The Puritan Story Essays

The Puritan Story Essays The Puritan Story Paper The Puritan Story Paper The puritan story was a story of many things; from the landing of the first group of puritans in New England, to the formation and trouble of the bay colony bible commonwealth, to the puritans versus Indians, ending with the New England family. This story wouldn’t be anything without the help of the one and only King Henry VIII. It was King’s, tie breaking with the Roman Catholic Church in the 1530’s that launch the reformation of the protestant church. The reformation of the church led to a group people to seek the purification of the English church, theses people were known as the â€Å"puritans†. The puritans later broke down into two groups when the reformation of the church wasn’t making any progress. One of these groups was the separatist also known as pilgrims; a tiny group of puritan who vowed to break entirely away from the England church. Losing their English identity, these separatist departed for Holland in 1608 to flee royal wrath back in England. While in Holland, the separatist endured hard work and poverty for 12 years but it was the â€Å"dutchification† of their children that made them leave Holland and sail to New England to live and die as English men and women and as purified protestant. Securing rights with the Virginia Company to settle under its jurisdiction, the pilgrims sailed to America but missed their destination and finally chose to land at Plymouth bay in 1620 without the legal permission of the Virginia Company to land or establish government. Before disembarking the pilgrims leaders created and signed the brief mayflower compact; a simple agreement to form a crude government and to submit to the will of the majority under the regulations agreed upon. This pact was a promising step towards genuine self-government. The start of life in Plymouth rock wasn’t a bed rose for the pilgrims, especially during their first winter at the rock were they had it hard and only 44 out of 102 survived. Even though the winter was harsh not a single one of the pilgrims left when the mayflower was heading back to England in the spring. The pilgrims stayed around longer and being fortune with having men like William Bradford to help lead, the pilgrims saw a bountiful harvest by time the next autumn hit in 1621 creating the first thanksgiving in New England. This small settlement of pilgrims were still charter less and even though they were big morally and spiritually they did not succeed to become big economically and numerically until it merged with its neighbor; The Massachusetts Colony. This colony was home to the second group of puritans who came to America; the â€Å"non-separatist†. The non-separatist, were the puritans who didn’t leave England but stayed to try and purify the protestant church. The purification of the church still made no progress and in 1629 the non-separatist left England fearing for their faith and England’s future. The separatist secured a royal charter to form the Massachusetts Bay colony; they used the charter for many years as a constitution until they decided one day that they wanted to separate themselves from the England church only from its impurities. The non-separatist established a sizable settlement in the infertile Massachusetts area and was bless with a well-equipped expedition of 1630. It was also during the 1630’s when about 70,000 refugees left England for America creating what’s known today as â€Å"the great migration†, only a few of theses refugees made it to the bay colony while the rest settled in the West Indies especially in the Barbados. Many fairly well-to-do educated immigrates immigrated to the bay colony, including john Winthrop the bays first governor who served 19 years. The bay colony prospered as fur trading, fishing and shipbuilding industries with the resources and skills of talented people like Winthrop, he also help the colonist build a holy society that would be model for humankind. The bay franchise was extended to all freeman; adult males who belonged to the puritan congregation which in time came to be called the congregational church. Although the government was liberal by the standards of the time it was not a democracy, Governor Winthrop feared and distrusted the â€Å"commons† and thought that democracy was the meanest and worst of all forms of government. Winthrop felt that if the people were governors then who shall be governed he thought that only puritans, the visible saints who alone were eligible for church membership could be freemen. As time went on the bay colony continued to grow and enjoyed a high a degree of social harmony stemming from common beliefs but running into dissension. It was few a people that did not agreed with the bay’s â€Å"bible commonwealth†, people such as Anne Hutchinson; a woman who was banish from the puritan church when she claimed that a holy life was no sure sign of salvation and that the truly saved need not bother to obey the law of either god or man. Along with Hutchison was a young man name roger Williams who also challenged the English church. Williams was condemned for expropriating the land from the Indians without fair compensation he also went on to deny the authority of civil government to regulate religious behavior. This was seditious blow at the puritan’s idea of government’s very purpose. With the few troubles they had with those who disagreed with the idea of government the puritans faced another problem; they face troubles with Indians. Back when the first set of pilgrim settlers arrived, local Wampanoag Indians at first befriended the settlers. The Wampanoag chieftains massasoit signed a treaty with the Plymouth pilgrims in 1621 and helped them celebrate the first thanksgiving after the autumn harvest that year but things changed after that. In 1637, hostilities exploded between the English settlers and a powerful Indian tribe known as the Pequot tribe. The English militiamen and their Narragansett Indian allies annihilated the Pequot tribe and in 1675 massoits son, metacom (nicknamed king Phillip by the English) launched a series of attacks and raids against the colonist towns. The war ended in 1676. In 1643 four colonies banded together to form the New England confederation. The primary purpose of the confederation was defense against foes or potential foes like the Indians, the French and the Dutch. The confederation was essentially an exclusive puritan club, and although it was weak the confederation was the first notable milestone on the long and rocky road toward colonial unity. As New England grew over the period of time they social scale were great planters, small planters, landless whites and black slaves. New Englanders tended to migrate in families as opposed to single individuals and family always came first to the new Englanders. Along with families in southern colonies because men died frequently the widows were allowed to inherit the property and married women were allowed to retain separate title to their property but because the puritan worried that recognizing women’s separate property rights would undercut the unity of married persons they decided that the when a man died the church inherit the property not the wife. New England towns were legally chartered by the colonial authorities and the distribution of land was entrusted to proprietors every family received several parcels of land. Towns of more than 50 families had to have an elementary school and just after 8 years of the formation of the bay colony in 1636, the Harvard College was established. The puritans ran their own churches and democracy in congregational church government led logically to democracy in political overnment. As life in the new England towns continued to prosper the church started to decline losing many of its members because of its strict policies. In 1662 troubled ministers announced a new formula for church memberships known as the â€Å"half-way covenant†. The new arrangement modified the covenant between the church and its adherents, to admit to baptism but not â€Å"full communion†. This new formula helped boost the churches membership and help the church gain money. In 1692 a group girls in Salem, Massachusetts were claimed to bewitched and put on trialed, by 1693 the governor of Massachusetts ended the witchcraft hysteria and prohibited any further trials and pardoned those already convicted. As the years continued on the New England way of life steadily grew making New England a place for energy, purposefulness, sternness, stubbornness, self-reliance and resourcefulness ending â€Å"the puritan story† and starting the America we know today as home. .