The Puritans

1. The Puritans

2. A “Purified” Church • The Puritans sought to purify the Church of England from within. • They believed the Anglican Church of England had become too garish and idolatrous in its worship. • They wanted to get back to the basics of Calvinism.

3. Puritanism • A version of Calvinism • Asserts the basic sinfulness of humankind; but also declares that God has determined that some will be saved despite their sins • Thus, the experience of conversion, in which the soul is touched by the Holy Spirit, is an indication that one is of the elect

4. Puritanism • Puritanism was a way of life (theocracy) • Puritan spiritual life stressed self-discipline & introspection • Puritans saw their lives as a “divine mission”: God gave them the New World for they were his chosen people • This idea is the precursor to the concept of Manifest Destiny

5. The Bible • Puritans believed The Bible to be the supreme authority on earth • They used The Bible to justify their occupation of the land and their use of force against Native Americans

6. Judgmental God (rewards good/punishes evil) Predestination/Election (salvation or damnation was predetermined by God) Original Sin (humans are innately sinful, tainted by the sins of Adam & Eve; good can be accomplished only through hard work & self-discipline) Providence God’s Grace Basic Tenets of Puritanism

7. Basic Tenets of Puritanism Grace • The Puritans saw grace as a gift from a kind and loving God; human beings were unworthy to receive salvation because of their depraved natures. • Repentance, like personal salvation, depended on the Grace of God. • Only select individuals could experience this miracle of God’s love.

8. Puritans examined themselves & their lives constantly looking for evidence of their election Guilt & remorse were signs of God’s grace Thrift, industry, hard work were viewed as signs of God’s grace Business success was a sign of God’s grace Am I One of the Elect?

9. The Elect • Unlike Anglican and Catholic churches of the time, Puritan churches did not hold that all parish residents should be full church members. • Exclusive, not inclusive • A true church, they believed, consisted not of everyone but only of the elect

10. The Elect • Since citizenship was tied to church membership, the motivation for experiencing conversion was secular and civil as well as religious in nature. • As a test of election, many New England churches began to require applicants for church membership to testify to their personal experience of God in the form of autobiographical conversion narratives.

11. Conversion Narratives • Beyond the usual confession of faith, the applicant was required to give a satisfactory narrative of his experience of grace. • Thomas Hooker: The six essential stages of this morphology of conversion were contrition, humiliation, vocation, implantation, exaltation, and possession

12. Hard Work & Self-Discipline • To the Puritans, a person by nature was wholly sinful and could achieve good only by severe and unremitting discipline. • Hard work was considered a religious duty and emphasis was laid on constant self-examination and self-discipline.

13. Hard Work & Self-Discipline • Although profanation of the Sabbath day, blasphemy, fornication, drunkenness, playing games of chance, and participation in theatrical performances were penal offenses, the severity of the code of behavior of the early Puritans is often exaggerated.

14. Puritans & Education • Puritans were highly literate people • Education was highly valued as a way to fight atheism and to instill in children the value of hard work

15. Puritans & Education • They held the writing of history in high regard • They wrote narratives, journals, biographies, hymns, sermons • Almost all writing was religiously based

16. 1636: The Puritans founded Harvard, the first college in America

17. Puritan Firsts • 1638: the first printing press was brought to the colonies • The Bay Psalm Book (1640): the first published book in the colonies • “The Day of Doom” (1662): popular poem in the colonies (about the end of the world/the Apocalypse)

18. The pain of loss their Souls doth toss,      and wond'rously distress, To think what they have cast away      by wilful wickedness. We might have been redeem'd from sin,      think they, and liv'd above, Being possest of heav'nly rest,      and joying in God's love. But wo, wo, wo our Souls unto!      we would not happy be; And therefore hear Gods Vengeance here      to all Eternitee. Experience and woful sense      must be our painful teachers Who n'ould believe, nor credit give,      unto our faithful Preachers. From “The Day of Doom”

19. Thus shall they ly, and wail, and cry,      tormented, and tormenting Their galled hearts with pois'ned darts      but now too late repenting. There let them dwell i'the' Flames of Hell;      there leave we them to burn, And back agen unto the men      who Christ acquits, return. The Saints behold with courage bold,      and thankful wonderment, To see all those that were their foes      thus sent to punishment: Then do they sing unto their King      a Song of endless Praise: They praise his Name, and do proclaim      that just are all his ways.

