Puritan Family Law: The Case Of New England Essay

New England was founded primary on the basis of religion freedom. Many of the people who were at new England left England because they wanted to perfect what the church of England was trying to do. In doing so they shunned and even exiled many people out of there way of life. The puritan way of life to many people seemed extreme and to others it seemed normal. They had set forth many laws and regulations in which some people might say is outlandish. They also waged war on Pequot’s, many argue that maybe it wasn’t a war but in fact a genocide. I am here to question and analyze these accusations and present evidence based on what I believe to be true. In 1646 puritans set forth a law saying that “if any child above 16 and of sufficient understanding shall curse or smite their natural father or mother that they should be put to death unless it can be proven that the parents were unchristianly and failed to teach their kids, or provoked them in manner of extreme correction.” These are puritans who believe that everything is ordained by god and people are pre chosen who will receive god’s forgiveness. I personally believe that they set this law in motion to help scare the children into respecting their elders as shown in “Puritan Family Law: The Case of John Porter Jr.” In
The puritans needed more land because frankly they were getting to big. They believed that this land was there’s because of divine reasons and civil reasons. John Winthrop said that they should be able to take the land for many reasons one of them being simply that there was more land for them to take. Another being that because they do not have enclosed grounds or traditional farms or cattle that they do not really own the land. Now what I am getting out of this is that the puritans should get the land because simply put they believe they are better. That because of plague and disease god does not like the