The Puritan LegacyAmerican Literature’s Colonial Roots

Remember the Pilgrims?

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Pilgrims and Puritans

The Pilgrims were part of a group of English Puritans called the “Separatists” who fled persecution in England.

•The Pilgrims traveled to America aboard the Mayflower and landed at Plymouth in 1620.

Puritans is a general term for English Protestants who wanted to “purify” the Church of England.

•The Puritans objected to the rituals, decorations, and organization of the Church of England. They wanted a simpler form of worship and organization.

A Puritan Time Line

1620: Mayflower

Pilgrims land at Plymouth

1630: Great migration of Puritans to New England begins

1692: Salem witch

trials

1653–1658: Puritan Oliver Cromwell rules England as lord

protector

1642–1651: English civil

wars between Puritans and

Royalists

1660: Monarchy

restored under Charles II

1608: Separatists flee England for Holland

In England

In America

1600 1700

What the Puritans Believed

•Religion is a personal, inner experience.

•Humans are wicked by nature, and most are marked for damnation.

•A chosen few can be saved through the grace of God.

•Hard work and worldly success are signs of God’s grace.

•Education is essential in order to read the Word of God.

Grace: The Puritan Ideal

•Grace—God’s special favor—was the only way to escape an eternity in Hell.

•People did not know for certain if they had grace, but they could feel the arrival of grace as an intense emotion.

•People who had grace were among the “elect” (saved).

•People who did not have grace were among the “unregenerate” (damned).

Grace: The Puritan Ideal

•The presence of grace was demonstrated by a person’s outward behavior. People with grace displayed

•self-reliance

•personal responsibility

•industriousness

•temperance

•simplicity

Puritan Government

In Theory

•Every individual had an equal covenant with God.

•Laws came from God, as revealed in scripture.

In Practice

•Most people yielded authority to those seen as the saintly “elect.”

•Conformity and obedience took precedence over individual rights.

Puritan Literature

What the Puritans Read

•The Bible and other religious texts

Why They Read

•Puritans stressed individual responsibility for spiritual development.

•Every person was responsible for reading and understanding the Bible.

Puritan Literature

What the Puritans Wrote

•Sermons, essays, and poems on spiritual and religious subjects

•Diaries and histories that recorded inner and outer events of their lives

Why They Wrote

•Puritans used writing to explore their lives for signs of grace and to describe the workings of God in their communities.

Plain Style

Puritans favored a plain style of writing. Plain style is a way of writing that stresses simplicity and clarity of expression. Plain style

•emphasizes uncomplicated sentences and the use of everyday words from common speech

•avoids elaborate figures of speech and imagery

“There is nothing between you and hell but the air; it is only the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up.”

from “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards

Salem: Believers Run Amok

•1692—Girls suffer from mysterious illness in Salem, Massachusetts.

•Doctors blame witchcraft.

•Mass hysteria erupts; neighbors accuse one another.

•In the end, about 150 people were accused, and 20 were executed.

What Happened to the Puritans?

•The Age of Faith gradually gave way to the Age of Reason.

•Philosophers and scientists stressed the importance of using reason, rather than religion, to explain how the world operates.

•The Puritans didn’t disappear—their culture was absorbed into the colonial mainstream.

The Puritan Legacy

In the United States, we generally value

•individual rights and responsibilities

•equality of individuals

•literacy and education

•spiritual and worldly rewards for hard work

What Have You Learned?

1. Puritans believed that religion was a personal, inner experience.

a. true b. false

2. Those who had grace were among the

a. damned b. unregenerate c. elect

3. A person with grace may display all of the following characteristics except

a. simplicity b. self-reliance c. greed

The End