Puritanism and the Settlement of New England

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Comunicación y Gerencia

• Puritanism and the Settlement of New England

Teaching American History, Lecture 3
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Puritans and the Myth of Religious Freedom
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Lesson Objectives

• To understand who the Puritans were, what the
  believed, and why they came to New England
• To examine the development of Puritanism as a
  social and religious system, i.e., to see the key
  elements of their social and religious
  experiment, the kind of society they tried to set
  up
• To view the historical conditions that led to the
  weakening and ultimately the collapse of
  Puritanism as a social and religious system

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The Protestant Reformation

• The Roman Catholic Church, indulgences, Martin
  Luther, and justification by faith
• The English Reformation
• The Puritans were Calvinists, not Lutherans
• View of God vs. humanity
• Predestination (doctrine of election)
• Church government presbyterianism
• Thoroughgoing reform the antichrist
• From persecution to toleration to persecution to
  New England
• Puritans and the Pilgrims

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The Puritan Experiment

• We shall be as a city upon a hill John
  Winthrops A Model of Christian Charity
• Building a model colony
• The Mass. Bay Co. charter local control
• Church membership only the elect (visible
  saints)
• Faith and power voting restrictions to create a
  godly commonwealth
• Enforcing orthodoxy and persecuting outsiders
  Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson, Baptists,
  Quakers
• Settlement patterns and social control
• The New England Way in place by 1650

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Decline and Collapse of Puritanism

• Loosened standards of church membership in 1660s
  the Halfway Covenant
• The Glorious Revolution and the end of Puritanism
• James II and the Dominion of New England
• Stripped Mass. Bay company of charter
• Established one big royal colony under
  jurisdiction of crown (Dominion of New England)
• James deposed, parliamentary supremacy
  established
• Charter restored, but with new terms
• Act of Toleration (1689)
• Voting rights cannot be restricted to church
  members
• Postscript The Salem Witch Hysteria

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The Middle Colonies
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General Characteristics

• NY, PA, NJ, DE
• A distinct region
• Ethnic and national diversity
• Religious diversity
• William Penn creates a religious refuge for
  Quakers
• Toleration also an incentive to attract settlers
• Economy world of middling farmers
• Favorable soils and climate
• Safety first farming
• Exported wheat to West Indies