Friday Topic: Puritanism
Miller, Perry. "Puritans and Puritanism." Dictionary of American History. Ed. Stanley I. Kutler. 3rd ed. Vol. 6. New York: Charles Scribner 's Sons, 2003. 555-557. U.S. History in Context. Web. 29 Sept. 2016
Many of us understand Puritans to be a group of people who fled England for religious freedom. This is not entirely true. Most of what we learned in school were watered down facts with lots of added sugar. Puritans were not the innocent (and I use that term loosely) people we were lead to believe they were. While looking for an article to support my claim, I noticed that the majority had the same K-12 understanding of Puritans, that is, that they left England for religious tolerance. In reality, the reason Puritans …show more content…
Everybody in a Puritan colony would supervise one another. If somebody was caught doing something they weren’t supposed to, such as reading books aside from the Bible, they would be ratted out and punished for their, so-called, crimes or, in later years, deemed a witch and sentenced to death. That does not sound like religious freedom to me. In fact, they sound, to me, to be a very strict and controlling group of people who wanted/claimed their religion to be the only real one. It seems they didn’t want or accept and other religion. I believe they reason they retained such control over the people of the community, was so they wouldn’t stray. Another example to validate my claim, was their treatment of Native Americans. Puritans believed that they had a right to the land of the Native Americans, and that they could punish them for their pagan beliefs. They bullied Native Americans to pay tribute in the form of wampum. Though wampum were worthless in England, they were extremely valuable and important in Native American culture. Puritans traded wampum for beaver pelts and, in turn, sell them receiving a 100% profit. A profit they made because they practically stole wampum from Native
Miller, Perry. "Puritans and Puritanism." Dictionary of American History. Ed. Stanley I. Kutler. 3rd ed. Vol. 6. New York: Charles Scribner 's Sons, 2003. 555-557. U.S. History in Context. Web. 29 Sept. 2016
Many of us understand Puritans to be a group of people who fled England for religious freedom. This is not entirely true. Most of what we learned in school were watered down facts with lots of added sugar. Puritans were not the innocent (and I use that term loosely) people we were lead to believe they were. While looking for an article to support my claim, I noticed that the majority had the same K-12 understanding of Puritans, that is, that they left England for religious tolerance. In reality, the reason Puritans …show more content…
Everybody in a Puritan colony would supervise one another. If somebody was caught doing something they weren’t supposed to, such as reading books aside from the Bible, they would be ratted out and punished for their, so-called, crimes or, in later years, deemed a witch and sentenced to death. That does not sound like religious freedom to me. In fact, they sound, to me, to be a very strict and controlling group of people who wanted/claimed their religion to be the only real one. It seems they didn’t want or accept and other religion. I believe they reason they retained such control over the people of the community, was so they wouldn’t stray. Another example to validate my claim, was their treatment of Native Americans. Puritans believed that they had a right to the land of the Native Americans, and that they could punish them for their pagan beliefs. They bullied Native Americans to pay tribute in the form of wampum. Though wampum were worthless in England, they were extremely valuable and important in Native American culture. Puritans traded wampum for beaver pelts and, in turn, sell them receiving a 100% profit. A profit they made because they practically stole wampum from Native