Puritan Vs Massachusetts Bay Colony

Plymouth Colony was founded in 1620, at Plymouth, Massachusetts, by Pilgrims who arrived on the Mayflower, a ship carrying settlers. The Massachusetts Bay Colony wasn't settled for another 11 years.

Evidence shows that the Puritans had politically influenced their colonies with their religious values. In the New World, a group of Puritans established the Massachusetts Bay Colony. There, the Puritans would create a government that would revolve around their covenant with God. On the way to the New World, John Winthrop, governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, led a sermon, titled “A Model of Christian Charity”, about Puritan ideals (Winthrop). As well as determining Puritan ideals, the sermon urges colonists to unite as a “city on a hill” for others to look up to (Winthrop). John Winthrop knew that their colony would “be a service to the church” by “[carrying] the gospel” into this new part of the world (Winthrop). This colony would demonstrate

Religion affected the growth of the colonies politically. Unlike in Europe, in Maryland Protestants and Catholics lived peacefully together (64). This attracted many people to the colonies knowing they could live in a more harmonic society. Church and State in the colonies also worked in harmony. “The Government of Massachusetts reflected the Puritans’ religious and social vision” (69). The government’s religious views and decisions helped the colonies’ grow in not only social unity, but also political unity. Not only was the church ideas incorporated into

John Winthrop: A Puritan Leader who became the first Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony. From January 12, 1587/8 - March 2, 1649, John Winthrop led a group of English Puritans to the new world, joined the Massachusetts Bay Company in 1629 and became their Governor on April 8, 1630. He was the major backbone in molding the Colony’s government, also shaping its Legislative policy.

The ideas constructed by the Puritans were not simply a principal starting point for American culture because they were the first in the country, but because they offered distinct ways of thinking that are still deep-seated in our culture today. Although many of the ideas of Puritans have evolved or vanished over time, it is important to give credit to the Puritan writers and thinkers such as John Winthrop and John Cotton who offered ideas that were new at the time and that stayed with the American consciousness—culturally, socially, and politically.

After a hundred years after Columbus’s momentous landfall, figure of the New world had already been conspicuously transformed. However, north of Mexico, America in 1600 remained largely unexplored and effectively unclaimed by Europeans. England was one of the country which enlarged its power on America during 1600s. Waves of Puritan immigrants arrived in the region of New England, and they started to form a new atmosphere. However, the biggest difference with the Chesapeake region’s inhabitants was that the Puritans didn’t aim primarily for economic benefit or trade. They wanted to create pure, moral Christian society based on moral living. By hard working, integration of religion in politics, and social development of certain lifestyle practices, Puritans had a large influence on the development of the New England colonies from 1630s through the 1660s.

New England was, overall, more religious than the Chesapeake region. Settlers in New England were searching relief for religious persecution in Europe. Puritans, Quakers, and Catholics were coming in droves to America searching for an opportunity to have religious freedom. The New Englanders took religion seriously, making unitary laws according to Puritan standards. John Winthrop, later chosen as the first Massachusetts Bay Colony governor, was seeking religious freedom. Wishing to inspire the colonists to dwell in brotherly unity, he summoned them together to remind them “that if we [colonists] shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world.” On the other hand, those in the Chesapeake region came for the wealth that America promised. They were there to become prosperous or die trying. Gold was one of the main reasons that

In the 1500s, the Protestant Reformation swept through England and caused people like John Calvin to make up their own religions. Henry VIII made the Anglicanism the official religion of England, and any dissenters, even dissenters who belonged to the Church of England, were persecuted. Puritans were some of these dissenters, and they migrated to the New World seeking religious freedom, a place to live the way they believed was pleasing to God. As the Puritans' lives were shaped by their religion, so too did their religious values and ideas influence the political, social, and economic development of the New England colonies. That their belief that people should obey religious authority and their value of unity shaped the northern colonies'

In search of religious freedom a group of devout Christians sailed across the ocean only to come across a new land, radically different from the one they left behind. From the initial journey, to the formation of the colonies, and finally their complicated relationship with “non-believers” Puritans strongly held religious convictions has played a key role in all of this.

The New England colonies were made with the aspiration to escape commotion and disorder of England, with their sights set to found a formal, clean, Puritan society. Their society was strict conformity, fines were issued for breaking Sabbath by smoking or even stopping by to see friends. Strict dress codes were given, including a ban on wearing flashy ceremonious clothing to your own wedding and a ban was put on all games, such as: cards and dice. The land was distributed between wealthy families and the government was considered to be ruled by the people, well, the men; considering they were the only people allowed to vote. This was called a self government and was managed primarily by the male church members. Other men worked on subsidized farms, considering the rocky land wasn't useful for anything more than that. So their main exports that helped their economy was furs, lumber, and fish. Women were prohibited from working or even having their own churches.

The New England Puritans sought religious freedom for themselves in the “New World.” They compared themselves a lot to the Israelites and saw the new land as a “Promised Land.” Their attitude towards the land was that of respect, but they believed God wanted them to “use” the land. In their point of view, the Native Americans were living in the wilderness and not pleasing God. This produced tension with the Natives because Puritans would often expect the Natives to leave the land that they wanted. A possible consequence of this was King Phillips War.

The two regions were affected by different viewpoints towards religion. Religion was an essential part of everyday life and it provided individuals with a purpose in life. John Winthrop’s goal was to expand the Protestant community (Puritans) and his main focus was to have a better relationship with God. Winthrop especially desired for all the settlers of New England

There were two main ways of governing in this new America and they were polar opposites of each other. The Puritans, that came to America to escape prosecution from the European government, kept the same form of government they had had in Europe. It involved strict guidelines that were in place to keep the community on track to please their God. Punishments were severe for anyone who spoke out their own opinions or committed sins.

Puritan America during the seventeenth century was a theocracy. All moral and legal principles of Puritan America closely followed Protestant Christian beliefs. In Governor John Winthrop’s “A Modell of Christian Charity” Winthrop preaches, “We must love brotherly without dissimulation; we must love one another with a pure heart fervently. We must bear one another’s burthens” (Winthrop 225). This belief that people must love one another despite their mistakes or burdens is essential to Puritan beliefs, and Puritans also believe that people must always be honest and trustworthy. The Puritans, like many other communities, viewed women as subordinates to men; a women’s purpose was to maintain the household, and men were called to provide for their children and wives. Women not only had a “less important” purpose in life but were also seen as less capable or intelligent than their male peers.

Puritans were Christians who had to follow their lives according to the bible. In Winthrop’s speech, he informs the people that God is with them, but like England if they failed to create a godly society than they will face the “wrath of god.” Winthrop’s focus in this speech is to urge people to be caring, loving, and selfless for the sake of the godly mission; So they can truly succeed. He also wants to have equality among everyone in terms of wealth to create natural community of faith so that religious believes are not forced upon anyone. Winthrop continuously tells people to become caring, loving, and selfless, instead of saying that they already are all those things. If the Puritans succeed in becoming all those things than their society will be admired, but not the Puritans themselves as much. For Winthrop its about serving the God as a society, rather than pleasing individual of the society. For him, the city upon a hill doesn’t have to be perfect. He wanted to settle far from the Pilgrims because he didn’t wanted to be contaminated from the bad luck of Jamestown. At the end of his speech, he talks about good and evil and informing the Puritans the they have to choose their way. From this statement, we can assume that Winthrop believe that just like everyone else Puritans had to choose between