20. The Bay Psalm Book

21. From The New England Primer A Divine Song of Praise to GOD, for a Child How glorious is our heavenly King,Who reigns above tha Sky!How shall a Child presume to singHis dreadful Majesty! How great his Power is none can tell,Nor think how large his grace:Nor men below, nor Saints that dwell,On high before his Face. Nor Angels that stand round the Lord,Can search his secret will;But they perform his heav'nly Word,And sing his Praises still. Then let me join this holy Train;And my first Off'rings bring;The eternal GOD will not disdainTo hear an Infant sing. My Heart resolves, my Tongue obeys,And Angels shall rejoice,To hear their mighty Maker's Praise,Sound from a feeble Voice.

22. Anne Hutchinson – Roger Williams

23. Dissenters • Reformers like Anne Hutchinson were excommunicated from the church and driven out of the community. • Roger Williams was banished from the MBC in 1635 for challenging the strict religious code and the government’s right to confiscate Native American land without compensation. • He founded the colony of Providence in 1636. • Quakers and other dissenters received very harsh punishments, including execution, for their beliefs.

24. Other Colonies • 1632: Lord Baltimore establishes the colony of Maryland as a haven for persecuted Roman Catholics • 1636: Colonists leave Puritan Massachusetts to seek religious freedom in Connecticut (Thomas Hooker) and Rhode Island (Roger Williams) • 1682: Quaker William Penn’s Pennsylvania becomes a model of religious and political tolerance

25. Puritans are People Too! • The Puritans honored material success; wealth was considered to be the reward of a virtuous life. • They valued family life, community, service, art and literature. • Puritans were known to drink beer and other alcoholic beverages on occasion.

26. The Decline of Puritanism • By 1700 Puritanism was in decline in New England for various reasons • Indian Wars(Pequots, Narragansets, Nipmuks, Wampanoags) • Urbanization(more non-Puritans joining the colonies) • Age of Reason(rationalists attack religion, focusing on science & reason) • Salem Witch Trials

27. After the 17th century the Puritans as a political entity largely disappeared, but Puritan attitudes and ethics continued to exert an influence on American society. Puritan Influence on America

28. Puritan Influence on America • They made a virtue of qualities that made for economic success—self-reliance, frugality, self-discipline, industry—and through them influenced modern social and economic life. • Their concern for education was important in the development of the United States, and the idea of congregational democratic church government was carried into the political life of the state as a source of modern democracy

29. The Salem Witch Trials

30. The Salem Witch Trials (1690s) • Several young Puritan girls accuse a servant, Tituba, of being a witch • To protect herself, Tituba implicates other members of the community • A chain reaction ensues and 27 people are convicted of practicing witchcraft • 50 others “confess” and 100 others are imprisoned to await trial • In the end 19 people are executed (hanged) for being witches

31. 1692 Salem • Since Puritans were expected to live by a rigid moral code, they believed that all sins—from sleeping in church to stealing food—should be punished. • They also believed God would punish sinful behavior. • When a neighbor would suffer misfortune, such as a sick child or a failed crop, Puritans saw it as God’s will and did not help.

32. 1692 Salem • Puritans also believed the Devil was as real as God. • Everyone was faced with the struggle between the powers of good and evil, but Satan would select the weakest individuals—women, children, the insane—to carry out his work. • Those who followed Satan were considered witches. • Witchcraft was one of the greatest crimes a person could commit, punishable by death.

33. 1692 Salem • In keeping with the Puritan code of conformity, the first women to be accused of witchcraft in Salem were seen as different and as social outcasts: Tituba, a slave; Sarah Good, a homeless beggar; and Sarah Osborne, a sickly old woman who married her servant.

