Chapter 8

The Puritans Come to America

Puritans • They wanted to reform the Church of England

• They wanted to purify the church, or rid their religion of Catholic influences.

• They objected to grand ceremonies and statues in the church.

• They believed that good Christians should follow the teachings of the Bible and very strictly observe the Sabbath.

Puritans traveled on the Arbella from England.

Puritans believed that worshipers in each church, should

be able to choose its own minister and run its own affairs.

This belief is called congregationalism. The Puritans hoped that God would enter into a covenant with them as He had with the people in the Bible.

They felt if they did His will, he will favor them. On the other hand, if they broke their covenant, they feared punishment from God.

John Winthrop He and about 500 other people

came to Massachusetts in 1630.

They settles in Massachusetts Bay Colony.

They set up camp in temporary shelters. They would camp until leaders set up camp in permanent shelters.

The leaders would apply for a charter from colonial officials to start a new town.

They drew up an outline on how people should live together.

Families were given land to farm.

Even thought they farmed their own land, they still lived together in towns to help each other keep their

covenant with God. In most town, settlers built a meetinghouse. This was the town’s largest building.

The meetinghouse was a place used to religious services, celebrations, and news.

In front of the meetinghouse was a large pasture called a common. This is where

they brought their livestock. Homes were built around the common

Purtians thought their land showed their special favor from God. It was green and full of animal life.

They also believed that the harsh winters were signs from God. A sign that he wanted them to work hard and show thanks.

The Puritans ProsperThey were lucky to have found good land.

They had clean water.

The population in Massachusetts boomed.

Despite the healthy environment, most New Englanders did not become wealthy n farming.

They grew enough for themselves, but soil was too thin for anything large scale.

They turn to crafts

They made tools, furnishing, candles, soap, tools, and other everyday goods.

Some things were easier to buy.

Blacksmiths made horse shoes and ox-shoes.

Whitesmiths made tin candleholders and tinderboxes

Puritans vs. Algonquin

Puritans

• Their duty to tame the land

• Clear the land

• Plant crops

• Traded wild animal

Algonquin• Comfortable with nature as it

was

• Survived by fishing, farming and hunting

• They moved with the seasons

• Every 10 years move to new fertile land.

• Didn’t have much because they moved so often.

To Puritans, Algonquin seemed lazy. They did not

see them as being in a covenant with God.

Because of the different way of life, war eventually broke out between the two groups.

Chapter 8 Lesson 2

Life in New England

Puritan parents were warm and loving, however they were always concerned that their children grew up in godly

ways.

They believed any sins needed to be corrected.

They believed children were born with sin and had to be strict.

They believed a child is better “whipped than to be damned by the devil”

So, children were expected to honor their parents.

Puritan Children

In Eleazar Moody’s book …

• Children were to bow to their parents

• Love their brothers and sisters with no fighting

• Stay by their parents’ sides

• Not to lie

Puritan parents did not believe in spoiling their children.

They often sent their children to live with relatives by the age of 14.

They learned skills of weaving and carpentry.

Many taught their kids to read and write. They were some of the most educated people of their time.

Reading a writing were very important, so reading the Bible was so important for what God required of them.

They believed not reading was the work of Satan.

Some kids learned all their lessons at home. They studied the Lord’s Prayer and the Alphabet from books.

Family Life

They believed God wanted everyone to live as a family. They were often large and had as many as 15 children.

They lived in small two story houses made of wood.

They each had a large downstairs room called a hall or a keeping room. This was the only room where the fireplace was on all night.

They ate, did chores, and studied. In winter, they slept here.

Furniture was simple

They passed their way of life from parents to children.

Boys learned how to cultivate oats, corn and other crops. They also learned how to care for livestock.

Girls learned how to make candles and soap from their mother. They learned how to cook, sew and care for children.

Puritan boys married at about their 20’s.

Fathers would give boys a piece of the land when they married.

If land was divided by too many sons, they began to move away for larger land. This is when Puritans

began to question if their way of life would survive.

Chapter 8 Lesson 3

Challenging Authority

RELIGION AND GOVERNMENTMany problems within the Puritan Society had to do with relationship between people’s religion and their government.

They were to be separate.

Ministers could not hold government office.

Puritans did not believe in democracy. John Winthorp called democracy “the worst of all forms of government.

He believed that some men were more godly than others, and these men should have more power.

In Puritan Society, all people could not vote. Only male church members. Membership into the church was only

allowed to those who were “acceptable” to other members.

