The Puritan Enterprise
Reading: Jim Cullen, “Dream of the Good Life (I): The Puritan Enterprise,” in The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea that Shaped a Nation (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2003), 11-34.
In the context of America, Puritanism refers to a joint religious and social movement, to an attempt on the part of thousands of reform-minded English Christians to establish Christian communities in New England in the early-to-mid 1600s. In the “Great Migration” of the 1630s, tens of thousands of Puritans crossed the Atlantic Ocean and undertook the difficult and often dangerous task of colonizing the “New England” region, substantially north of Virginia, an earlier British settlement. (Click for a map of early British settlements in North America.) While the Pilgrims (who founded Plymouth in 1620) had already given up on the established Church of England, the Puritans at least theoretically wanted to purify the church by stripping it down to its New Testament essentials. For all intents and purposes, though, when the Puritans forsook England for America, they were creating their own autonomous churches, which they hoped would be the center of their new towns. In leaving their homeland, then, they sought freedom, but it was a limited freedom, because they envisioned tight-knit and homogeneous communities.
In some cases, at least, they succeeded in creating such communities, even as they experienced their fair share of conflict. (Click here for a map of the New England colonies.) The seal of the Massachusetts Bay Colony featured an Indian and a plea to “come over and help us.”
By the mid-1600s, Puritans did actually make efforts to convert Indians to Christianity, but they also brutally fought Indians (such as the Pequots) who refused to surrender valuable land. They hung several Quakers, who seemed a civil and religious threat, and even as their vision of a Christian commonwealth fell victim to imperial demands for toleration in the 1690s, they executed nearly twenty alleged witches on the basis of highly problematic evidence.
Puritan New England has alternately been conceived as a cradle of American democracy and a cauldron of American intolerance. Jim Cullen documents these ambiguities regarding Puritan New England, but he also finds something admirable in the “Puritan Enterprise,” — namely their “faith in reform” (15), which he sees as a fundamental component of the American Dream.
They sought to reform not only the church, but also society in general. Cullen doesn’t go into much detail about how they structured their society, but it’s worth noting that local congregations and town meetings lay at the heart of their social and political organization. Massachusetts Bay Colony was not a theocracy — the ministers did not rule. But the religious system did overlap with the political system. Each town taxed its residents to support the local church, which everyone was expected to attend. Up to the 1690s, in order to have the right to vote in colony-level elections, Massachusetts men (only men could vote) had to be full members of their local congregation, which is to say that they had to experience a spiritual conversion and satisfy their peers that they were good Christians. (Because of their “new birth” experiences and their history of upright behavior, the full church members were called “visible saints.”) Although Cullen doesn’t mention it, most towns had more inclusive policies for their town meetings, where all independent men could generally participate, regardless of their status in the church. (On this point, see Michael Zuckerman’s work on New England towns.)
Although some New England towns managed to sustain cohesive, Christian communities for a generation or so, as time went on, a variety of pressures damaged the enterprise. The growing white population of New England led to dispersion and also provoked intense and disruptive conflicts with the Indian inhabitants of the region. By the end of the century, too, the empire intervened and imposed toleration and severed the connection between church membership and voting. Puritanism was by no means dead, but during the 1700s it began to evolve in different directions, as David Hall suggests in his essay from the Companion to American Thought.
Questions for Discussion
- What core theological beliefs did Puritans share?
- Why did Puritan beliefs tend to cause them anxiety? What strategies did they develop for dealing with that anxiety?
- How did Puritans tend to define the good life?
- What problems undermined the Puritan experiment?
- What enduring influences might Puritanism have had on American culture?
September 10th, 2007 at 5:31 pm
It is strange how the Puritans’ religion caused them anxiety. They questioned every detail of life and that lead to a stressful situation. If they weren’t so questioning, then they might have lived with less conflict in their churches and towns in New England. I have always regarded religion as a comfort, not a series of questions and worries that causes panic. As much as Puritans influenced the American Dream as stated in the Cullen reading, they do come off very harsh to the twenty-first century person.
September 10th, 2007 at 6:05 pm
The Puritan’s internal and external conflict seems to be one of the reasons that they have established harsh and negative memory in history. Quickly mentioned in some of the readings was the fascination that some authors had with Puritans especially Nathaniel Hawthorne. He wrote many works that painted the picture of Puritan society as harsh. His most famous work the “Scarlet Letter” really painted Puritans in a negative light. Now personally I feel that Hawthorne wrote about Puritans that way because of his own personal shame that his relative was a judge in the Salem witch trials. The Puritans are a hard group to understand, they have made an impact in American history but it still seems that sometimes we don’t give them the credit for their impact due to the fact they have a negative stigma.
