Examination of Puritan Philosophy in Bradford's "On Plymouth Plantation"
The Puritan people first came to the New World to escape the religious
persecution that hounded Non-Anglicans in England. They established the
Plymouth Colony in 1620, in what is now Massachusetts. The colony was a
reflection of the Puritans' beliefs. These beliefs, along with the experience
of establishing a colony in "the middle of nowhere", affected the writings of
all who were involved with the colony. In this writing, the Puritan philosophy
behind William Bradford's "Of Plymouth Plantation" will be revealed. Some
factors that will be considered include: how Puritan beliefs affect William
Bradford's interpretation of events, the representation of Puritan theology in
the above mentioned text, and how Puritanism forms the basis for Bradford's
motivation in writing.
In Bradford's text, there are numerous instances in which his beliefs
affect his interpretation of what happens. In Chapter IX (nine) of "Of Plymouth
Plantation", entitled "Of Their Voyage…" , he tells of a sailor "..of a lusty,
able body.." who "would always be condemning the poor people in their sickness
and cursing them daily….he didn't let to tell them that he hoped to help cast
half of them overboard before they came to their journey's end". But, "it
pleased God before they came half-seas over, to smite this young man with a
grievous disease, of which he died in a desperate manner, and so was himself the
first that was thrown overboard". Bradford believes that the sailor died
because God was punishing him. According to Bradford, the sailor's cursing, and
mistreatment of the other passengers displeased God, so God punished him
accordingly.
In the same chapter, Bradford tells of another ship passenger named John
Howland. At one point in the trip, the Mayflower came upon a violent storm.
The winds of the storm were so fierce, and the seas were so high, that all the
sailors and passengers had to "hull for divers days together". During this
storm, a young man named John Howland was thrown into the sea, and as Bradford
tells us, "it pleased God that he caught hold of the topsail halyards which hung
overboard and ran out at length". Howland caught hold of a rope, and "though he
was sundry fathoms under water", he held on until he was hauled up. Bradford
reasons that the man was saved because he was blessed by God. He goes on to say
that he "became a profitable member in both church and state, implying that John
Howland was one of the so called "Puritan Saints". To the Puritans, Saints were
people whom God was to save, so these people received God's blessings, and
irresistible, urges the heart to the whale's way over the stretch of the seas.” (Line 60-66).
This paper tries to explain Jack Weatherford's Indian Givers by examining the history of the Native American connection to many agricultural products would not have been produced without the knowledge that Indians gave. Weatherford further stipulates that it is through these advances in agriculture that the United States has remained a strong contender in the global market, that without the influences of the Native Americans on the early settlers those early immigrants to America would not have survived. Through his work, "Indian Givers: How Indians of the Americas Transformed the World", Weatherford brings an insight to a people that most individuals have been neglected to consider. The paper concludes that it is Weatherford's purpose to demonstrate that Native Americans have been a misrepresented and forgotten people when the history of North America is discussed.
stated that God puts us in those problems such as drug abuse in order for us to turn to him. That goes
In 1608, a group of Christian separatists from the Church of England fled to the Netherlands and then to the "New World" in search of the freedom to practice their fundamentalist form of Christianity (dubbed Puritanism). The group of people known as the Native Americans (or American Indians) are the aboriginal inhabitants of the Northern and Southern American continents who are believed to have migrated across the Bering land bridge from Asia around 30,000 years ago. When these two societies collided, years of enforced ideology, oppression and guerrilla warfare were begun. The great barriers of religion, ethics and world-views are the three largest factors which lead to the culture clash between the Puritans and the Native Americans.
A common person’s knowledge about sea disasters comes from what they have read in books and articles, and what they see on TV and in movies. The average person does not get to experience the fury of a hurricane while on a boat. In order to capture the audience’s attention, consideration to details and vivid descriptions are needed to paint a realistic picture in their minds. For this reason, the stories have to provide all of the intricate details. In The Perfect Storm, the story starts out with a radio call, not a dramatic scene that immediately foreshadows the possibility of danger. Rather than describing the storm and its fury, the only mention of the setting is of the visibility and the height of waves. However, in “The Wreck of the Hesperus”, the poem begins by stating there is a hurricane possible right away. The current weather conditions are pointed out to the reader as shown in the following quote.
