What Was The Role Of The Progressive Movement In The 17th Century

Every century, new movements uprise and shape the future of the world. For example, in the 1900s, the women’s suffrage movement occurred in the United States, where women fought for more rights. In addition, African Americans pushed for the end to segregation and the creation of new laws giving them equal rights. Even in today’s world, groups such as Black Lives Matter fight for police reform as they perceive the United States to be a systemically racist country. Large movements like these almost always bring change and create a new way of life for the persecuted, as politicians enact new laws that are intended to help the afflicted. One of the most important movements in modern history took place in seventeenth century England when the Puritans
Eventually, a quickly rising group of Englishmen felt that it was their duty to purify the Anglican Church and further distance it from the Catholic Church, creating the Puritanism movement that lasted from the late 1500s to the 1700s. Unfortunately, King Charles, the King of England at the time, strongly disagreed with the ideas proposed by the growing movement. At the time, the requests of the Puritans included removing rituals and ceremonies absent from the Bible, creating laws that prohibited swearing and drunkenness, and reforming the Church’s structure. Most importantly, the Puritans believed that the king should have little to no influence over parliament and laws of the country, sparking a civil war between the Parliamentarians and the Royalists that lasted nearly ten years in a bloody fight for power over the country. Luckily, before the civil war broke out, a small group of Puritans decided to flee to Holland from the persecution they faced in England under King Charles. After spending a few years in Holland, many of the Puritan families traveled across the Atlantic Ocean on the Mayweather to start a new way of
With complete freedom to decide how to set up and govern their new establishments, the Puritans merged the church and government into one by giving the church power over creating the laws for the colonies, resulting in the Puritans participating in a unique way of life. LIFESTYLE As the Puritans settled in New England to be able to worship God the way they desired, the daily life of a New England colonial was centered around following the Word of God, causing the Puritans to adopt a strict and vigorous lifestyle. One of the core beliefs is that idleness is the devil’s playground. This resulted in the colonials either working hard from early morning to late at night or spending the day off worshipping God. With the fundamental principle of the Puritans being to follow God’s teachings, the government created all of its laws in accordance with the Bible. Unfortunately, the Puritans' strong belief that everyone should live nearly perfect lives by always following God and His teachings led their governments to hand out harsh punishments to individuals who strayed from God. For instance, the colonials publicly shamed, whipped, and even executed adulterers as they broke one of God’s Ten