Myth: Different religious groups came to the Americas for religious freedom.
Many of us are familiar with the story of the Pilgrims coming to America for religious freedom on the Mayflower but very few of us ask the question of what that religious freedom meant. In modern America, we associate religious freedom with the right to choose and practice whatever religion, if any, without any interference from the government. As a part of the First Amendment, it is one of the core ideas in the modern United States
We should be asking the question of who they granted religious freedom to. The Puritans, coming to the Americas to escape the Church of England after King Henry VIII created it so he could divorce his wife, wanted no other influences to potentially ruin their "city on a hill". They were known to banish those within their own cities for disagreements regarding religion. Some Quakers wanted to live with the Puritans but faced punishments like “beatings, fines, whippings, imprisonment, and mutilation” since they wanted to preach more religious tolerance (Sigmond). To say that the Puritans and Pilgrims came to the Americas for religious freedom is true from their point of view. They did come here for religious freedom..... for themselves. That is an important distinction to make since religious freedom has a very different understanding today.
Many other colonies also had direct references to Christianity in various documents outlining their respective governments, showing that our modern understanding of religious freedom is not the same as how the colonists would have interpreted it (Miller). Pennsylvania, known for its tolerance of all peoples, would be the exception in this case. However, it is the outlier and not as well-known as the story of the Pilgrims or Puritans.
Miller, Robert T. “Religious Conscience in Colonial New England.” Journal of Church & State, vol. 50, no. 4, Oct. 2008, pp. 661–76. EBSCOhost, https://doi.org/10.1093/jcs/50.4.661.
Sigmond, Carl E. “Quakers Fight for Religious Freedom in Puritan Massachusetts, 1656-1661.” Quakers Fight for Religious Freedom in Puritan Massachusetts, 1656-1661 | Global Nonviolent Action Database, 2012, https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/quakers-fight-religious-freedom-puritan-massachusetts-1656-1661#:~:text=During%20those%20five%20years%2C%20the,Boston%20at%20least%20five%20times.
Myth: The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a good representation of the Salem Witch Trials
Let me start off by saying that I love The Crucible. It is an amazing story and if you have not read it already, please do so. Many of the changes made to the story was to make it a more appropriate allegory to the Red Scare that was ongoing during the 1950’s. As much as I would love to talk about some of the rhetoric, this is a site based on history and not analyzing modern literature. I would recommend visiting this site by the History of Massachusetts for a detailed list of the historical inaccuracies as it does a much better job than I could do:.
To my high school AP Language and Literature teacher: Sorry to burst your John Proctor bubble HB :(