Puritans Influence on the Development of New England

The New England colonies were greatly influenced by the ideas and values held by the puritans. Puritans influenced the political, economic and social development of the New England colonies from 1630 through the 1660s. Their main purpose of coming to America was to acquire religious freedom. They were the foundation for what America is now and their influence towards political, social, and economic development of the New England colonies shaped what America is now.

In document J, John Higginson wrote "The cause of God and his people in New England" in 1662. He states that New England is originally a plantation of Religion, not a plantation of trade. What he was trying to say was that they did not come to America to prosper from it, but came to America to spread their religion.Religion was very important in the lives of puritans. In 1666, a court article titled "Religious Conformity in the Bay Colony" showed us that these men (Thomas Gold, Thomas Osbourne, and John George) went to jail for refusing to attend their local church. To us this might seem ludicrous, but religion was their life. In fact religion was so important to the puritans that they created schools for learning Latin and English to learn how to read the Bible. They are the foundation of on the top schools in the country, Yale and Harvard University. Puritans greatly emphasized that their religion was the most important thing in their life.

As I said before, the puritans were the foundation of these universities, yet the disappointing part was that only young male could be students of them. In document E, titled-A statement about education in New England, 1643 was about their lives after arriving to America. It explains that since they got their God has helped them build homes and build churches but that it was time for them to advance in learning to become ministers. This is when they built the common schools, Yale and Harvard. Young girls were only home schooled by their mothers. Women were not really ahead of anything but doing house chores, cooking food, and making clothes. The wife always did what the husband ordered. The husband was in charge of everything, from providing the family with food and handling all occupations. The sons would hunt and go to school, the daughters would stay home and do chores this was their duty and responsibility. The puritans thought that work made you closer to god, to them fun was a sin. These puritans family were ordered under strong religious beliefs.

In document H, John Cotton wrote the “Limitation of Government” in 1655. He explained they should not give men more power than they are content they shall use. They had these town meetings named Town Halls. At the town halls they could settle legal disagreements and decide on the next town leaders. In the town Halls only white males who had land and were older than twenty-one could vote. Although this seemed very harsh and unfair this was the first form of democracy established in the Americas.

The puritans were the foundation for the development of the New England and other colonies. Although their lifestyle was very strict and a same routine their strong beliefs on god established how America is now governed. They contributes how colonies grew economically, socially and politically through their ideas and values.