Piety In Early America

Piety
Piety was a very important value for the early settlers and it was something that was valued by almost everyone during this time period. To have piety means to have a deep respect and devotion to God, and people often demonstrated their faith rather than keeping it hidden and done in private. Even though piety was prevalent before the first Americans settled in the New World, it became even more crucial for them. To the Pilgrims, God was their protector who protected them as they made their way to North America, and so they believed having faith in God would shield them from danger in the new, unknown world. An example of this value is in “Of Plymouth Plantation”, “Being thus arrived in a good harbor, and brought safe to land, they fell
upon their knees and blessed the God of Heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from the perils and miseries thereof, again to set their feet on the firm and stable earth, their proper element….” From this quote, we can see that the Pilgrims immediately thanked God once they reached the land safely, which displays their piety. They believed that it was God who brought them safely across the ocean, so they blessed Him as a sign of appreciation. Another example of piety is in the poem “Upon the Burning of Our House”, “Thou hast an house on high erect, / Framed by that mighty Architect, / With glory richly furnished, / Stands permanent though this be fled.” In this poem by Anne Bradstreet, she describes Heaven as a house that has been “furnished” with glory. This quote is important because even though her house burned down, she still stays pious and believes that earthly possessions don’t matter. As long as she remains faithful, she is promised an access by God to enter this glorious house (Heaven), which is more important than her home on earth. As time has passed, the value of piety slowly became less important to people, because not as people had the same beliefs in religion which caused people to stop living very pious lives.

Courage
Courage is the ability to do something that frightens you. This value is what allowed the pilgrims to survive, interact with the Native Americans, and travel to unknown land. Without courage, the Pilgrims wouldn’t have had the bravery to travel to unknown land and survive once they got there. An example of this value is seen in “Of Plymouth Plantation”, “Who, about four or five days after, came with the chief of his friends and other attendance, with the aforesaid Squanto. With whom, after friendly entertainment and some gifts given him, they made a peace with him…” By making a peace with Squanto, it shows the Pilgrims courage (as well as the Native American’s) because although they were both wary of one another (they spoke a different language, had a different culture, etc.), they used courage to make peace with one another. Another example of courage comes from “A Model of Christian Charity”, “For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill.” This quote displays courage because the people listening to John Winthrop’s sermon needed to have courage in order to build a “city upon a hill”. This phrase signifies that they should build a city that everyone will see, and it will serve as a positive example for everyone to follow. This requires courage because they needed to do whatever they could to accomplish this goal or else God would withdraw His help. Without courage they might not have been able to complete this harrowing task. The value of courage is something that remained and always will, because it’s frequently used. Just like the Pilgrims, if we didn’t have courage, we wouldn’t be able to achieve much.

Industry
Industry means to work hard with determination.
This was important when the First Americans began to settle, because everyone depended on each other. If one person was falling behind in their work and being lazy, everyone would suffer from this because they had to pick up the pace from that person. This value allowed them to build the towns, hunt for food, farm, and store their food. This was an important value for everyone’s survival. Here’s an example of industry from “Of Plymouth Plantation”, “…with abundance of toil and hazard of their own health, fetched them wood, made them fires, dressed them meat, made their beds, washed their loathsome clothes, clothed and unclothed them; in a word, did all the homely and necessary offices for them which dainty and queasy stomachs cannot endure to hear named; and all this willingly and cheerfully, without any grudging in the least…” This quote shows the “great commendations” of a few people who worked to care for the others in their community. These members of the community stepped up in order to keep the community functioning, and this displays industry. The second example of industry comes from “A Model of Christian Charity”, “For this end, we must be knit together in this work as one man. We must entertain each other in brotherly affection. We must be willing to abridge ourselves of our superfluities, for the supply of others’ necessities. We must uphold a familiar commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience, and liberality. We must delight in each other, make others’ conditions our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, our community as members of the same body.” In this quote from Winthrop’s sermon, we see that he mentions the importance of working together. This displays industry because if they hadn’t worked as “one man”, their chances of survival would not be as great. The value of Industry is still an
important one because we still use it to get things done.