Puritanism In Colonial America

In today’s society, men and women are so obsessed with spending money, gambling, it’s an addiction. This addiction tears families apart. A vicious addiction that will leave victims ‘out in the dark,’ so to speak. Men and women frown upon this, as well as the Puritan group. This goes against moral beliefs and religion.

Since the witchcraft was such a confusing and terrible time for everyone, people were getting accused by these girls all the time, a lot of the time the court and the church would look for signs of being a witch, like making the accused take the test i talked about before but sometimes they just trusted the girls and didn't look for evidence at all. They just convicted the person to be a witch. This seems crazy to me because it doesn't seem fair at all, they didn't even have a chance to prove that they were innocent, instead they were automatically a witch. The Salem Witch Trials finally came to an end when the whole town felt that it was getting way out of control.

Puritanism was a religious reform movement that wished to purify the Church of England of the remnants of the Roman Catholic faith. The Puritans were persecuted by many denominations across Europe and around 1620, King James I, a member of the Church of England, began oppressing the Puritan community as well. This led the Puritans to flee England and come to the New World where in the words of John Winthrop they were to build a “city upon a hill”. The Puritans settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colonies, more specifically just north of Boston. The most prominent members of this time were John Winthrop.

In the year of 1630, a group of people known as the Puritans arrived to America and settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in Boston. The Puritans were similar to the Pilgrims in which they were Protestants from England who thought that their reforms of their church were “too Catholic” and needed to be changed further. The Puritans being unhappy with their reforms was the primary reason for leaving England and settling in America, while the Pilgrims stayed behind and were determined to change their reforms. When they came to America, they decided to keep some of their strict rules. For example, church was mandatory and if someone missed a day,

In the 1630’s the Puritans set sail for America. They did not wish break with the Church of England, like the Pilgrims did; they only sought to reform it. They also believed that people existed for the glory of God, and that their first concern was to do God’s will and so to receive future happiness. Basically, if they honored their duties to God, they would be blessed; if they did not, they would be punished.

The Puritans in Massachusetts were very intolerant of other religious beliefs, regardless of the fact that they had been persecuted in England for what they believed. Puritans insisted that regular church attendance was mandatory in order to receive voting privileges. This meant that in order to have a say in anything you had to be a devout Puritan. They often argued about discrepancies within their own religion, such as whether or not sainthood was passed down from generation to generation. Puritans even went as far as to exile other Puritans the did not conform to the standard version of Puritanism.

The Salem Witch Trials occurred in colonial Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693, it affected the entire town of Salem, but personally affected approximately 150 accused witches (women) and warlocks (men), about 30 of which were executed. When one was convicted of witchcraft it was believed that they had supernatural powers that were given by the devil (in return for being loyal to him), to harm innocent people. As a wave of hysteria spread throughout Massachusetts, a special court was assembled to hear the cases. The first person, Bridget Bishop, was accused in and executed (by hanging) in June 1692. The local justice system was overwhelmed, in some cases, the judge sentenced them to drowning, in this method, they would throw the alleged witch into a deep pond or lake and if they drowned they were pure and not a witch, if they floated, they were a witch and would be burned at the stake.

The Puritans was a huge deal in the 1600s. It consisted of colonists who were seeking religious tolerance. Puritans were so strict that it was so far fetched from tolerant. One would be punished to not attend church, it was against the law. Men and women were separated through the day long services.

This made people of the village question the accuracy of the accusations and it was harder to prove them guilty. Finally, in 1693, Governor Phipps dissolved the Court of Oyer and Terminer and all the trials were then moved into a higher court. This new court did not allow “spectral evidence” and, because most of the older cases were solely based on this, all the remaining “witches” were ruled innocent. This led to people of Salem soon realizing that they were wrong and that innocent people suffered. Many theories are surround what happened in Salem, although many are far-fetched some may somewhat explain what happened in Salem (The three

Most all people who accused others for being witches were young girls. Many people were put to death because of these people accusing them. After the trials were done they were very deeply regretting their decisions when they found the women that were accusing were lying and found guilty. On February 29, the girls blamed three women for cursing them: Tituba, a slave; Sarah Good, a homeless woman; and Sarah Osborne, an elderly woman. Not until 1957, 250 years later, did Massachusetts apologize for what they the Witch Trials did.

During the Salem witch trials many women were accused of practicing witchcraft. The accusation of the women who were thought to be witches was the result of many deaths in Salem, Massachusetts. The trials began with two young girls, Elizabeth “Betty” Parris and her cousin Abagail Williams, who began having violent contortions and random outbursts of screaming. The girls were thought to have been under an evil hand or suffering from a witch’s curse. The girls began giving the names of the witches that were harming them beginning with the Parris family slave Tituba.

Religion was very important to the Puritans in the 1600s. John Winthrop a member of the Puritans gentry, wrote to his wife the ‘I am verily persuaded God will bring some heavy affliction upon this land.” A year later he went and lead a group of a group of puritans to New England. By the 1630s another twenty thousand Puritans would come to America. When John became governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, he told immigrants that will have to guide people toward this holy ideal or they were not welcomed.

In Witches: The Absolutely True Tale Of Disaster In Salem by Rosalyn Schanzer people in the town of Salem were Condemned for being witches. By the end of it all more than 200 people were accused and 20 were executed. Horridly they accused people from all ages, everyone from teenager to ancient was accused. But why? The Salem Witch Trials were caused by hysteria, popularity, and revenge.

Also they believe in those who engaged in gossip, drunkenness and adultery were people with no morals and were disrespectful to the community. Puritans believed that Sunday was the day to go to church and everyone should attend, till this day Sunday are the days to go to church and spend it with family. Back then they used to believe in Satan 's work, and

Religion is a cultural universal that affects society in so many different ways. The various teachings can give explanations of things seemingly unexplainable, it can act as a way of social control, but either way religion is an integral part of American society now and it was maybe even more so in early America. In early 17th century, the Puritans came to America in a great migration to escape religious persecution and in the hopes of creating “a city upon a hill.” They established their society in New England and Puritanism dominated the area. In Puritan colonies, there was very little distinction between law and religious decrees, and this is just one of the examples of how Puritanism was the foundation of New England culture.