The Puritans

1
The Puritans
2
Timeline

• 2000-1492 Native American civilizations thrive
  in North and South America oral tradition is
  established and passed down
• 1492 Christopher Columbus sets foot in Bahamas
• 1502 Amerigo Vespucci returns from second
  exploration of South America and declares it a
  New World the Americas are named after him
• 1502 First enslaved Africans taken to the
  Americas

3
Timeline Continued

• 1537 Upon returning to Spain, Alvar Nunez Cabeza
  de Vaca reports to Spanish king about harrowing
  North American journey (La Relacion)
• 1607 First permanent English colony set up in
  Jamestown, Virginia
• 1619 Africans first arrive in Virginia as
  indentured servants
• 1630 William Bradford writes Of Plymouth
  Plantation

4
Religious Persecution

• The religious persecution that drove settlers
  from Europe to the North American colonies sprang
  from the conviction that uniformity of religion
  must exist in any given society
• This conviction rested on the belief that there
  was one true religion and that it was the duty of
  the civil authorities to impose it, in the
  interest of saving the souls of all citizens.
• Nonconformists could expect no mercy and might be
  executed as heretics.

5
This engraving depicts the execution of David van
der Leyen and Levina Ghyselins, described
variously as Dutch Anabaptists or Mennonites, by
Catholic authorities in Ghent in 1554. Strangled
and burned, van der Leyen was finally dispatched
with an iron fork. Brachts Martyrs Mirror is
considered by modern Mennonites as second only in
importance to the Bible in perpetuating their
faith.
6
Slaughter of Protestants, 1562
7
Drowning of Protestants, 1641
8
Persecution of Catholics, 1607
9
The Puritans

• Puritans were English Protestants who wished to
  reform and purify the Church of England of what
  they considered to be unacceptable residues of
  Roman Catholicism.
• In the 1620s, leaders of the English state and
  church grew increasingly unsympathetic to Puritan
  demands.

10

• They insisted that the Puritans conform to
  religious practices that they abhorred, and they
  threatened death if they did not fall in line.
• Some Puritan men received savage punishments. In
  1630, a man was sentenced to life imprisonment,
  had his property confiscated, his nose slit, an
  ear cut off, and his forehead branded.

11
Coming to America

• Beginning in 1630 as many as 20,000 Puritans
  emigrated to America from England to gain the
  liberty to worship God as they chose. Most
  settled in New England.
• The Puritans were not Pilgrims. Pilgrims came in
  1620 and wanted to start a different church
  Puritans believed that the Church of England was
  the true church, just in need of major reforms.

12
Keeping the Faith

• Although they were victims of religious
  persecution in Europe, the Puritans supported the
  Old World theory of the need for uniformity of
  religion in the state.
• They expelled any dissenters from their colony
  and, if they returned, they were often killed.
• Four quakers were killed between 1659 and 1661.

13
Mary Dyer, executed in 1660 after returning to
Massachusetts
14
Puritan Life

• Puritans valued hard work and self-sacrifice, but
  they also honored material success.
• They often wore decorative and colorful clothing
  when they could find it.
• Valued family life, community service, art, and
  literature.
• First in the colonies to establish a printing
  press, free public grammar schools, and a college
  (Harvard)

15
Puritan Beliefs

• Human beings are inherently evil and so must
  struggle to overcome their sinful nature.
• This belief in original sin was one of the first
  things a Puritan child learned. In Adams
  fall/We sinned all is the rhyme that teaches the
  letter A in The New England Primer.

16
Puritan Beliefs, continued

• Personal salvation depends solely on the grace of
  God, not on individual effort.
• Puritans believed in predestination, the doctrine
  that only those people who are elected by God
  are saved and go to heaven. The only way an
  individual could know that he or she was saved
  was by directly experiencing Gods grace in a
  religious conversion. Human beings had no free
  will.

17
Puritan Beliefs, continued

• The Bible is the supreme authority on earth.
• Puritans argued that the Bible was the sole guide
  not only in governing the moral and spiritual
  life but also in governing the church and society
  as a whole. The churches were a bit more
  democratic, but also intolerant of others. For
  example, they used the Bible to justify their
  occupation of the land and their use of force
  against Native Americans Whosoever therefore
  resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of
  God and they that resist shall receive to
  themselves damnation (Romans 132). They saw
  themselves as Gods chosen people, like the
  children of Israel.

18
Then why the heck would anyone become a Puritan?!
19

• Actually, the theory of predestination reassured
  and comforted people.
• God had a plan for all of human history, and
  every event in the lives of individuals and
  nations tended toward an ultimate triumph of good
  over evil. Every human being had a role to play.
• This belief made the Puritans constantly strive
  to reshape society and the government to accord
  with what they believed to be the will of God as
  set forth in the Bible.

20

• It also made the Puritans live godly and
  disciplined lives, but not because they hoped
  such behavior would earn them salvation.
• Instead, they believed that their ability to
  master their evil inclinations provided some
  evidence that they ranked among the elect of
  saints.
• Leading a godly, moral life was the EFFECT of
  being chosen by God to enjoy eternal bliss in
  heaven.

21
(No Transcript)
22
Puritan Writing

• Function
• To transform a mysterious God and make Him more
  relevant to the universe.
• To glorify God
• Style
• Protestant against ornateness reverence for the
  Bible
• Had a purpose
• Reflected the character and scope of the reading
  public, which was literate and well-grounded in
  religion