Death, Puritan Style

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Death, Puritan Style

• By Dr. Rosanne Barker

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• I. Puritan Belief in Predestination
• II. Mortality Rates
• A. In the Chesapeake
• B. In New England
• III. Child-rearing Practices in New England
• A. Preset Notions of Gender
• B. Children Born in Sin
• IV. Puritan Death Ritual
• A. Before the 1660s
• B. After the 1660s
• C. Why the changes?

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Quote of the week from Puritansermons.com

• "Sin in a wicked man is like poison in a serpent
  it is in its natural place."

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• Cotton Mather (1663-1728)
• Promoted inoculation against a small pox epidemic
  in 1721
  
• Many refused to get inoculated because they
  believed they were interfering with Gods plan
  for them and possibly cheating death
  
• When many who had been inoculated died anyway, it
  became a non-issue for most
  

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John Winthrop
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• A Puritan primer first published in 1672
• Described as leading its readers through a
  gallery of death-bed scenes

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• A 1661 catechism

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Puritan Child
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The Mason Children
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Puritan Death Ritual

• Before the 1660s
• NO special sermon preached
• NO special ceremony
• NO special clothing
• NO embalming
• NO grave markers
• Sometimes graves were reused

• After the 1660s
• The Jeremiad (sermon)
• A Funeral
• Eulogy given
• Extravagant sumptuous
• Special mourning clothesscarves, ribbons, cloaks
  in dark somber colors
  
• Funeral gloves sent as invitations
• Dead displayed (rum)
• Funeral rings commissioned for the loved ones
• Gravestones mark the grave

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Commemorative Death Rings
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