Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Puritan Influence

When the New World was discovered by europeans, the first colonists were deeply religious followers of Puritanism. Here, they faced various forms of adversity, but these people, through their religion prevailed and later expanded their beliefs to other colonists. Throughout this time, they made colonies based on their religion, including their colony in New England. In this colony, they further refined and broadened their views and influences on politics, economics, and society.

The Puritans were simple people, and none of them were really involved in any sort of politics. However, somehow, they began their own version of politics and government that was bonded together with religion. To make it worse, their promises and words on "religious freedom" were as hollow as bubbles. The Puritans promised religious freedom, but were themselves contradicted. How can there be religious freedom if a religion is forced upon you? As Roger Williams said in "A Plea for Religious Liberty", "God requireth not a uniformity of religion to be enacted and enforced in any civil state". If someone refused to follow Puritanism, they were persecuted and exiled. This wasn't exactly the perfect example of religious freedom. The Puritan's idea of politics was hypocritical and false.

However deceptive the Puritans may have been when it came to politics, they were pretty smart economically. The Puritan's use of supplies could be compared to using underwear two days in a row, turning them inside out for the second day. Through careful planning and use, these persons made their supplies last a very long time, so they didn't need as many supplies, or supplies as often as others. They also wished to help eachother out instead of relying on foreign or outside sources. John Winthrop stated that "...we must be knitt, in this worke, as one man," and, "Wee must uphold a familiar commerce together in all meekeness, gentlenes, patience and liberality," meaning that they all had to be as one, sharing everything and working together. This was their idea of a perfect economic society.

There was more to the Puritan society than meets the eye, or that would have met the eye of someone living during that time. The Puritans were deeply pious and lived completely by their religion. Society was based also on the family and its inner workings. The typical Puritan family lived by the 5th commandment: "Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land." The children that the Puritan fathers and mothers would have always had to obey them. Furthermore, everyone had to obey the father. The father would hunt, the mother was stay-at-home, performing and handing out chores with any daughters while the son(s) would go to school and later do chores. All the families were expected, by society, to follow this normal routine behavior, and an increase in population spread and reinforced these ideas. They hardly ever strayed from this normality, and in his last will and testament, Robert Keayne spoke a bit about his life, saying that he never really had the time or will to busy himself with recreations and or recreational activities. The Puritans lived by a somewhat strict brand of society.

In the New England colony, the Puritans refined and broadened their views and influences on politics, economics, and society. They had no real idea of what politics was but they formed their own type of law system that was heavily influenced by Puritanism. Their economics system was useful and smart, despite it being very primitive. Their idea of economics was based on beliefs of working together, set forth by John Winthrop. Society in the New England colony was based on a normal daily routine that had little variations. Although the Puritans may have had some negative influence, it helped shape America into what we are today. Only through mistakes can we see what we need to improve. If we do not go back and see these mistakes, history will ultimately repeat itself.

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