September 10th, 2007 at 8:50 pm
Something I found interesting was when the author brought up the idea that within just a few short generations there grew a disconnect between the puritans and their forefathers who first traveled across the Atlantic. An example of this disconnect is evident in today’s society. Consider World War II and the monumental sacrifices so many Americans made to protect the freedoms so many of us take for granted today. Considering that second generation puritans were born and raised in America, never experiencing the persecution their forefathers did, it is easy to see why then, many puritans were unable to maintain the religious intensity their forefathers held.
September 10th, 2007 at 9:01 pm
One interesting point they touched on very early on in the reading was the connection between the Puritains and the American Dream. The Author suggests that the iconic American dream is related to the struggles that the Puritans faced when they arrived in New England in the Early 1600’s. For example he states that many people comeing here looking for the American dream, even now, are looking to start over, to start fresh, away from whatever hostility they originally came from. This is similar to what the Pilgrims had to endure: Leaving the “tyrannies” of the old world and starting over in the hopes of creating a more “pure society. This connection stood out from the rest of the essay because it was the first time I have every seen a connection between the Puritans , who usually have been looked upon as over zealous religious fanatics, and the hopeful, ever enduring symbol of American virtue, the American dream.
September 11th, 2007 at 7:12 am
Like Mike, I find the connection between the Puritans and the American dream interesting. They fled religious persecution in their own country, hoping for a better one in the colonies. Herein lies another connection, between the Puritan migration and the Jewish immigration during World War II. Like the Puritans, they fled Europe due to persecution and came to American shores looking for a better life, looking for the American dream.
September 11th, 2007 at 11:34 am
Some of the puritians anxiety occurred becasue of some of thier beliefs could be considered a paradox. An example of this is that when one is born there path is already choosen. So why does it matter how one lives their life it is already choosen? Of course their are some answers such as you do not know your own path so do as much good as you can and maybe you have the grace to get into heaven.
September 11th, 2007 at 11:55 am
I found it fascinating that the Puritans considered freedom to be monstrous. These people specifically sought religious freedom so they could totally submit to the Lord’s authority. When the first Puritans arrived here, they were extremely adamant about this ideology. It is interesting to see how dispersion of the people, and the ideas and attitudes of future generations, ultimately watered down their initial convictions.
September 11th, 2007 at 11:58 am
I don’t believe that the Puritans systematically did anything wrong. If we look at the progression of thought, something we deem bad most happen before we can fix it, or even compile and construct our thoughts to improve the conditions of the present. Puritans in their actions of intolerance of other religion, set in motion the idea of religion tolerance. The Puritans drive for a better life for themselves and their children are the basis of the American Dream, which has different meanings to everyone. Whether or not the Puritans practiced the same religious beliefs, their individual definitions of the pure religion and dream are all different, creating tension within the community. This tension causes all sides to reevaluate their understanding, in turn reconstructing their thought process and beliefs. All of the tension and questioning has lead us to the present day American Dream.
September 11th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
In response to Jan’s comment, I feel that the religous ideology of the puritans forced them to fear freedom. They beileved that we were all virtual “prisoners of god”. It was the afterlufe that set us free but only if our life here on earth was perfect. This led them to lead very fearful, sheltered, and intolerate lives that went against everything the colonies stood for at the time. This pressure from society is what I feel forced out the puritan beliefs in the future years.
September 11th, 2007 at 5:06 pm
I think that the Puritan’s theological beliefs made them fear many aspects of life. The Puritans called for solitary soul and that of being born with judgment all ready predestine. As Ben comments, I also believe that the Puritans feared freedom. The idea of freedom would allow the Puritans to do whatever they wanted which could lead to a bad life. It’s interesting to read how the next generations begin to change their views maybe because of this fear.
September 11th, 2007 at 7:17 pm
I am in complete agreance with Josh and Ben, as we explained in class the Puritans were just trying to live the good life. But when they become free and start to move away from law they in turn start to move away from what they left Europe for. Becuase I think they only way the Puritans think they can have that Good Life is to follow the law/Bible to the point.
September 12th, 2007 at 9:07 am
I find it very impressive when families decide to move to a new world to seek religious freedom and a better life for themselves. Especially when it is a new country still wild and untamed for that time, to follow their dream. In one way the Puritans have done a lot for this country, they settle areas, farmed and started communities. On the other hand. Once in this country they forced there believes onto others. Doing the same thing too people, that was done to them in England. “Puritans not only made it difficult for the people who lived among them; they made it impossible for anyone living alongside them.” P.12
September 12th, 2007 at 10:37 am
I disagree with Cullen’s assessment that Puritans would consider freedom (as we know it) to be “monstrous”. Instead, Puritanism promoted conformance to an individualism which “involved a willing surrender” or “choice to defer to Godly clerical and civil authorities” while obeying “just and equal laws” and thus a “communitarian vision” of people “who had a shared sense of what their lives were about” (p 22,23)..
