Puritan Roots of American Culture

Introduction

According to the Historians, America essentially took form in the English womb (Finley, 2013). In 1620, a new kind of English settler was brought to North America when Plymouth Plantation was established on the South Shore of Massachusetts. The founders of this colony were pilgrims and shared a wish to purify the Christian beliefs and practices by working with their allies, the Puritan (Bradford, 1897). Puritans were powerful enough to make the other people sit and listen to them; they focused on national and individual goals and dreams. This essay discusses the religious freedom in relation to Puritans and America.

Discussion

In 1620, as the Puritans were initially brought to North America, the established Church of England was the first destination for which they had a will to join. However, in eyes of pilgrims, this church was so corrupt that they preferred to separate themselves fully. Under the same thought, in the village of Scooby in Nottinghamshire, Pilgrims established their secret congregation. The Scooby separatists had to face the issues of prosecution and imprisonment so often, that they found little chance of being faithful to their religion.

The Scooby congregation left England and settled in Netherlands in 1608. In this country, they found many beautiful cities and locations, but they had to face severe issues of poverty as they were foreigners in the country. They have to join weaving trades, as they were unable to farm and also had an isolation of language. However, as they were afraid of losing their religious identity with their children immersed deeply in the Dutch culture, they preferred to settle in England's Virginia Company. This venture was religious as well as commercial in nature. On the Mayflower, there were nearly hundred people from which the separatists were as three times as the secular settlers. In November 1620, this initial group settled down on the shore of Massachusetts.

In 1630, the contingent of Puritans was brought under John Winthrop to Massachusetts Bay, as a result of well financed effort. These settlers did not express any intention for severing their ties with the Church of England, but a testimony of a different purpose is exhibited by the distance they put between the Church hierarchy and themselves. In order to survive peacefully, these settlers managed to achieve the balance between continuity and novelty (Melville, p.1). Very soon, they transformed into civil bodies politics. The American Puritans ...