Puritanism. The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy. (H. L.

Menken) The Puritans had a profound effect upon American culture. As a political, social, and cultural force, Puritanism lasted until the 19th century. At this point the center of the country began a shift to the south. The Age of Reason was also ushered in by way of European social philosophy. Many other historical forces impacted the movement of America away from a religious haven towards an economic and political powerhouse. When we look deeper into the body of English history in the 1500's we can certainly make out within it the embryo of a new breed of people. At that time a certain company of Christian activists were beginning to stir and kick within the English mother country. These were the people who sparked the English Reformation. As a result of their zeal and their commitment to reform and to 'purify' the Church of England they would come to be known as the 'Puritans'. Early in the 17th century some Puritan groups separated from the Church of England. Among these were the Pilgrims, who in 1620 founded Plymouth Colony. Ten years later, under the auspices of the Massachusetts Bay Company, the first major Puritan migration to New England took place. The Puritans brought strong religious impulses to bear in all colonies north of Virginia, but New England was their stronghold, and the Congregationalist churches established there were able to perpetuate their viewpoint about a Christian society for more than 200 years. The Puritans were bound and determined to make an impact in their generation and they were quite vociferous in the way they engaged the challenges of their time. The Puritans were inclined to express their opinion quite forcefully, even to the point of straining the social constraints of a rigid monarchical English society. This would cause them, and the mother country, some significant pains of travail.These people have been the leading lights of America since the time of the early English colonies. And the settlement of the New World is a history we have heard much about. Puritanism had spoken for the preeminence of the individual, for freedom from oppressive governments, and for the value of learning and education. It led Americans to examine their beliefs, their world, and each other. It gave ordinary men and women a sense of purpose. It encouraged them to scrutinize issues in religion and in government and to speak out. It helped to create in Americans a sense of duty to their God, their nation, and their
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fellow men. It taught men and women to labor to be good and to judge others by their lives, not by their birth. At its height, Puritanism served as the dominant force in the creating of American literature.(McMichael, ed. AAL, 11-12) Puritanism is a highly strict religious doctrine. The Puritans were determined to find a place on the new continent and when they arrived on, they saw virgin land, virgin forests, vast expanses of wilderness, and therefore believed that they were sent by God for a definite purpose. Contending that there is only one God who rules everything on the earth, these Puritans thought they were "the selected few" to start in a new place where they can be happy, chosen by God to reestablish a Commonwealth based on the teachings of the Bible, to restore the lost paradise and to build the wilderness into a new Garden of Eden. "Therefore the journey to the New World was not just a migration. It was a new Exodus, ordained by God and foretold in the Bible, just as the Bible promised the creation of a New Jerusalem, in America."(McMichael, ed. AAL, 8) They had to work hard in order to make a living and be ready for any misfortunes and tragic failures that might lie in wait for them. As far as this respect is concerned, the Puritans learned a lot from the native Indians who helped them through the severe winters. The Puritans were not in the same stream as the Pilgrim separatists or those even more radical separatists, the Anabaptists. But in the colonies the Puritans and the Pilgrims lived together harmoniously. Theirs was a congregational, communal. even theocratic sort of society. For the Puritans their politics and their religion belonged together. Their politics flowed naturally and supernaturally from their Christian faith. Their church meetings as well as their political meetings were held in their "meeting places". There were some who did not honor God as the Puritans and their Pilgrim friends did. In the colonies there was talk of "saints" and "strangers". The Puritans were quite aware that they were in an ideological contest of sorts with other people who then, as today, did not share their devotion or their values. These were freethinkers and rationalists of the so-called "Enlightenment". Some called "levelers" had appeared in Cromwell's Puritan Army. These were secularist Utopians. They wanted to force a single strata society upon the nation. These were the early socialists that would later rise up in the modern era.

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The Puritans were keen to see that the American colonies did not go down these pathways to spiritual and historical oblivion. They were a Christian people under duress. Life in a hostile wilderness was uncertain. These were a people who often found themselves in fervent prayer. They were also well aware that their new nation could easily slip down into the dustbin of history if they were not vigilant. They wanted their American colonies to become firmly established upon the sure foundation of the Bible. The Puritan dream has been quite consistent though time. Both in England and in the New World the Puritans had one goal and one agenda. They were intent upon establishing a 'nation under God'. The Puritan dream was a lofty one. In that dream the English Colonies over in the New would become a nation reflecting and bathed in the glory of God. It would become that 'light to the nations' the noted Puritan minister John Winthrop had spoken of. America would become a shining 'city upon a hill'. The same God centered politico-social dynamic we saw back then can also be seen today. The very same vital and politically engaged Biblical Christianity we saw in English Parliament under Oliver Cromwell and at the signing of the Mayflower Compact is still with us. It continues to nourish American society. And it also acts to preserve the nation against the pagan declensions and the badly compromd state of affairs we find ourselves living in today. Puritanism is still very evident today. It wells up out of the same deep Biblical aquifer the Puritans discovered 400 years ago. It continues to flow out of the bedrock of Biblical Christianity. Puritan History is now a very important subject to understand. Because right now the Puritan agenda is setting the pattern for American history. And American history is now becoming World History and they are the ones who are saying, "Lead, follow, or get out of the way!" If American energies are the driving force in western history today then we might well say that Puritanism is the the river (that) runs through it. In the ending we see that Puritan moral codes had a great impact upon American society, all the protestant sects taught clean living, sobriety, attention to duty, attendance at church, thrift, hard work, honesty and avoidance of extravagance, values which have continued to permeate American society.

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