S.2: Puritan Colonisation and Resistance

Puritanism

• extreme Protestant movement

• Came up in 16th century

• aimed at purifying the Church of England

• Strongly against Catholicism

• Strong scepticism with church authorities

• Covenant of grace („Gnadenbund“)

• Conversion experience as central aim of puritan life

Mayflower Compact

• drafted in 1620

• establishing a civil government for Plymouth Bay

• signed by male adults of the Plymouth Colony

Jeremiad

• Sermon based on book of Jeremiah

• Lamentation, warning about impending doom

• Calling for a return to earlier perfection

• Mode which can be found in American literature and public speech to this day: „civil religion“

John Winthrop

• 1588-1649

• First Governor of Massachusetts Bay Congregation

• known for his 'Model of Christian Charity' sermon (1630)

• Image of Puritan community as a ‚city upon the hill‘

John Eliot

• 1604-1690

• Puritan missionary known as the 'apostle of the Indians'

• translated the Bible into Massachusett

• founded Natick: first ‚praying town‘, 1650

Predestination

The Puritan belief that God has predetermined who will be saved or damned.

Covenant of Grace

The belief that salvation is granted based on God's grace rather than individual merit.

Perry Miller

• 1905-1963

• ‚The New England Mind‘ 1939, 1953

• Important scholar of Puritan America

Sacvan Bercovitch

• 1933-2014

• ‚The Puritan Origins of the American Self‘, 1975

• Important scholar of American Puritanism

Massachusetts Bay Colony

Established in 1630 by Congregationalist Puritans, it was more affluent than Plymouth.

New England Colonies

Region known for its Puritan settlements including Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.

Legitimation for Settlement

The justification for English settlement in Native lands, often framed as a missionary enterprise.

Agricultural Subsistence

The practice by early settlers of relying on farming for survival and economic stability.

English colonial settlements

• Virginia, from 1584 - anglican

• New Amsterdam, from 1624

• Maryland, from 1630 - Catholic

• Charles Town - Anglican

• Philadelphia, from 1682 - Quaker

• New England, from 1620 - Puritan

First puritan settlements

• Plymouth Bay, 1620 - Separatist Puritans

• Massachusetts, 1630 - Congregationalist Puritans

William Bradford

• 1589-1657

• Second Governor of Plymouth Bay

• Plain writing style: no ornaments, no figures of speech, no decorum

• No personal aggrandisement

Congregationalist Puritans

• considered themselves part of the Church of England, but emphasised autonomous and self-managing congregations

• Massachusetts Bay Colony

• Much more affluent than Plymouth Bay Puritans

Typology

• medieval method to read and interpret the bible, recurring to the Epistles of Paul

• ‚Type‘: image/theme from the Old Testament that prefigures an event/idea of the New Testament

• Typology re-discovered and extended by New England Puritans

• New England typology: related to lived reality as well, every experience can be read typologically

• Typology as a narrative pattern that would recur later in American literature according to Sacvan Bercovitch

Legitimation for settlement in native land

• missionary enterprise

• Defense against indigenous savagery

• Agriculture as the only legitimation of land ownership