Puritan Laws That Affected The Colonists

The Puritan colonists were bound by laws of morality with judgments with sentences that were the base of fear. The laws were centered on the basics of not going to church daily to practicing witchcraft, adultery, even not having regular sex to procreate. There were many laws of the time with cause and effect that harmed many people. Through the seventeenth century, laws were connected to morality, reflected in the ways Puritans used religious beliefs in the process of rendering judgment and assigning punishments to keep colonists from leaving their colony and gaining freedoms of their own.

Puritan Religion ~ Colonial Puritans believed in God and focused their religion on the First Testament of the bible. They focused on every aspect of

Disease effected the colonists, one main disease was small pox. Small pox wiped out many colonies making some colonies dependent on other colonies. People were not able to take care of themselves and/or others when there were not enough people to have a viable community.

Weather was harsh. Weather caused many hardships. The Colonists had to learn how to survive the winters and not having the skills to grow, store and keep food through the harsh winters. Starvation, famine combined with disease were not good combinations for the Puritans. “The mortality rate of the Virginia colony had been horrifying— between 1619 and 1625 over two-thirds of the English colonists had perished from disease, Indian attack, or starvation (Bremer, 2013)”.

Here the Puritans are with all of the odds against them. Based on their religion and what they had to push forward through with starvation, famine combined with disease keeping the colonies from losing more people was paramount for growth. With a strong religious base, the people held to the New Testament and grew with instilling fear into the

The most serious crime of all crimes for colonies was having a pact with the devil or Satan. This was a fear that was based on religion and with the fear of going against God. “And, what was conditional and relative was always subject to change and reform. Puritans, as well known, believed they discerned God’s will (often in the Old Testament), and did not hesitate on that basis to purify an old society— or establish a holy commonwealth in the New World. While this proved to be a formula for self-righteousness and intolerance, the Puritans, at their best, acknowledged that their own commonwealths also stood under the judgment of God (Frey, 2009,