...Important Puritan Values The Puritans were extremely important in the colonization of New England, and other colonies. During the colonial settlement of the Puritans, civil wars were breaking out in England, and many people were looking for refuge in the New World. Due to the Puritans settling in New England, there were significant changes in the political, economical, and social development of the colonies because of their values of a fair and just government, hard work, education, and faith. One way that the Puritans influenced others was their political views on strong government and allowing for fair trials. An example of the value of a strong government is in The Mayflower Compact when William Bradford told the settlers at Cape Cod and the English government that the settlers were establishing their own separate government, but that they would stay loyal to the king. During this time permanent settlements have been established in the Americas, and many people have been coming to...
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...England’s foundation was built by the settlers who had came there to seek new opportunities and find religious freedom. Puritans were among the first of many to settle in the New England regions, and they brought with them their ideas and values. For the Puritans, life revolved around religion, and their religious beliefs influenced how they viewed politics, the economy, and the social aspects of their lives. Politically, the Puritans believed in liberty and that every man is equal if they put forth labor and hard work. Governmental ideas and values that were brought to New England by the Puritans came from England, which was one of the only government styles they knew. Those who worked hard and cared about the community as a whole were...
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...Nathaniel Hawthorne’s gothic short story “The Minister's Black Veil” is a critique of Puritan religious views because of the exposal of hypocrisy in the Puritan credences, while the Puritans value veracity with themselves and God through good doings and bad. When someone decides to follow through with this action the critique is displayed as the Puritan followers harshly judge and shun him, with judgment being one of the most deadly forbidden sins in Puritanism. The Puritan religion established itself in the 16th- 17th centuries predicating their sole purpose of life to serving God and proceeding to heaven, therefore evading sin in a very strict fashion valuing truth with oneself and The Creator. In “ The Minister's Black Veil” a once prominent and loved priest decides to abide by the true Puritan religion deciding to become truthful with himself and others relating to his secret...
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...others, has called Puritan society a culture based on the principle of exclusion. With particular references to Winthrop, Edwards and historical events, discuss the evidence of this principle in Puritan life and culture. ______________________________________________ One may hear or read that the people who founded the early United States of America came to the “New World” in order to practice their religious convictions in peace and freedom, without being persecuted. They are often cited as examples. John Winthrop for instance, who was the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, has been quoted as a source of inspiration by numerous US presidents such as John Fitzgerald Kennedy or Ronald Reagan. Yet, one may consider that John Winthrop and Puritans in general are far from representing a tradition of tolerance and freedom. Looking at history and core principles of Puritanism, it cannot be denied that the puritans’ “city upon a hill” had more in common with a totalitarian regime than with the spirit of the Bill of Rights passed in 1789, which embodies far better the values of the United States of America. Puritans were definitely not tolerant. Their culture was based on the principle of exclusion as they did not accept any religious belief that differed from theirs, and rejected and even persecuted people who dared think and act differently from them. The Puritans’ texts available today can make one understand how intolerant Puritans were. In his famous...
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...Many Puritans, or Separatists, from England came to the Americas because they wanted religious freedom and the ability to express their views freely. Two important figures of the 16th and 17th century are William Bradford who wrote Of Plymouth Plantation and Jonathan Edwards who wrote Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Bradford’s piece is a Separatist’s interpretation of the Reformation in England and the early years of the newly founded Plymouth colony. Edward’s piece touches upon the topic of the seriousness of sin in his Puritan congregation. One common theme among the pieces, Of Plymouth Plantation and the Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, is that Puritan faith, beliefs, attitudes, and values is based on charity and hard work involving...
