U.S. History I: United States History 1607-1865 ... - Textbook Equity

• Fact: Puritans were not somber, morose people. They wore colored clothes, had
games, celebrations, feasts, partook of “strong waters”—had strong aesthetic sense
in their architecture.
• Puritans were not opposed to pleasure, but saw its regulation as part of a wellordered
society. They were moral athletes who strove to standards higher than one
had a right to expect. They drove themselves to great achievements—there was no
rest short of the grave.
• Puritanism was very similar to Judaism—they saw themselves as spiritual heirs of
Abraham—entered into a covenant of Grace—God’s chosen people who were creating
a “New Jerusalem.” “Never was a people so sure it was on the right track.”
• Puritans were not high-minded theorists but rather pragmatic people who were concerned
with the way things worked in the real world. They fought among themselves
over power, not how many angels could dance on the head of a pin. They were indeed
frequently narrow-minded, but that can often be a source of strength.
• Puritanism was a very comforting religion despite harshness because it placed God in
charge and eliminated worldly vanities. The Puritans were bookish and literate: They
created the first college, the first bookstore, and the first newspaper in America.
(See Anne Bradstreet’s poems, Appendix)
• Marriage was for joy—to escape “burning” in hell; men and women were created different
for each other’s pleasure; divorce laws were relatively mild, and separation
could be based on sexual incompatibility.
• There was much premarital sex—about 10 percent of brides were pregnant at the
time of marriage. (Anglicans in the South were much stricter.)
• Because Puritans expected very little from life, few of them were disillusioned. The
world was filled with evil—it was not a playhouse but a workhouse.
• American individualism can be traced to the Puritans. Faith was their rock, but human
intellect was highly valued: “Ignorance is the mother of heresy,” they said.
• The Puritans could be self-righteous and intolerant, although such tendencies have
been exaggerated. Nevertheless, Puritans were hated by others. Their view of the
world was very harsh: They saw the world as filled with depravity. Yet Puritans, Anglicans,
Catholics, and Separatists were not that far apart; they shared many fundamental
beliefs.
• The sermon tradition of Puritanism still lives (as seen in TV preachers today.) Puritan
sermons were lengthy exercises in logic—more like legal documents than literary
events. (See Jonathan Edwards, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, Appendix.)
• All government in the Puritan colonies was based on the shaky assumption that the
Bible is clear and unambiguous, which is not true; controversy over proper interpretation
of the Bible continues to this day.
• Laws were strict: Crimes included blasphemy, perjury (death), cursing of parents,
idolatry, adultery, fornication. Laws followed commandments and Deuteronomy;
they also wrote laws as existed back in England.
• Whatever the drawbacks, the church was the central unifying force in Massachusetts,
which led to the famous town meeting. First held in churches, then separately, the
town meeting is the “most remarkable if not the most influential institution to
emerge in early America.”
• A connection exists between American public school tradition and the Puritans—also
with higher education.
• Dissenters: Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams both ran afoul of Puritan authorities
and were banished from the colony. Fear of dissension also led to the Salem witch
craze, a terrible event but one that had far more gruesome parallels in Europe.
34