…” (Doc E). One can infer that this passage discusses the Puritan’s desire to educate the society for advancement as a society. Much like modern day education, it can be thought that this was the beginning where people were trained from youth to grow up to aid in the progress and success of the society. Just as our educations today prepare us for our entering into the real world with a job in hand, the Puritan’s education system must have had a focus or preparing the society for prosperity through intelligence and becoming a wealthy and thriving society.
It is clear that the Puritan’s ideas and virtues were large factors in the development of the social, political and economic components of the lifestyle followed by the New England colonies, beginning in 1630 and going into the 1660’s. The Puritans were heavily religious, which greatly influenced the social majority the society followed, along with a strong sense of community and unity. These same religious beliefs influenced the government of New England, but were more excepting due to the Puritan’s origins from leaving England for religious freedom. The economic values of the New English society were not a large focus during this era, but the Puritans focused on the advancement of education and it became a tool that could make the Puritan society thrive.