Transcript Puritan Notes


Joined radical Puritans (Separatists) at age 17







Wanted to break off from the Church of England
Bradford helped plan and fund voyage to New
World
Sailed on the Mayflower with wife—left son at
home
Helped draft the Mayflower Compact
Helped build relationships with Native
Americans
Governor of Massachusetts for 30 years
Wrote Of Plymouth Plantation
•
•
•
•
First group of Puritans landed in 1620, on the
tip of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
By 1640, as many as twenty thousand English
Puritans had sailed to what today is called
“New England”.
Everyday world and the spiritual world of
Puritans were closely intertwined.
American character has been shaped by the
moral, ethical, and religious convictions of the
Puritans.
•
•
•
•
•
Puritans were a group of Protestants that
sought to purify the Church of England.
Puritans wished to return to simpler forms of
worship and church organization.
Religion was a personal, inner experience.
Didn’t believe clergy or government should act
as an intermediary between individual and
God.
Many Puritans were persecuted in England—
some fled to Holland and some to New World.

Puritans believed people were either:

“The elect”-- one of the saved
OR
“The unregenerate”--one of the damned
 No way of knowing which you were.



People tried to live exemplary lives so they
would be one of “The Elect”
Puritans came to value self-reliance,
industriousness, temperance, and simplicity.


What did the Puritans value?
What do we, as a society, value
today?