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...complex idea to accept and to truly have full belief in. Curiosity surfaces when humans cannot prove or understand something logically or scientifically right away. As individuals, reason and solution is a must and the truth is what keeps life going. This feeling of ambiguity is no different for the Puritans in the sixteen hundreds. In fact, Puritan Anne Bradstreet reveals her struggle in faith within many of her literary works. To readers, the assumption is already made that as a Puritan member and a woman of society Bradstreet would incorporate godly worships in all her pieces of writing. Although that is true to some degree, once readers deeply analyzes her work in poetry they can see that her relationship with God is not always all mighty and secure. There are moments in her poems where she feels a certain disconnect or a sense of disbelief in His power. In rare occasions, she even blames God for her misfortunes. Bradstreet begins to see God differently than how she did when she was raised as a little girl. The mentality of every devoted Puritan man and woman in this New World, now called America, is to be a believer in God and only Him. In fact, it is said that “The [...] Puritan was such as one that honored God above all [...] His first care was to serve God, and therein he did not what was good in his own, but in God's sight, making the word of God the rule of his worship" (Geree). However, the hardships of life in this new land consequently led many faithful believers such...
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...The Puritans The Puritans once held a position of power among the religious world. Their beliefs were strict and they did not compromise their morals or standards for any outside individual. In The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the Puritan religion reflects the attitude and values of the common man during that particular time period. The main belief among the Puritans was that they were God’s chosen people. In their eyes, they held supremacy over the average man. They believed in Pelagianism based on the Doctrine of Elect. This was the belief that man could redeem himself through acts of charity, religious devotion, and by living an unselfish life. Many of these strict beliefs were based on John Calvin’s principle of predestination. Predestination was that through God’s grace, one would reach heaven and that this special grace could not be earned; it was predetermined at birth. This principle of predestination forced Puritans to truly believe that their actions did not matter and their devotion to God had no bearing over their destiny. Puritans also believed in the degradation of one’s self, which meant that they had to make themselves worthy to God so that he would not instill his wrath on the Puritan community. They feared God and his special power, but considered themselves God’s special elects. Basically, they felt they had the right to perform any necessary deeds that would satisfy God’s will. Sin was thought of as an unavoidable element of human nature...
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...It was a commonality for Puritans to be publicly whipped, pay fines, and be placed on a scaffold in front of others. In the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne the many sinful would even inflict self-damage on themselves . The Scarlet Letter affirms the importance of work ethic and virtuosity of life. Hawthorne exercises the device of rhetorical irony and symbolism throughout the book which is supported by other devices such as pathos and abstract ideas to reveal the effects of sin on the Puritans. The Puritan way of life is distinctive from what we see today. Hawthorne establishes symbolic elements in the introduction of the wild rose bush. Hawthorne describes the bush as a possible ¨sweet moral blossom.” Hawthorne then starts with 1st...
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...The Scarlet Letter Study Guide Published in 1850, The Scarlet Letter is considered Nathaniel Hawthorne's most famous novel--and the first quintessentially American novel in style, theme, and language. Set in seventeenth-century Puritan Massachusetts, the novel centers around the travails of Hester Prynne, who gives birth to a daughter Pearl after an adulterous affair. Hawthorne's novel is concerned with the effects of the affair rather than the affair itself, using Hester's public shaming as a springboard to explore the lingering taboos of Puritan New England in contemporary society. The Scarlet Letter was an immediate success for a number of reasons. First and foremost, the United States was still a relatively new society, less than one hundred years old at the time of the novel’s publication. Indeed, still tied to Britain in its cultural formation, Hawthorne's novel offered a uniquely American style, language, set of characters, and--most importantly--a uniquely American central dilemma. Besides entertainment, then, Hawthorne's novel had the possibility of goading change, since it addressed a topic that was still relatively controversial, even taboo. Certainly Puritan values had eased somewhat by 1850, but not enough to make the novel completely welcome. It was to some degree a career-threatening decision to center his novel around an adulterous affair (but compare the plot of Fielding's Tom Jones). But Hawthorne was not concerned with a prurient affair here, though the novel’s...
