How Did The Puritans Affect The Colonies

The southern colonies were established as economic ventures. The first settlers arriving in the South were mainly farmers, laborers, high status craftsmen and numerous sons of English nobility. The first colony, Jamestown, Virginia, which was set up by the Virginia Company, had a rough start with high death rates due to disease and lack of food. The Virginia Company seemed to have a quick profit of supplies so they did not rely much on England’s support. With high profit they would rather look for gold than farm to produce food. During the first winter only sixty-five settlers remained alive and around 1880 about eighty percent of immigrants who arrived had passed away.(Foner pg57). Once they realized that gold was not going to help them survive …show more content…
Not all colonists in New England were Puritans but the Puritan religion was a major influence on the establishment of the colonies. Puritans were not satisfied with the Protestant Reformation and believed that the Church of England had to many Catholic rituals. They believed neither the church nor the nation were living up to their ideals. In order to seek the truth they urged the people to read the Bible and listen to their sermons. Puritans followed the teachings of John Calvin in which he taught that the world was divided between the elect and the damned. They believed in predestination, which means that God already determined your fate and that no matter how hard you try to save yourself by doing good deeds or prayers your fate has already been decided. The Puritans considered their religion not only just a religion but also a lifestyle in which they sought the most pure faith and way of life possible. Towards the end of the seventeenth century Quakers began to form their own population in Massachusetts in which the Puritans were displeased because of the immensely different views the Quakers posed about how to practice religion. This drove the Quakers to populate in the middle