Puritan Beliefs Dbq Analysis

In America today, many of us are motivated by vague ideas like the “American Dream”, but the 1600’s equivalent to that were the Puritan values. The Puritan way of life is one was influential, and essential in the development of the New England colonies. Puritans in the New England colonies were hard working and held themselves to a high moral obligation to be a good influence on those around them, this influenced all aspects of colonial life from politics to economy to society as a whole because it made the Puritans try to be the best at everything they did. Politically, Puritan beliefs defined a social hierarchy and limited church and government authority. Economically, Puritan beliefs led people to be less lazy in an attempt to better themselves,
Puritanism had helped people live fulfilling lives, working hard and studying instead of wasting time with recreations (Document F). The point of view of this text is from a dead man’s will, this is relevant because it illustrates that Puritanism is everything to the colonists, even in death. New England’s economy was affected by this because Puritanism created a great focus on education and work ethic, essentially creating an army of skilled hard workers. One might expect that economics and greed would overtake religious values. However, this was not the case. Puritans believed that you must never forget the original purpose of the colonies, to set a good example, and they recognized that New England was a “plantation of Religion, not a Plantation of Trade” as John Higginson put it (Document G). This shows that Puritans influenced New England economy by working to be successful, while never forgetting the second aspect of religion along the way. Another reason that Puritans would never forget their religion when working is the concept of the Elect. Puritans believed that people were predestined to go to heaven and thus if you were one of those elect, then you would exhibit good behavior during your life (OI). For this reason, Puritans always strived to show these good qualities, never letting economic success get the better of them. New England’s economics
John Winthrop spoke to a crowd of Puritans, saying “...wee must be knitt together...rejoice together, mourne together… The eies of all people are upon us...”, he gets his point across to them that they are a community and they must set an example for the rest of the world to follow (Document A). The point of view of the text is from John Winthrop who was governor of Massachusetts Bay, he was giving a speech to a crowd of Puritans fresh off the boat, inspiring them to stay united through good and bad. This was influential to New England’s social development because it started all the new colonists off in what would become the normal mindset for all of the colonists, comradery. Another example is in Document 3, where it’s shown that the Puritans wanted to advance learning to create educated ministers. Harvard is one example of a college created for the purpose of educating ministers in Massachusetts Bay (OI). These examples both show us how Puritan values influencing social development because the creation of schools creates more educated minds in New England, and better ministers meant more religious influence. With the creation of an education system and a powerful speech from the governor, Puritans had a tremendous impact on the social development of New