The Importance Of Puritan Beliefs

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Puritans’ values were both regressive and progressive in different areas. They had a strong sense of community and unity that led to self governance. They valued education and had a strong work ethic while at the same time persecuting people whose opinions differed from theirs. Their self governing heavily impacted the colonies to become self sufficient and independent. It had given rise to popular sovereignty and democracy in the new found world. Their strong work ethic was that of pleasing God. They believed in predestination, however they had no way of knowing whether or not they were chosen to go to heaven or hell. This work ethic was instilled as a core part of the American dream, that if you work hard, you can achieve whatever it is …show more content…
They ran them out of towns and even executed them. Nathaniel Ward wrote about how foolish it was to tolerate other religions and heavily advocated against it. Since there were conflicting religious interests, people moved away and spread out. More colonies were now being created due to this religious intolerance that the Puritans enforced. Roger Williams who was a founder of Rhode Island, was a strong supporter of religious freedom and separation of church and state. This belief is quite literally our first amendment in our constitution. The significance of religious tolerance and separation of church and state grows as time goes on. The general population slowly becomes accustomed to this idea that anyone can believe in anything and not be persecuted for it. That the government should not establish nor enforce religious …show more content…
They came to the colonies completely poor, yet they were able to own land and homes. In a town map it shows individually owned family farms, something people from England could never even dream of. This is a huge social development in eyes of the colonists. They could not own land in England, yet they were simply given land in the colonies. There were town halls in the centers of towns where people would come to represent themselves upon issues. Schools’ sole purposes were to teach children. The first concept of public education came from the Puritans. All of these developments were unprecedented in England. Now that there were no monarchs, governments were starting to form and issues upon the powers of governance came about. John Cotton gave ways and ideas in which governments’ power could be limited. He wanted the church authorities to stay within their bounds and over extend their powers. He gave a sense that the government cannot be absolute, that there were things it could not do on a moral and religious
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