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...M Scott Peck once said, “Share are similarities and celebrate our differences.” One of the first societies in America was the Puritans in the 1690s. There are many differences between the Puritans’ society and our culture today including the importance of religion and the relation of church and state; however, there are also similarities between 1692 and 2017 societies, as is evident in how marriage is viewed. One way today’s society differs from the Puritans is the view of religion and the importance of church going. The Puritans had a strict code that had no tolerance for breaking the laws of church (“Salem Witch Trials”). In fact, if they did not attend church they were frowned upon. Today’s society, on the other hand, doesn’t force people to attend church. Many view that going to church to understand God is important, but no one becomes an outcast for not attending. Another difference in the two societies’ religion is...
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...Puritan ethics emphasize that hard work, discipline, and being cautious with spending money is a result of the values they were exposed to by their protestant faith. This article analyzes many Puritan ethics that are still existing in today’s society or have become obsolete. The two ethic phrases that people still use today are “Save for a rainy day”, and “Work together for the common good”. Samples of phrases that no longer apply in today’s society are “Men are superior to women physically, emotionally, and mentally” and the second phrase is “Children are to be seen, not heard”. Below are some examples of how these views are either still being used or are no longer thought of as valued or important. The phrase “Save for a rainy day” is quite often used in today’s American society. People say this when they usually want to save money for an urgent and unexpected time of need. Examples would include an unexpected loss of a job, a disaster that affected your primary home or a loss in your family that affected day to day income needs. To prepare for this, individuals should open up a savings account or invest in purchasing homes or businesses....
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...HISTORY 1301 United States History: Discovery to 1876 Handout # The Folkways of the Distinct English Groups that Colonize America David Hacket Fisher author of Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America (1989) wrote his book to answer the great questions: “Where do we come from” Who are we? [and] Where are we going?” (Fisher. p. 3) “The answers to these questions grow more puzzling the more one thinks about them. We Americans are a bundle of paradoxes. We are mixed in our origins, and yet we are one people. Nearly all of us support our republican system, but we argue passionately among ourselves about its meaning. We live in an open society which is organized on the principles of voluntary action, but the determinants of that system are exceptionally constraining. Our society is dynamic, changing profoundly in every period of American history; but it is also remarkably stable. The search for the origins of this system is the central problem in American history. It is the subject of this book.”( Fisher. p. 4) The answer is to be found in the “folkways” which four specific groups of Englishmen brought with them to the New World. These folkways provide an empirical measure of the differences in their societies which have blended to form the “American way.” “The interplay of” the folkways of the four English speaking immigrant groups, especially their “ ‘freedom ways’ has created an expansive pluralism which is” peculiarly American. “That is the central...
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...The Puritan community is described as a “utopia of human virtue and happiness” (42) in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter. Being a Christian community, the community prides itself on its virtues and its values. The story revolves around the sin that Hester Prynne committed against her husband, Roger Chillingworth: adultery with a Puritan minister named Arthur Dimmesdale. Hawthorne examines the role of the community in relation to the sin of these characters and the effect the community has on the two sinners. How are the characters influenced by the Puritan community? It is the Puritan community’s twisted view and influence on the characters that negatively impacts the characters and renders them unable to move past their sins. Hawthorne...
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...At the turn of the 17th century, a new group of settlers arrived in America, resolving to establish a “city upon a hill” that would be the focal point for God’s grace in the New World and would serve as a model for the waves of pilgrims to come. In subsequent decades, the Puritans formed communities across New England; communities governed by and revolving around a strict interpretation of the Christian religion. Essentially, Puritan society was controlled and influenced by the relationship between sin and consequent punishment. Inevitably, this led to conflict over the actual definition of “sin” and if certain acts of “sin” are more severe than others. During the 18th century, the perpetual oppression of the Puritan lifestyle led to major regime changes across the New World as settlers strayed away from the harsh reality of Puritan ideals....
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...New England wanted to be a “city upon a hill”. They wanted to be superior to others and looked up to. In his sermon John Winthrop said “We must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all the people are upon us, so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword through the world.” (document a) John Winthrop and the majority of the colonists in New England were Puritans, and although they came to the colonies for religious freedom, they had to tolerance for other religions. In Virginia, one half of the Chesapeake colonies, most of the colonists were Anglicans and in Maryland the majority of the colonists were Catholics or...
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