Puritan Notes

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Puritan Notes
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William Bradford

• Joined radical Puritans (Separatists) at age 17
• Wanted to break off from the Church of England
• Bradford helped plan and fund voyage to New World
• Sailed on the Mayflower with wifeleft son at
  home
• Helped draft the Mayflower Compact
• Helped build relationships with Native Americans
• Governor of Massachusetts for 30 years
• Wrote Of Plymouth Plantation

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The Puritan Legacy

• First group of Puritans landed in 1620, on the
  tip of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
• By 1640, as many as twenty thousand English
  Puritans had sailed to what today is called New
  England.
• Everyday world and the spiritual world of
  Puritans were closely intertwined.
• American character has been shaped by the moral,
  ethical, and religious convictions of the
  Puritans.

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Who Were these Puritans?

• Puritans were a group of Protestants that sought
  to purify the Church of England.
• Puritans wished to return to simpler forms of
  worship and church organization.
• Religion was a personal, inner experience.
• Didnt believe clergy or government should act as
  an intermediary between individual and God.
• Many Puritans were persecuted in Englandsome
  fled to Holland and some to New World.

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The Salem Witchcraft Trials

• Began during the winter of 1691-1692 in Salem
  Village, Massachusetts.
• Group of young girls began accusing women of
  bewitching them.
• Minister Cotton Mather (and others) demanded that
  all witches be found and severely punished.
• 150 people accused of witchcraft19 people hanged
  and 1 pressed to death.

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Puritan Beliefs

• Puritans believed people were either
• The elect-- one of the saved
• OR
• The unregenerate--one of the damned
• No way of knowing which you were.
• People tried to live exemplary lives so they
  would be one of The Elect
• Puritans came to value self-reliance,
  industriousness, temperance, and simplicity.

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Values?

• What did the Puritans value?
• What do we, as a society, value today?

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Puritan Politics Government by Contract

• Puritans believed a contract existed between God
  and humanity.
• Puritans believed people should enter freely into
  agreements concerning the government.
• Mayflower Compact outlined how they would be
  governed once they landedthis prepared the
  ground for American constitutional democracy.

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The Bible in America

• Puritans could see connection (in the Bible)
  between events in own life and/or events in the
  community.
• People saw life as a pilgrimage (journey) to
  salvation.
• People believe the Bible was the literal word of
  God.
• Reading the Bible was a necessity for all
  Puritans.
• Puritans placed great emphasis on education.
  (Harvard College, founded in 1636, was originally
  intended to train Puritan ministers.)
• In 1639, first printing press was set updiaries
  and histories were important forms of Puritan
  literature.