America was founded on the principles of the Bible because of the early settlers who came to the new land. The Pilgrims and the Puritans came to land and met Indians. Soon, they formed a nation beautiful and strong. People ask how we got to this point of success. It comes down to God. God intervened in the founding of America by using three groups of people, the Pilgrims, Puritans, and the Indians. The Indians were the first group that arrived in America and began to settle. One of the aspects of the Indians were that they were considered to be savages. They were thought to be evil, God still used them. For example, the story of Pocahontas, she as an eighteen-year-old girl who was the daughter of Powhatan. She saved James Smith even though she could have died, and then Jamestown wasn’t going to be able to be such a great success (53). Another account with was when the Pilgrims came to greet the Indians. The Indian, Squanto, …show more content…
God was able to use these Puritans to help establish America. John Winthrop, a Puritan, wrote the A Model of Christian Charity, which was ranked as important as the Mayflower Compact. The way God helped the Puritans were by using the Pilgrims. The Puritans landed on Salem, but they still had an extremely hard time because of all the disease. During their first winter, John Endecott, the temporary governor, wrote to the governor at Plymouth. Governor Bradford sent a doctor to help the colony with the disease of scurvy (87). God was able to provide the Puritans with a doctor that not only healed the sick but also told of what miracles that were happening about fifty miles south of the area. In February of 1630, God provided again. God allowed the Puritans to survive, and Winthrop declared a thanksgiving feast (91). The Puritans listened to God, and God honored their obedience to Him. Soon, the Puritans expanded which allowed God’s plan for the birth of America
The puritans traveled from England on the Arabella in January of 1630 to escape to a place where they could instill their own religious and political values into their society; Stephen Foster writes about the puritans in the narrative entitled Puritanism and Democracy: A mixed Legacy. Stephen grants the puritans with creating a society based off of religious freedom and reformation of the English church. Their social constructs consisted of hierarchies and accepted inequality. The puritans are credited with laying the foundation to the democratic system of America along with early aspects of political and social constructs found in current day America.
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.
While residing in England, the Puritans and faithful Catholics faced prosecution, which led to their immigration to the New World. Most left England to avoid further harassment. Many groups and parishes applied for charters to America and, led by faithful ministers, the Pilgrims and Puritans made the long voyage to North America. Their religion became a unique element in the New England colonies by 1700. Before landing, the groups settled on agreements, signing laws and compacts to ensure a community effort towards survival when they came to shore, settling in New England. Their strong sense of community and faith in God led them to develop a hardworking society by year 1700, which Documents A and D express through the explanation of how the Pilgrims and Puritans plan to develop...
By the early 1600s, the English were steadily making their way overseas to the New World in hopes of settling and prospering on foreign land. Among these were Puritans, or Protestants seeking exemption from the overbearing English Catholic Church. In his speech to the new colonists of the newly settled Massachusetts Bay Colony, John Winthrop, its Puritan governor, delivered a speech to encourage certain values and examples that new colonists should operate by in their daily lives on the settlement. He uses lines from the Bible itself to emphasize the ideal character of a colonist, constantly referring to the Lord and Christian doctrines. Winthrop’s intent to spiritually enlighten the new colonists of the Massachusetts Bay Colony is a lower
Although at first glance the arrival of the Puritans in America seemed solely for religious freedom, it actually was deeply embedded in economic trading opportunities. In 1629, the English crown authorized the colonization of a large area of New England by the Massachusetts Bay Company, which was a joint stock trading company. The company was taken over by a group of wealthy Puritans, and they successfully established the Massachusetts Bay Colony under the leadership of John Winthrop in the New World. The Puritans brought the company’s charter with them, which allowed them to bend the charter to their own purposes, transforming the company into a commonwealth.
The Puritans were mainly artisans and middling farmers by trade and in the wake of the reformation of the Church of England, left for the colonies to better devout themselves to God because they saw the Church of England as a corrupt institution where salvation was able to be bought and sold, and with absolutely no success in further reforming the Church, set off for the colonies. English Puritans believed in an all-powerful God who, at the moment of Creation, determined which humans would be saved and which would be damned (Goldfield 45).
Unlike the Chesapeake Bay colony, the New England colonies were founded because of a desire for religious freedom. The Puritans wanted to 'purify' and fix the morally corrupt parts of the Church of England that were created by King Henry VIII; however, they faced discrimination and were subject to violence. The reformers fled England, working together to create a model of the perfect society, with strong family values. The Puritans generally were not wealthy, with many leading simple lives and using their time to help others in their community. John Winthrop, the first governor of the New England colony, constructed the society around family and religion. Puritans established many churches in the hopes that England would copy their model. The religious influences in the society were clear in the New England Primer, a textbook for Puritan children, in which they described the persecution of their people. The discrimination against the Puritans created a s...
Religion and government in England had always gone hand in hand, and if one group’s ideas did not coincide with England’s laws controlling the practice of religion, they would be denied. The unification of church and state within European countries led to many wars, resulting in massive debt. As England declared themselves a Catholic country, Protestants who did not hold the same beliefs needed a new homeland where they could be free to worship in their own way. This new homeland was America, and it allowed Protestants, now calling themselves Puritans, to practice Christianity without government interference. While original settlers came to America to create a Christian homeland where they could practice their faith how they wanted, America quickly became a homeland for religious freedom through a mixing pot of differing religions, cultures, and ethnicities, enough open land for them to exist together, and the key idea of the separation of Church and State.
The Puritans came to the New World in hopes of establishing their religion as the only accepted faith. In my opinion, they became exactly like those that they fled from in England. Their closed minded views kept them from spreading the word of God and closed themselves off from saving others. Their persecution and intolerance of other religions bound their hands and communities.
In the 1600s, the New England colonies were quickly developing because of the Puritans. Many great ideas and ethics were brought to the New World from England in a short amount of time. There was always a sense of order in their society, which was spread throughout the colonies. The importance of unity, education, and money greatly shaped the systematic life of Puritans.
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.
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.
John persuaded and got the Puritans to join the expedition to the New World, and the main reason for the persuasion was because of their faith, where in the New World they could practice it, and with God’s favor by their side. John prepared for the expedition to the New World, but although he prepared, the first 1,000 settlers were unprepared for what they encountered in Massachusetts. Cold winters killed men, and most of them were not prepared for the new things that were in the New England. They finally settled in Charlestown. “He returned with the conclusion that the bay was the place to settle: there was plenty of champion land on its rivers and peninsulas…” (P.54), it offered them protection and security. John was a leader to the Puritan community, and stated that they had a special calling from God, much like the way Israel in ancient times, and just like Israel followed Moises, and the Puritans followed John’s commands. Dangers of separatism came across the minds of the Puritans, and was an issue that John had to deal with it. Puritans wanted an establishment of a church in which God commanded it to be, they wanted an end for bishops, and archbishops, “…an end to the idolatrous ritual and trappings that exalted the clergy instead of God in the divine service…” (P.70). Two groups immerged because of this, the Congregationalists which believe there should be no
Though the Puritans, as well as some later groups, fled to the American colonies to escape religious persecution or restrictions, the fact remains that the Puritans had been granted "a charter from King James" for their settlement. Thus, the colonists who came to America for religious reasons were serving the primary purpose of generating profits for the Mother country of England (Boorstin et al.
So they travelled by ship to New England in the early 17th century. The New England region became the center for Puritanism. To controll most of the colonies' activity they held a strong connection between church and state. This strong controll could be hold up until the end of the 17th century.