1. Background The Puritans hoped to create a 'city on a hill' i.e. a shining example of a Godly society for the entire world to see. Instead they created a society just as intolerant as the one they had left. The Puritans went to America fleeing religious persecution but they in turn persecuted the Quakers who they called a 'cursed sect'. A Baptist named Obediah Holmes was publicly whipped in Boston in July 1651. In October 1659 two Quakers named William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson were hanged in Boston. Another Quaker named Mary Dyer was hanged on Boston Common on 1 June 1660.

2. Interesting facts It was the Puritans that were behind the various witch scares, hunts, and trials--the most famous of which was held in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. In Puritan times, to be born on a Sunday was interpreted as a sign of great sin. Puritans believed that children born on the Sabbath Day were conceived on this sacred day. Sexual intercourse on Sundays was a sacrilege in this austere society. As a result, Benjamin Franklin's birth on Sunday, January 6, 1706, had the potential to cause the young Franklin ignominious shame for life. To remove suspicion and eschew the scandal of having a "child of the Devil", Josiah, Benjamin's father, had Franklin quickly baptized on the same day of his birth. The Puritans believed that the Bible was God's true law, and that it provided a plan for living. The established church of the day described access to God as monastic and possible only within the confines of "church authority". Puritans stripped away the traditional trappings and formalities of Christianity which had been slowly building throughout the previous 1500 years. Theirs was an attempt to "purify" the church and their own lives.

3. More Each church congregation was to be individually responsible to God, as was each person. The New Testament was their model and their devotion so great that it permeated their entire society. People of opposing theological views were asked to leave the community or to be converted. The Puritans loaded more beer than water onto the Mayflower before they cast off for the New World.

4. And Continued They were the ones who lead to the establishing of major universities such as Harvard. Often times when we think about pilgrims and how they lived, or about how thanksgiving came to be, these are based off the puritans.

5. Bibliography Franklin Public Library. "Interesting Fats." Interesting Facts. Web. 7 Mar. 2011.. Hanson, David J. "Puritans to Prohibition." WWW2 Webserver. Web. 08 Mar. 2011.. Lambert, Tim. "A History of Boston, Massachusetts." A World History Encyclopedia. Web. 03 Mar. 2011..http://library.thinkquest.org/22254/frintfac.htm#http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/FunFacts/Purita nsToProhibition.htmlhttp://www.localhistories.org/bostonus.html