34. 1692 Salem • Fear of magic and witchcraft was common in New England, as it had been in Europe for centuries. • Over 100 alleged witches had been tried and hanged in New England during the 1600s. • But the hangings in 1692 Salem would be the last ones in America

35. Witches or Not? • To “prove” that someone was a witch, church officials sometimes poked him or her with pins, searching for a so-called devil’s mark, a spot where no pain was felt. • Another test involved tying together the hands and feet of the accused and throwing him or her into water. Those who floated were declared witches; those who drowned were declared innocent.

36. Spectral Evidence • In the Salem witch trials, spectral evidence – the testimony of a church member who claimed to have seen a person’s spirit performing witchcraft – was enough to sentence the accused to death.

37. The Examination of Sarah Good • 1692: The Massachusetts Bay Colony of Salem was gripped by panic after a group of adolescent girls suffered mysterious symptoms such as convulsive fits, hallucinations, loss of appetite, and the temporary loss of hearing, sight & speech. • Diagnosed as being victims of witchcraft, the girls denounced certain townspeople for this crime, including a woman named Sarah Good.

38. The Examination of Sarah Good • Sarah Good was one of the first to be accused of witchcraft by the circle of young girls in Salem. • She was a likely witch in the eyes of many townspeople—an odd homeless woman who did not fit the Puritan mold.

40. The people of Salem were very familiar with Sarah Good. • She often begged door-to-door with her children. • If she were refused, she would walk away mumbling. • Many claimed these “curses” were responsible for failed crops and death of livestock.

41. Then on March 24, Ann Putnam accused Sarah’s five-year-old daughter, Dorcas, of witchcraft. • When examined, the imaginative young child confessed that she and her mother were witches. • She showed the magistrates a red spot on her finger—most likely a flea bite—claiming it was from a snake her mother had given her. • Little Dorcas was put in prison, chained to a wall.

42. On March 1, 1692, Sarah Good faced examination with two other accused witches, Sarah Osburne and Tituba, Reverend Parris’s Caribbean slave. • During the questioning, Ann Putnam, Betty Parris, and Abigail Williams shrieked and fell into fits. • Sarah Good pleaded, “I am falsely accused,” but then Tituba named her as a witch. Several villagers—including her own husband—also testified against her, and Sarah was put in prison.

43. Sarah Good was tried on June 30. • Despite no evidence other than the claims of the afflicted girls, she was found guilty. • She was one of five women to be hanged on July 19, 1692. • Just before the hanging, the other women prayed and asked God to forgive the accusers, but Sarah Good showed no sign of forgiveness.

44. Local minister Reverend Nicholas Noyes urged her to confess, announcing that she was indeed a witch. Sarah Good replied: “I am no more a witch than you are a wizard, and if you take away my life, God will give you blood to drink.” • Twenty-five years later, Reverend Noyes died of internal bleeding, choking on his own blood.

45. Another Explanation? • Convulsive ergotism may have been a physiological basis for the Salem witchcraft crisis. • Ergot, a parasitic fungus, grows on a large variety of cereal grains, especially rye. • Ergotism (ergot poisoning) was once a common condition resulting from eating contaminated rye bread.

46. Another Explanation? • The growing conditions and the pattern of agricultural practices fit the timing of the 1692 crisis. • Convulsive ergotism is characterized by crawling sensations in the skin, tingling in the fingers, vertigo, headaches, hallucination, convulsions, and vomiting. • The Puritans seized upon witchcraft for the best explanation for the phenomena.

47. The Crucible

48. The Crucible • Arthur Milller’s play, The Crucible draws a direct parallel between McCarthyism in 1950s America and the hysteria & paranoia in Salem. • This paranoia and “witch hunt” mentality was present in 1950s Hollywood where many Americans were suspected of being members of the Communist party and “blacklisted.”

49. The Crucible • In the 1950s Miller was subjected to a scrutiny by a committee of the United States Congress investigating Communist influence in the arts. • The Crucible was an allegory for the McCarthy era and mass hysteria

50. The Crucible • In 1956 Miller was called before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC). • Miller admitted that he had attended certain meetings, but denied that he was a Communist.