United States, 2006: a nation with a history of a mere 230 years, yet it stands as one of the most powerful nations in the world. Yet many of us know little about the history and cultural changes that led to the birth of this nation. We only know the bits and pieces that are taught as we sit daydreaming in our fifth grade classroom. The Puritans, the Pilgrims, Christopher Columbus, the Mayflower, we know about these people and things, yet what aspects of their lives created the change in America? The answer to this question can be found by observing the changes in religion, women's role, and colonial law as it brought about the change in the Puritan's cultural values.
In 1630, the first group of Puritans under the name of the Massachusetts Bay Company landed in what is now Boston, Massachusetts. However, months before the Arbella landed, a man by the name of John Winthrop made a sermon which came to be known as "A Modell of Christian Charity." The sermon made on the Arbella, "set down characteristic features of the Puritan mind' and the New England way.' The concluding sentiments concerning the covenant made between God and his people are particularly noteworthy" as stated in A Documentary History of Religion in America to 1877. This sermon spoke of the covenant between the God and the Puritans to create a holy community in the New World. Furthermore, it speaks of the consequences in the concluding part of the sermon as follows, "But if our heartes shall turne away soe that wee will not obey, but shall be seduced and worshipp other Gods our pleasures, and proffitts, and serue them, it is propounded vnto vs this day, wee shall surely perishe out of the good Land whether wee passe over this vast Sea to possesse it" .
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...y, the colonial law guided the society which influenced women's role in society. Each is linked in a cycle that never ended.
However, in the end it did end. The core elements which held the cycle together in the end had broken it. Women such as Anne Hutchinson and Mary Dyer allowed for different perspective. They brought about a change in the minds of an ignorant people. The Great Awakening, which brought about an increase in religious belief, played a role in decreasing prejudice and identification differences. Finally, although the concept of Republican Motherhood may have not been what we call ideal today, it did allow for the increased involvement role in politics as well as allow for them to be educated. Thus, what was once a Church-State became a new ideal: a separation of church and state. As much as religion shaped society, it became shaped by society itself.
In the 1700’s the Puritans left England for the fear of being persecuted. They moved to America for religious freedom. The Puritans lived from God’s laws. They did not depend as much on material things, and they had a simpler and conservative life. More than a hundred years later, the Puritan’s belief toward their church started to fade away. Some Puritans were not able to recognize their religion any longer, they felt that their congregations had grown too self-satisfied. They left their congregations, and their devotion to God gradually faded away. To rekindle the fervor that the early Puritans had, Jonathan Edwards and other Puritan ministers led a religious revival through New England. Edwards preached intense sermons that awakened his congregation to an awareness of their sins. With Edwards’ sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” he persuades the Puritans to convert back to Puritanism, by utilizing rhetorical strategies such as, imagery, loaded diction, and a threatening and fearful tone.
A Puritan lawyer, John Winthrop, immigrated to New England because his views on religion were different from those in England. Even though Puritans are Protestants, Puritans tried to purify the English Church. In 1630 on board of the Arabella on the Atlantic Ocean on way to Massachusetts, he wrote “A Model of Christian Charity” which gave his views on what a society should be. ‘…the condition of mankind, [that] in all times some must be rich, some poor, some high and eminent in power and dignity, other mean and in subjection….[Yet] we must knit together in this work as one man.’ (Doc. A). In this he is saying that men may be different but to make a new world work, they must work together. All through his speech he mentions God. For example, he opens his sermon with ‘God Almighty in his most holy and wise providence…’. This shows that in New England, the people were very religious.
This chapter, “Three Old Worlds Create a New, 1492 – 1600,” covers the social, political and economic events that occurred in the worlds that made up America between 1492 and 1600. This chapter explores the history of the small societies that became the United States in broad contest of European exploration and exploitation. There existed conflicts between European kingdoms and this led to interest in colonies that strengthened the emerging nations. The curiosity of Europeans helped introduce them to African and American societies that had evolved over the centuries. The social and cultural collisions of these worlds changed and profoundly influenced Western history.
...arate societies by the time of the 1700's. Agriculture, motive, people, religion, and terrain are all factors that affected how they grew apart. However, it is also through the actions of the men and woman who settled in the regions and the choices they made that led to the development of two societies. The Chesapeake region became a society of money-driven, wealthy plantation owners, virtually no middle class workers, and those in extreme poverty. The New England colonies, in contrast, developed into a society of middle class family men who placed extreme emphasis on religion. The two societies in what would become one nation may have had effects on America in the future. The dispute over slavery, the imbalance of workers, and the class differences cause rifts between the two regions over time. Two radically different cultures cannot coincide in harmony forever.
Henretta, James A., Rebecca Edwards, and Robert Self. America: A Concise History.( Boston: Bedford, St. Martin's, 2006),
Religion was the foundation of the early Colonial American Puritan writings. Many of the early settlements were comprised of men and women who fled Europe in the face of persecution to come to a new land and worship according to their own will. Their beliefs were stalwartly rooted in the fact that God should be involved with all facets of their lives and constantly worshiped. These Puritans writings focused on their religious foundations related to their exodus from Europe and religions role in their life on the new continent. Their literature helped to proselytize the message of God and focused on hard work and strict adherence to religious principles, thus avoiding eternal damnation. These main themes are evident in the writings of Jonathan Edwards, Cotton Mathers, and John Winthrop. This paper will explore the writings of these three men and how their religious views shaped their literary works, styles, and their historical and political views.
