Puritanism

Puritan Settlements in New England:

The colonies known as New England included New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. By 1700, there were 130,000 people in this geographical area, with 7,000 in Boston and 2,600 in Newport. These settler-invaders’ experiences greatly influenced the government and commerce of America for generations.

Settled largely by waves of Puritan families in the 1630s, New England had a religious orientation from the start. In England, reform -minded men and women had been calling for greater changes to the English national church since the 1580s. These reformers, who followed the teachings of John Calvin and other Protestant reformers, were called Puritans because of their insistence on “purifying” the Church of England of what they believed to be un-scriptural, especially Catholic elements that lingered in its institutions and practices.

The conflict generated by Puritanism had divided English society, because the Puritans demanded reforms that undermined the traditional festive culture. During the 1620s and 1630s, the conflict escalated to the point where the state church prohibited Puritan ministers from preaching. In the church’s view, Puritans represented a national security threat because their demands for cultural, social, and religious reforms undermined the king’s authority.

Unwilling to conform to the Church of England, many Puritans sought refuge in the New World. Thousands of Puritans left their English homes not to establish a land of religious freedom, but to practice their own religion without persecution. Puritan New England offered them the opportunity to live as they believed the Bible demanded. In their “New” England, they set out to create a model of reformed Protestantism—a new English Israel. Yet those who emigrated to the Americas were not united; some called for a complete break with the Church of England, while others remained committed to reforming the national church.

Plymouth: The First Puritan Colony

The first group of Puritans to make their way across the Atlantic was a small contingent known as the Pilgrims. Unlike other Puritans, they insisted on a complete separation from the Church of England and had first migrated to the Dutch Republic seeking religious freedom. Although they found they could worship without hindrance in the Netherlands, they grew concerned that they were losing their English culture as they saw their children begin to learn the Dutch language and adopt Dutch ways. In addition, the English Pilgrims (and others in Europe) feared another attack on the Dutch Republic by Catholic Spain.

Therefore, in 1620, the Pilgrims moved on to found the Plymouth Colony in present-day Massachusetts. The governor of Plymouth, William Bradford, was a separatist, a proponent of complete separation from the English state church. Bradford and the other Pilgrim separatists represented a major challenge to the prevailing vision of a unified English national church and empire. On board the Mayflower, which was bound for Virginia but landed on the tip of Cape Cod, Bradford and 40 other adult men signed the Mayflower Compact, which presented a religious (rather than an economic) rationale for colonization. The compact expressed a community ideal of working together and was notable for its bold assertion of the right to self-govern. When a larger exodus of Puritans established the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1630s, the Pilgrims at Plymouth welcomed them and the two colonies cooperated with each other.

Different labor systems in Plymouth and other Puritan New England colonies distinguished them from the Chesapeake colonies to the south. Puritans expected young people to work diligently at their calling, and all members of their large families, including children, did the bulk of the work necessary to run homes, farms, and businesses. Very few migrants came to New England as laborers; in fact, New England towns protected their disciplined homegrown workforce by refusing to allow outsiders in, assuring their sons and daughters steady employment. New England’s labor system produced remarkable results, notably a powerful maritime-based economy with scores of oceangoing ships and the crews necessary to sail them. New England mariners sailing New England-made ships transported Virginian tobacco and West Indian sugar throughout the Atlantic World.

In their first winter in the new land, over half of the population of Plymouth died of scurvy and harsh conditions. However, the settlement survived, and the successful voyage of the Mayflower led to the great Puritan migration of the 1630s.

Attribution: Boundless U.S. History, Lumen Learning, CC-BY

Puritan Values

Those who wanted to purify the Church of England were known as Puritans. Puritans were followers of a Protestant minister named John Calvin. He emphasized predestination, a lack of free will, and the belief that humans were depraved and needed a strong religious government to control their animal instincts. Puritans also believed in predestination and election by God of who is saved. Puritans supported intolerance and believed that error must be opposed and driven out.

The Puritans created a deeply religious, socially tight-knit, and politically innovative culture that is still present in the modern United States. In America, they attempted to create an intensely religious, thoroughly righteous community designed to be an example for all of Europe. Puritans in colonial America were among the most radical Puritans and their social experiment took the form of a theocracy. The first Puritans of New England disapproved of Christmas celebrations, as did some other Protestant churches of the time. Celebrations of all kinds were outlawed in Boston in 1659. Likewise, the colonies banned many secular entertainments, such as games of chance, maypoles, and drama, on moral grounds.

Puritans were to create a politically, socially, economically, and religiously perfect community. They followed John Calvin’s idea that the covenant was between one person and God; everyone in the Puritan community was supposed to live a Christian life, and in exchange, God would bless everyone with health and wealth. If one person in the community broke one of God’s laws, then God could condemn everyone in the community. The Puritans were not opposed to drinking alcohol in moderation; however, laws banned the practice of individuals toasting each other, with the explanation that it was carnal and led to wasting God’s gift of beer and wine. Spouses were disciplined if they did not perform their marital sexual duties, and Puritans punished drunkenness and sexual relations outside of marriage.

In Massachusetts Bay, the church members controlled the civil government, and church membership was limited to those who were predestined to go to Heaven. The church members were typically the wealthy members of the Puritan society, which meant the economic elites controlled the civil government. As church membership dropped in the late 17th century, the Puritan leaders created the Halfway Covenant—any adult person who had at least one parent as a church member could join the Puritan church without having to “prove” that they were predestined to enter Heaven.

The Persecution of Witchcraft

In 17th-century colonial North America, the supernatural was part of everyday life, and there was a strong belief that Satan was present and active on Earth. This concept had emerged in Europe around the 15th century and spread to North America when it was colonized. Some theorize that accusations of witchcraft were a way of addressing pagan practices that were used for agriculture and domestic success, which Christianity had long associated with demons and evil spirits. People believed that witches allied themselves with the Devil to carry out evil deeds and deliberate harm such as the sickness or death of children, the loss of cattle, and other catastrophes. Townspeople whose habits or appearance bothered their neighbors or who appeared threatening for any reason were especially at risk of being seen as witches. Women, who were considered more susceptible to the Devil because of their supposedly weaker constitutions, made up the vast majority of suspects and those who were executed.

The first accusations of witchcraft came in 1645, in Springfield, Massachusetts. From 1645 to 1663, about 80 people throughout the Massachusetts Bay Colony were accused of practicing witchcraft, and 13 women and two men were executed. The most famous witch trials in American history, however, took place from February 1692 to May 1693, in and around coastal settlements near Salem, Massachusetts. The first accusations came from young girls who believed they were being tormented physically and mentally by the supernatural machinations of several older women in the community. Those women were brought before the magistrate and interrogated; those who refused to confess to witchcraft were sentenced to death. Accusations and arrests quickly spiraled out of control.

Before the hysteria ended, over 150 people were arrested and imprisoned, with even more accused who were not formally pursued by the authorities. The two courts convicted 29 people of the capital felony of witchcraft; 19 of the accused, 14 women and five men, were hanged. One man who refused to enter a plea was crushed to death under heavy stones in an attempt to force him to do so. At least five more of the accused died in prison.

Many theories have been advanced to explain the trials, including greed, revenge, social conflict, and possibly hallucinogenic-tainted food. The episode is one of the most famous cases of mass hysteria and has been used in political rhetoric and popular literature as a vivid cautionary tale about the dangers of isolationism, religious extremism, false accusations, and lapses in due process.

Source: Boundless U.S. History, Lumen Learning, CC-BY