Their church was only run by men

They also believed that all other religions were sinful

Puritans sent people away if those people did not live lives according to Puritan beliefs

Non-Puritans- Many believed Puritanism was far too formal and

strictQuakers, like the Puritans, believed the English Protestant Church was too formal. They believed that all people, no matter what religion or color could live together in peace.

The Baptists believed that baptism was central to their beliefs. It was a way for people to turn away from their old life to Jesus. It was not during infancy. It was for mature life.

Dissenters- People who disagreed with Puritans ideals

They often suffered in Puritans towns, and they SPOKE OUT!

Roger Williams- Did not believe the government should interfere with religious matters.

Requiring people attend a particular church “stinks in God’s nostrils”

All people should be free to worship as they choose.

He also thought nonchurch members should be allowed to vote because whether they believed or not it shouldn’t concern government.

His views worried the government, so they asked him to change his views. He refused.

They decided to ship him back to England.

Massasoit, chief of the Wampanoag, helped Williams hide in the wilderness.

The following year, he established a new colony in Rhode Island, where religion and government were separate and people could worship freely.

He spoke against Puritanism. He also spoke out that no religion could be certain that its views were right.

In 1654, he even allowed Jews to settle in Newport, Rhode Island.

Anne Hutchinson

Challenged the authority of the male Puritan government.

The colony officials asked her to stop preaching about this.

She practiced civil disobedience (She refused to obey the colonial laws)

The ministers were especially mad that women would disobey them.

Massachusetts officials made her stand trial and banished her from the colony.

She fled to Rhode Island too. She continued to preach her beliefs.

Mary Dyer- suffered a tragic death when officials in Boston hanged her for expressing Quaker beliefs in Puritan colony. As years went by more and more

dissenters challenged the Puritans

Punishing was not working. Others

still spoke out

Witchcraft in Salem

Tensions reached a high in 1692.

Two young puritan girls Elizabeth and Abigail began to act

strangely. They would scream and fall to the floor. They said

they saw rats and other creatures swarming them. A colonial

doctor said they were victims of witchcraft.

Many people got caught up in the witch craze. First children and then older people were involved. People were accusing others of being witches. In one year, 19 people, mostly women were found guilty of witchcraft and hanged.

Historians are not sure why the Salem Witchcraft became a craze. Some think it was poor farmers accusing rich

merchants out of jealousy.

Others think it may have been Puritan officials who used the popular belief to get rid of outspoken women.

Some may even have thought that moldy grain was the cause. Such grain brought on an illness in people that

made them seem possessed by the devil.

After about a year, the craze died down. But so did many people. All because of Puritans’ fear of the devil.

The Great AwakeningBy the early 1700’s, life in Puritan New England had changed. The authority of the ministers had weakened.

Almost all original Puritans were dead and now the younger Puritans just preferred to live happy rather than religious.

Now people were awakening their religious spirit.

The Great Awakening

During this time, new churches with new ideas were popping up. Everyone was encouraged to preach even women, servants and children.

The sermons were even more fiery than the old time ministers.

Chapter 8 Lesson 4

Trade in New England

Andrew Belcher was a merchant (someone who buys, sells, and transports goods)

New England farmers couldn’t produce cash crops like tobacco or sugar because of the rocky coast and cold climate.

They needed one in order to buy goods from England.

So the merchants had to establish a trading system.

They loaded these items on their ships to go to England.

From Boston they sailed to Europe and/or the Caribbean. They sold this for profits.

With these profits they got tools and glassware.

We can look at the map on pg. 199 to see routes.

As New England merchants became successful, they were worried about Dutch and French taking profits.

The English Parliament or lawmaking body passed a series of laws to control colonial trade.

The Navigation and Trade Acts

The Navigation Acts let England earn trade in three ways.

1. They had to be shipped on English ships.

2. If an colonial trader wanted to buy products from any European country, the goods had to be shipped to England first.

3. England also demanded that colonist pay a tax called a duty that they bought in Non- English colonies

The merchants desperately needed molasses. They needed rum to trade for slaves. They preferred to buy this from the French and

Dutch West Indies because it was cheaper. Rather than pay the tax they smuggled it. (sneak it). They tried to avoid the English tax.

The richest citizens of New England were the merchants. They rode around the ports of Massachusetts and Rhode Island in fancy

clothes and fine horses. Their wives were dressed in imported satins and carried silk.

These rich merchants became so powerful, they replaced the ministers of the New

England society.

The merchants would not have become rich without the help of

Ropemakers

sailmakers

shipbuilders