The Dutch Republic, where Locke spent time, had been founded as a secular state which would allow religious differences. This was a reaction to Catholic persecution of Protestants. Once the Calvinist Church gained power, however, they began persecuting other sects. In France, religious conflict had been temporarily quieted by the edict of Nantes. But in 1685, the year in which Locke wrote the First Letter concerning religious toleration, Louis XIV had revoked the Edict of Nantes, and the Huguenots were being persecuted and forced to emigrate on mass.
These said factors led to considerable contrast. The colonists that settled in New England were families of young age. Family plays an important role in religion, and it shows that the colonists were planning to stay in America and form a community shaped around the church (document B). They were, for the most part, highly religious Puritans who wished to avoid religious persecution and wanted religious tolerance. So, they immigrated to America to follow their ideals, which are expressed in Document A.
The New England’s population settles for freedom from religious prosecution. The people that were prosecuting them were the Puritans. The Puritans only gave religious freedom to people they wanted to give it to. The rigid Puritan control added greater regional difference between the north and the south. In two of the documents written in New England, there were religious issues mentioned.
Document C, The Enlarged Salem Covenant, quotes, “In public or private, we will willingly do nothing to the offence of the church…We do hereby promise to carry our selves in all lawful obedience to those that are over us, in Church or Commonwealth, knowing how well pleasing it will be to the Lord.” John Winthrop, who led the English Puritans to the New World, mentioned in his famous sermon, “City upon a Hill” that the Puritans emigrating to the colonies had a pact with God to establish a holy community. In order to make a living, Puritans mainly farmed and worked in fisheries. Document B provides a map of the community. As shown, there were many individually owned family farms, as well as cow pastures and ox pastures. The Puritans believed that there was goodness in money.
This was also the main substance influencing America. The legacy of Puritans in American History remains controversial. Some historians laud the contributions made by the Puritans starting in 1620 in New England. But some historians denounce the Puritans for creating some of the worst characteristics of the Americans.It is believed that the reason the Puritans are such a favorite commodity of study is because tracing back their history is like tracing back the history of America. It is a well known fact that the Puritans came to America to have a religious stand.
The excerpt from Clarence Ver Steeg’s The Formative Years tells why people were exported to America. The English were overcrowded, and wanted more people to settle in there new colony, America. The people they exported were low life people like slaves, criminals, and unwanted people. John Winthrop believed that the Puritans moved to England to follow there King, but not follow his religious beliefs. James Adams believed that the primary motive for people to move to America was to not follow the King’s laws.
Who were the first known settlers of what we now know as the United States? Were the Pilgrims actually trying to make it to Virginia? And lastly, did the Pilgrims and the Indians really get along the way we tell stories in today’s society? Loewen’s main point and argument is simple, the true history of it all reveals some quite embarrassing facts, and if our textbooks wanted to give an accurately moral story, they could have correctly told both the good and bad sides of the stories. Often times, many of us have an inaccurate belief that the Pilgrims, settling the soil in 1620, were the first humans in what is now known as the United States.
Thus, the Massachusetts Bay colony was formed in the New World, the Americas, an ideal place for Winthrop’s “City upon a Hill”. The puritan way of life has fascinating similarities to modern-day American society. It can be seen how Puritan ways transcended throughout American culture, and still are the core of governmental ideologies and some American families today. Puritans took the word of the bible as their creed – and followed its teachings accordingly. The strict idealism of god and his power placed fear in children, for they believe their faults will be treated with adverse repercussions.
Puritanism and its Influence on Early American Literature The Puritans had a profound effect upon American culture. As a political, social, and cultural force, Puritanism lasted until around 1728. The term "Puritan" first began as an insult applied by traditional Anglicans to those who criticized or wished to "purify" the Church of England. "Puritan" refers to two distinct groups: "separating" Puritans, such as the Plymouth colonists, who believed that the Church of England was corrupt and that true Christians must separate themselves from it; and non-separating Puritans, such as the colonists who settled the Massachusetts Bay Colony, who believed in reform but not separation. Ironically enough, out of these two groups, were two notable men, William Bradford and John Winthrop, whose life’s work soon became influential pieces of American literature.
The New England colonies, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland were conceived and established as "holy experiments" by the puritans. This group of English Protestants, whose only wish was to "purify" the Church of England, began to receive savage punishment from England for their religious beliefs. In turn, driven by religion, thousands of the religious zealots immigrated to New England to worship God in the way that they saw fit. However, although the Puritans did leave England, running from there own religious persecution, once they had established themselves they self-righteously employed the