Puritans

Examples of Puritans in the following topics:

• Puritanism

  • Within the Church of England, those who wanted to remove traces of pre-Reformation Catholicism came to be called "Puritans".
  • The Stuart kings disliked the Puritans.
  • Puritans in colonial America were among the most radical Puritans and whose social experiment took the form of a theocracy.
  • The Puritans were not opposed to drinking alcohol in moderation.
  • Assess the cultural influence of Puritanism and how it affected the Church of England

• Plymouth

  • The Puritans founded Plymouth in order to practice their own brand of Protestantism without interference from England.
  • The conflict generated by Puritanism had divided English society, because the Puritans demanded reforms that undermined the traditional festive culture.
  • Unwilling to conform to the Church of England, many Puritans sought refuge in the New World.
  • Puritan New England offered them the opportunity to live as they believed the Bible demanded.
  • Describe the founding and expansion of Puritan colonies in New England

• Rhode Island

  • Rhode Island was formed as an English colony by Roger Williams and others fleeing prosecution from Puritans.
  • Puritan authorities found him guilty of spreading dangerous ideas and expelled him from the colony.
  • Literate Puritan women like Hutchinson presented a challenge to the male minister's authority.
  • Other neighboring settlements of Puritan refugees followed, all of which formed a loose alliance.
  • Rhode Island became a colony that sheltered dissenting Puritans from their brethren in Massachusetts.

• Religion in Early New England

  • Those who wanted to purify the Church of England were known as Puritans.
  • Puritans were followers of a Protestant minister named John Calvin.
  • Puritans also believed in predestination and election by God of who is saved.
  • Puritans supported intolerance and believed that error must be opposed and driven out.
  • Puritans in colonial America were among the most radical Puritans and their social experiment took the form of a theocracy.

• Settling New England

  • A great Puritan migration in the 1630s followed the Mayflower.
  • The group was led by John Winthrop, a Puritan.
  • Unlike the "Separatists", Puritans wanted only to "purify" the Church of England.
  • The Puritan migrations continued until 1637 when the English Puritans decided to stay and contest their fate in England itself, as the English Civil War started.
  • Its fate was to be found with the other Puritan colonies in the New England Confederation.

• The Massachusetts Bay Colony

  • Some literate Puritan women in the colonies, such as Anne Hutchinson, challenged the male ministers’ authority.
  • Because of Hutchinson’s beliefs and her defiance of authority in the colony, Puritan authorities tried and convicted her of holding false beliefs.
  • Like many other Europeans, the Puritans believed in the supernatural.
  • Hundreds were accused of witchcraft in Puritan New England, including townspeople whose habits or appearance bothered their neighbors or who appeared threatening for any reason.
  • In May of 1637, the Puritans attacked a large group of several hundred Pequot along the Mystic River in Connecticut.

• Colonial Cities

  • In New England, the Puritans created self-governing communities of religious congregations of farmers, or yeomen, and their families.
  • The Congregational Church, the church that the Puritans founded, was not automatically joined by all New England residents because of Puritan beliefs that God singled out specific people for salvation.
  • Education was primarily the responsibility of families, but numerous religious groups, especially the Puritans in New England, established tax-supported elementary schools so their children could read the Bible.

• The Salem Witch Trials

  • Like many other Europeans, the Puritans of New England believed in the supernatural.
  • Women were more susceptible to suspicions of witchcraft because they were perceived, in Puritan society, to have weaker constitutions that were more likely to be inhabited by the Devil.
  • Women healers with knowledge of herbal remedies—things that could often deemed "pagan" by Puritans—were particularly at risk of being accused of witchcraft.
  • Relying on their belief in witchcraft to help make sense of their changing world, Puritan authorities executed 20 people and caused the deaths of several others before the trials were over.

• Colonies in Crisis

  • Furthermore, he had infuriated Puritans in Boston by promoting the Church of England, which was disliked by many Nonconformist New England colonists.
  • Members of the Church of England, believed by Puritans to sympathize with the administration of the dominion, were also taken into custody by the rebels.

• A Growing Population and Expanding Economy in British North America

  • The Puritans established the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1629 with 400 settlers.
  • The Massachusetts settlement spawned other Puritan colonies in New England, including the New Haven, Saybrook, and Connecticut colonies.
  • Economically, Puritan New England fulfilled the expectations of its founders.
  • Unlike the cash crop-oriented plantations of the Chesapeake region, the Puritan economy was based on the efforts of self-supporting farmsteads who traded only for goods they could not produce themselves.