...ard expansion, a person finds information about the essence of American culture. Though the English colonists came to America expecting to renew their lives through the Puritan faith, they instead found their faith and, indeed, their very society in danger from the heathen Indian presence in the surrounding wilderness. But while the Indians threatened the core of the colonials’ lives, the presence of the colonists and their westerly expansion threatened the lives and land that the Indians had held for many years. American history thus began in violence that has no single source, but rather is derived from the Puritans and Indians both fighting for and protecting their mutual interests and desires.
Even before the eve of the Revolution, the colonists constantly had the image of independence lingering in the back of their heads. The colonists felt that they were first on a loose leash, and as that leash tightened over the years, the colonists began to understand their true culture and identity. As time passed, the colonists developed a greater sense of their identity and unity as Americans and by the eve of the Revolution, even though at first the colonists were unorganized and had problems with being united, they remained determined to gain their identity and unity as Americans.
In 1630, the Massachusetts Bay Company set sail to the New World in hope of reforming the Church of England. While crossing the Atlantic, John Winthrop, the puritan leader of the great migration, delivered perhaps the most famous sermon aboard the Arbella, entitled “A Model of Christian Charity.” Winthrop’s sermon gave hope to puritan immigrants to reform the Church of England and set an example for future immigrants. The Puritan’s was a goal to get rid of the offensive features that Catholicism left behind when the Protestant Reformation took place. Under Puritanism, there was a constant strain to devote your life to God and your neighbors. Unlike the old England, they wanted to prove that New England was a community of love and individual worship to God. Therefore, they created a covenant with God and would live their lives according to the covenant. Because of the covenant, Puritans tried to abide by God’s law and got rid of anything that opposed their way of life. Between 1630 and the 18th century, the Puritans tried to create a new society in New England by creating a covenant with God and living your life according to God’s rule, but in the end failed to reform the Church of England. By the mid 1630’s, threats to the Puritans such as Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson, and Thomas Hooker were being banned from the Puritan community for their divergent beliefs. 20 years later, another problem arose with the children of church members and if they were to be granted full membership to the church. Because of these children, a Halfway Covenant was developed to make them “halfway” church members. And even more of a threat to the Puritan society was their notion that they were failing God, because of the belief that witches existed in 1692.
During the 17th century, many Puritans set sail for New England in order to escape religious persecution and re-create an English society that was accepting of the Puritan faith. John Winthrop, an educated lawyer from England who later became governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, was one of the first in North America to advocate Puritan ideals and lifestyle. Winthrop delivered his sermon A Model of Christian Charity, in hopes of encouraging his shipmates to establish a truly spiritual community abroad. Almost fifty years later, a Puritan named Mary Rowlandson, daughter of a wealthy landowner and wife of a minister, wrote A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, describing her 11-week captivity by native Indians after an attack on Lancaster. Rowlandson recounts her story with heroism and appreciation for God. Although John Winthrop and Mary Rowlandson were in entirely different situations when composing their literary works, both writings reflect many of the same ideals that characterize the Puritan mind, such as the belief in God's mercy, the acceptance of one's condition in life, and the importance of a strong community.
The "A Model of Christian Charity" sermon, delivered by John Winthrop, is an example of the deeply religious Puritans that settled in Boston. They felt they had a convent with God to live a righteous life, a life that put God commandments and the community first. The puritans were very concerned with proper behavior theirs and others. The settlers of Boston were pious Puritans who regularly reassessed the state of their souls. By living this righteous life, the Puritans believed the Massachusetts Bay Colony was the "City upon the Hill" and they would be the light of the world. John Winthrop stated in the closing statement of his sermon how deeply the Puritans walked with God.
...s that they weren’t just slaves; they were women, sisters, wives, and daughters, just like the white women (DOC C). The women of this time period reached out to expand ideals by showing men that women were going to be involved in political affairs, and they had a right to do so.
From 1750 until 1800 the colonial United States endured a period of enormous achievement along with a substantial amount of struggle. Before 1750, the new colony’s first struggle was between the colonists and England over who would have leadership within the New World. Once settled, the issues emerged from within the colonies themselves, particularly with the “belongings” they brought and imported. African American slaves were seen as property, and were not given any innate rights such as liberty or freedom when following their master to the New World. The revolution for the colonists from England began, with new freedoms received by the colonists; the slaves began to question their rights as humans. Innate rights such as liberty and freedom
Throughout the first half of the 19th century, and especially after the War of 1812, America has taken on yet another revolution. In this time period, the country saw a rapid expansion in territory and economics, as well as the extension of democratic politics; the spread of evangelical revivalism; the rise of the nation’s first labor and reform movements; the growth of cities and industrial ways of life; a rise in abolitionism and reduction in the power of slavery; and radical shifts in the roles and status of women.
Many people see history as a set of facts, or as a collection of stories. The reality, however, is that history is a fluid timeline. Each act of an individual or a group has an effect on others. Each moment in history is a building block that, good or bad, contributes to the stability of the next. This can be seen clearly in American history, as there have been several developments since the 1800’s that have played major roles on the growth of the nation.