Puritans did not fear “natural” freedom, although may have believed it could work evil, but rejected oppressive corruption in religion and embraced an ideology of freedom of religion (or freedom from religion).
Often one is condemned as unpatriotic if one expresses an opposing opinion toward the Patriot Act or the war in Iraq. Shortly after the attacks on America on Sept. 11 2001, President Bush declared war on terrorism stating, “We [America] will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them” adding, “Those that are not with us are against us”. It seems to me this same sort of connection is linked to a Puritan ideology or community of faith similar to it in which dissenters such as Roger Williams and Anne Huthinson were rejected.
September 12th, 2007 at 7:07 pm
In regards to the Puritan beliefs and its effect on their society, I think that the Puritan belief was fundamentally flawed in that it had little ability to coalesce the inevitable disagreements that would arise among its members, especially in a dispersed community. If their communities remained small, then the chances of dissent were also small. But if the community grew, which it invariably did, then a community would engage in a fruitless endevor to preserve the status quo, i.e. expulsion from the community.
September 13th, 2007 at 9:03 am
I have a hard time really understanding the puritans. They fled their homeland because they were being pursecuted. Yet when they got to America and started their own way of life they pursecuted anyone with even the slightest disbelief. It was their way on no way, well to me isn’t that what they were trying to escape in their old lives. I do admire them for standing up for themselves and their beliefs but to me they were a bit over the top.
September 13th, 2007 at 10:29 am
I don’t know about all the rest of you, but I am hard finding the good in Puritanism. Yes, they were devoted to God, but it seemed that they were a group that was quick to judge people. Isn’t that part of the reason they left and now they are doing it to others? I think it is positive that they were such a tight knit community, but I still imagine them “sitting a a park bench” picking out “sinners” and “visible saints.”
September 13th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
When I began reading about the Puritans in our course packet and when I thought back on all the things I had learned about them before, aka the Salem Witch trials, I found it hard to believe where the were coming from. They were constantly scrutinizing others who did not follow their beliefs and they tried to make everyone like them and feared those who were not.
Then, after reading the comments that were posted, I realized and agreed with some of you when you say they maybe we aren’t living a life thats so different from the Puritans. I do not believe that our lives are as “centralized” around God and bible as they used to, but we do pursecute and fear others who are not like us.
I think that our society really needs to start taking a look at our past and learning from it because we have, through our entire history, been like this. From the Salem Witch trials to slavery and now to “terroists”. We really need to evaluate what a good life means and how we are supposed to achieve it.
September 17th, 2007 at 10:12 pm
Paranoia. The term struck me as I was thinking about the Puritans dilemma revolving around their salvation. Any member of a Puritan community that was devoted to God, had to, at some point, and possibly quite often, thinking about whether or not they were among the elect. And then I thought about how being paranoid, or more precisely, having something negative to dwell on, seems to be a pattern in American history from the very beginning (I suppose this supposition could be stretched to include all of humanity’s history). As Erica pointed out, now we worry about terrorists. In the 1960s, there was communism and nuclear war, before that there was Facism, the Great War, the temporary dissolution of the Union. Since the moment a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant stepped foot in the Americas, it seems we’ve always had something negative on our minds.
September 20th, 2007 at 10:31 pm
I find it odd how the Puritans went off on their own, with the basis of creating their new world with their social and religious beliefs, eventhough their own ideology of life caused much stress and uncertainty amonst this attempt. I suppose the desire to live as they believed was the basis for the dream of creating the “new world.” This push to cross the Atlantic and start over on their own terms was the beginning structure of self freedom.
September 24th, 2007 at 11:31 am
FINAL COMMENT
Many of you made note of the apparent paradoxes within American Puritanism, including their conflicted positions regarding religious liberty and freedom in general. Some historians of the Puritans have payed close attention to such tensions, arguing that the Puritan system engendered a bit too much tension and anxiety to sustain itself indefinitely.
Even though Calvinism and strict church discipline gradually faded, some of the ethos of Puritan culture certainly lived on to be influential in later American history. As Cullen points out, for instance, their belief in reform gave rise to a panoply of reform movements during the early 19th century, and the heirs of the Puritans led these movements.