Apush Puritans Essay

510 Words3 Pages
During colonial times, the first Puritans came to America in hopes of fulfilling all of their social, political, and economic aspirations. They were led by John Winthrop and wanted to create a “city on a hill.” Looking back, it can be concluded that during the seventeenth century, the Puritans, following John Winthrop’s lead of a “city on a hill”, some fulfilled their social, political, and economical desires. When the Puritans came, they had many aspirations, including aspirations relating to social aspects. One example is religion. The Puritans were very strong in faith and hoped that it would carry on through time. They wanted to purify the Church of England, and believed in predestination as well as the idea of having a covenant with God. Another social aspiration made by the Puritans is education. When they first got to America, they set up their towns, all consisting of a schoolhouse. They were also responsible for the first university, Harvard. Family was also something that was very important to them. Most Puritan families had a lot of children. The Puritans are also said to have “created” grandparents. All in all, the Puritans believed in the common good for all. Not only did the Puritans come with the mindset of social aspirations, they also came with political aspirations. One example is a government based on religion. As mentioned before, religion was a big part of the Puritan lifestyle. Because of their faithfulness, they set theocracies in place to govern the people. Also, they had very strict laws that limited the rights of women, and it was said that all of their laws were interpreted from the Bible. In the Puritan society, if you had power in the church, such as being a minister, then you had power in the government, along with wealthy people who also had a huge say in the government. To sum it up, the Puritans instituted their strong religious
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