Background & Notes
Write one paragraph in your notebook in response to the following question: What is your ideal utopian society?
Have you ever heard of the New England Puritans? Have you ever heard of John Winthrop? Jonathon Edwards? Cotton Mather? The Great Awakening? What about the Salem Witchcraft Trials? Have you ever heard the phrase: “We are a City Upon a Hill?”
The New England Puritans were a sect of people who broke off of the Puritan church in England. -Came to America to flee persecution -Felt they were sent on a mission from God to start what many now view as an ideal Christian utopian society
They would often excommunicate or kick-out anyone who exhibited non-Christian or “Puritan” beliefs or actions Most did not believe in dancing They did not celebrate Christmas They worked hard, but mainly because they had to ◦ They came to a new country with no houses, harsh winters, no stores etc…
The Puritans are commonly known for the 1 st Thanksgiving and for the infamous Salem Witchcraft Trials
Here is what a wealthy Puritan family might have lived in. Some families could not afford to build extra rooms so they would just build a few walls and lean them up against the house. The room had straw floors and the only entrance was outside the house. It was sort of what we would call a “cellar” today.
Notice: Though many believe that Puritans only wore black, this woman is wearing a brown dress with a green Apron. And when you think about making dye from berries and flowers they found in the wild, wouldn’t it have made more sense that they had more colorful clothing than black clothing?
Obviously, this is being modeled by a woman in modern times.
A parade of people, taking a woman accused of witchcraft to her death!
We will see this house again in “The Crucible”
So, as you can see, the New England Puritans were some interesting people and we have the opportunity to glimpse into their lives through the literature they left behind!
William Bradford- Authored “Of Plymouth Plantation” Anne Bradstreet- Wife of a Governer and Poet Sarah Good- Accused witch in Salem. (She has a famous trial on record) Mary Rowlandson- Was captured by Indians and wrote a narrative about it. She decided it was God working in her life to remove sin from it.
Jonathon Edwards- preacher/author of “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” John Winthrop- Became Governer of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. He gave a sermon on a ship on the way over to America with this famous quote:
“The Lord will make our name a praise and glory, so that men shall say of succeeding plantations: ‘the Lord make it like that of New England.’ For we must consider that we shall be like a City Upon a Hill; the eyes of all people are on us.’” Discuss this quote. What does Winthrop mean by “The Lord will make our name a praise and Glory” and “we shall be like a City Upon a Hill; the eyes of all people are on us?”