In England, the Puritans were a group of Protestants, who during the 1600 wanted to continue to purify the Church of England of the practices that were not found in scripture . They wanted to leave from being persecuted for not being protestants. The Separatists were people who advocated complete separation from the Church of England and make their own churches. Both the Puritans and the Separatists wanted to and did leave Europe in hope to be able to have religious freedom in North America. While they were in North America the Puritans were in charge. They kept a very controlled and disciplined lifestyle. They slept in tents and dug out then later learned how to make huts from the Swedish.
Of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford and A Description of New England by John Smith are essentially irrelevant to one another in the way that each piece has a very different point of view. The author John Smith was a pilgrim who arrived in the Americas and wrote a description of the new land. William Bradford was also a pilgrim who arrived at Plymouth and wrote more about the realities of his personal journey. The purpose of this essay is to contrast the purposes of the writers, their intended audiences, and how each writer gives out a specific feeling.
The Puritans were English Protestants that came to America around 1630. John Winthrop led the Puritans to America in hopes of creating a pure Christian society separate from the authority of the State and the Church of England. They followed the beliefs of John Calvin who preached predestination. Under Calvinism each individual is born being chosen by God either for eternal salvation or damnation. The Puritans modeled their lives, both personal and within their communities, after the New Testament. They created strong, functional, and for some time successful societies in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the town of Boston. The Puritans taught mainly reading as writing and math skills were not felt to be important. Establishing the first schools for children, they also founded the first American College, Harvard.
During the 16th and 17th centuries, when the Europeans started to come over to the new world, they discovered a society of Indians that was strikingly different to their own. To understand how different, one must first compare and contrast some of the very important differences between them, such as how the Europeans considered the Indians to be extremely primitive and basic, while, considering themselves civilized. The Europeans considered that they were model societies, and they thought that the Indians society and culture should be changed to be very similar to their own.
The king of the birds to the kings of the ships, black eagle and white behind it, in full view, hard by the palace, by the spear-hand, ripped open a hare with her unborn still swelling inside her, stopped from her last chance to escape. Sing sorrow, sorrow, but let the good prevail.
Puritan life is probably one of the biggest paradoxes known to man theoretically. In practice is doesn’t seem like such an absurd notion. There are certain things that may lead someone into confusion over the way that Puritan life was conducted. One of these things is the object of holiness. This means that only certain members are allowed into the Puritan life after proving themselves holy. Another object that may cause confusion is the idea of enjoying oneself in Puritan life. Recreation did occur in Puritan life, but the definition of Puritan recreation is differently defined. One more object of confusion in Puritan life is the type of Puritan in which you are stereotyped into depending of your actions regarding your religion. Although this might sound complicated it is not as intricate as it is written. For Puritan’s this was a way of life. This tells us that, in practice, all of these social theories are probably more plausible than they sound. Winthrop did encounter all of these problems in his journey from England to Massachusetts, and them encountered some of these while he was in control of the society there.
Mann’s biggest point, I believe, is that the Indian settlements he studied were much more civilized than grade school textbooks make them out to be. For instance, in the introduction, ‘Holmberg’s Mistake,’ Mann tells his readers about how Holmberg misinformed the world about the Sirionó being a tribe without history or common sense when they were, in fact, a highly populated tribe that flourished before diseases wiped them out.
he can do to rectify it. "As they had seen me with these hangman's hands /
his religion that when he prayed, he would start to cry. He goes on to explain, “I wept
Fear has taken a hold of every man aboard this ship, as it should; our luck is as far gone as the winds that led us off course. For nights and days gusts beyond measure have forced us south, yet our vessel beauty, Le Serpent, stays afloat. The souls aboard her, lay at the mercy of this ruthless sea. Chaotic weather has turned the crew from noble seamen searching for glory and riches, to whimpering children. To stay sane I keep the holy trinity close to my heart and the lady on my mind. Desperation comes and goes from the men’s eyes, while the black, blistering clouds fasten above us, as endless as the ocean itself. The sea rocks our wood hull back and forth but has yet to flip her. The rocking forces our bodies to cling to any sturdy or available hinge, nook or rope, anything a man can grasp with a sea soaked hand. The impacts make every step a danger. We all have taken on a ghoulish complexion; the absence of sunlight led the weak souls aboard to fight sleep until sick. Some of us pray for the sun to rise but thunder constantly deafens our cries as it crackles above the mast. We have been out to sea for fifty-five days and we have been in this forsaken storm for the last seventeen.