Puritan Influence

Puritans had a large influence over the new England colonies. Once they set themselves away from the rest of society they decided to form a perfect christian colony. So the puritans had a plan for the proper ordering of society. At the base or center of this plan was a covenant, an agreement to ensure the upright behavior of all who took residence.


The rest of what is now a puritan based colony went off this method of life. They sought to provide a description of  Johns Winthrop "Arbella". The family was a strong governing system in the puritans life. As said in the Fifth Commandment "Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon land". The father was the head of the household. In all economic situations the father would do the dealing. This was the way in all puritan colonies.


Everybody was an equal family. Nobody was higher than you besides god. Being wealthy was not considered a good thing in the colonies. Money was believed to bring greed and that would end up in being unfaithful. Money was a distraction from the puritan church. John Cotton was a strong believer in this. He wanted everyone to attend church on Gods day. The puritans were the first to somewhat form a democracy. They thought having one person with all the power would be a communist. So in order to prevent this they held town halls to address issues and have formal discussions.


Socially the puritans weren't very keen on fun. Hard work was to pay off instead of fun. If you look at it the father must prepare his son for future tasks. The father will not always be home leaving the son in charge with the physical activities. If you were to have fun and disobey your parents you would likely be brutally punished or even killed according to the bible.So hard work would eventually pay off in the long run. You acquire many skills throughout the learning processes.

All in all the puritans were very strict in their way in life. It was the way they felt comfortable and in my opinion it worked very well for their colony. Hard work and gods worship was the building block for the colonies. The man was the boss of the household. In these times men 21 and older were allowed to vote. The men ran all the colonies,showing their place in the households.