The Puritans were a group of people that were discontent with the Church of England. In 1620 they moved from the Netherlands to America and ended up in Delaware. After they had started to establish colonies such as Plymouth in 1620, Massachusetts in 1628 and New Hampshire in 1629, they started viewing there ability to re-colonize as a triumph of their Christianity. The Puritans strongly believed that the Bible was the passage to God. They all dressed very modestly thinking that if you did not, you were sinning. Puritans also believed that you could only receive salvation though God and God alone. The Puritans, thinking very highly of themselves, started to have the sense that God chose them to be his "Chosen People". They harshly put the imposition of religion called Christianity on a population who not willingly wanted this. This resulted in the Puritan's religious persecution, not dying down until around the 19th century. Puritanism played a colossal role in the New England colonies. The Puritans wanted to rid themselves of the Catholic faith all together and just have Puritanism. In there eyes, Catholicism was just a waste of time and also was not as correct as their way of life. Their faith shaped the colonies in many ways. It made for stronger political goals, as well as religion itself. Many colonists might not of been Puritans, but Puritanism remained a high power in the New England region. Beginning in 1646, a Puritan minister named John Eliot tried to be a missionary to the Indians. He studied there way of living, language and beliefs hoping that in knowing how they functioned he could bring Christianity to them. Some accepted the Puritan's religion but a large majority of Indians refused and did not believe.
There were multiple religions during the days of the earliest colonies. In the New England colonies, the strongest would have been Puritanism. However, in the Middle colonies there was a variety, from Quakers to Catholics and Lutherans to Jews. Down in the Southern colonies there were mixtures, and in these mixtures were Baptists and Anglicans. Most towns or colonies, whether North, Middle or South, met for church in places called a meetinghouse. The meetinghouse was used for church worship and also town meetings. It usually was the larger building in the middle of town, although the location varied on where church was held. People would end up spending the whole day at church, sitting on long wooden benches. They believed church to be of the up most importance and that it should be an all day event.
Resources:
David Cody, "Puritanism in New England," Hart wick College, (1998) http://www.victorianweb.org/religion/puritan2.html (accessed November 11, 2010).
Social Studies for Kids. "Religion and church in the 13 American Colonies," (accessed on November 11, 2010), http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/articles/ushistory/13colonieschurch.htm.
Image one ( puritans ): http://ushistoryimages.com/images/new-england-
colonies/fullsize/new-england-colonies-4.jpg.
Image two (meetinghouse) :
http://www2.curtislibrary.com/history/wheeler/images/first_meeting_house.jpg
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