Attempts to Spread Christianity to the Pueblo Indians Essay

In the early 1600’s, a particularly radical group of the Protestant reformers believed that the post-reformation practices of the Catholic church were not pure enough and wanted to strip further and purify the religion; they were accordingly named the Puritans. Eventually, they came over to the New World to have more control. The Puritans’ ideas about government, unique gender roles, and value of literacy influenced the way they colonized the New England area.

The Puritans arrived in the New World in the hopes of “purifying” the Church of England. They practiced certain principles that they believed in and that centered around the idea of God. The main purpose of their journey to New England was to set an example to others how the Church should be, and so their motive for settlement was solely related to religion. The Puritans positively influenced the political, economic, and social development of the New England colonies from 1630 through the 1660s because they were a “city upon a hill” that served as an example to other parts of the world as a result of their strong belief in God.

Some of the Puritans’ main focuses were spreading their culture and faith. They thrived on the belief that they were sent from God, who expected them to study and live by his scriptures in the Bible. They believed stories in the Bible could be applied to every aspect of their lives. A big part of the reason they left England to have a new start in America is so that they would have an opportunity to purify the Church of England that they were accustomed to.

Throughout the period of colonization, several aspects of genocide can be identified. From the Genocide Convention of 1948, genocide was lawfully defined as any of the following committed with the intent to destroy in whole or part a national ethnical, racial, or religious group as such: killing members of the group, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions to bring about its destruction, imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group, and/or forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. In what is modern day North America, European settlers began colonizing the area in hopes of achieving their goals of expanding Christianity, acquiring wealth for their countries, and/or gaining personal wealth and power. The European settlers had little care about the indigenous people of the areas they were colonizing, leading to the American Indian Wars (Lasting from 1622 - 1924) and the genocide of Native Americans. During this time period, the Native American population decreased dramatically as a result of brutal war, disease, and torture. The modern day New Mexico area in particular was home to Indian Pueblos, who showed an extreme act of resistance against their Spanish conquerors. What later became known as the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 showed how resistance to genocide can be achievable and the impacts it may have.

A major influence in the formation of their society was a Puritan named John Winthrop. A member of the first group of Puritans to sail to the Americas, Winthrop’s goal was to be something of a beacon of purity for the rest of colonial America. He believed that if they worked in unity, they

1. "Describe the Puritans and their beliefs, and explain why they left England for the New World." What the Puritans desired was the purification of the English church. Puritans wished to simplify worship and control the regularity of its occurrence. The protestant reformation which seemed everlasting caused conflict with the Puritans. Some Individuals believed only “visible saints” would be allowed a house in the Church. King James threatened the persecution of the separatists so the fled in search of religious freedom inside of the new found colonies.

The Puritans came to colonize New England with the intention to create a place free from the Church of England. John Winthrop spoke to the passengers aboard the Arbella, proclaiming they must be unified in their religious mission, or they would fail. As Calvinists, they fully believed the harder they work, the better chance they had of achieving enlightenment. The concept of unity and hard work ethic inspired by their religious beliefs lead to the early form of a democratic society in the New England Colonies.

The Puritans were a group of people who grew discontent in the Church of England that had a profound influence on the social, political, ethical, and theological ideas of England and America. Puritans immigrated to the New World, where they sought to found a holy commonwealth in New England. Although the Puritans wanted to reform the world to conform to God's law, they did not set up a church-run state. Even though they believed that the primary purpose of

A division of English protestants, called the Puritans, wanted to purify the Church of England’s unbiblical ways. When their efforts only led to persecution, their desire to worship God biblically compelled them to leave England. They had to to brave the fierce Atlantic ocean so they could reach the New World, where they could worship freely. Once there, they founded New England. The Puritans shaped the New England colonies through their democratic assemblies, hard work ethic, and God-fearing communities.

It was an attempt to start a new life and to practice their religion without any worries. One of the religious group that came over to the Americas and would help establish the foundations for the United States in the future was the Puritans. They were a religious group that believed in strictness, hard work, diligence, discipline, and humility. There disagreement with how the Church of England operated created tensions and prosecutions. As a result, the area where the Puritans settled known as New England would be completely different from the middle and south colonies. One of the reasons there was decline in deference towards religion in New England was the strict rules to obtain membership. Only a minority of the population in New England had full memberships. Taylor stated that the “declining proportion of full members threatened to restrict baptism to a minority of the infants, because churches customarily limited that sacraments to offspring of full members.” As a result, people became less involved in church which created problems for the Puritans. Puritans believed that their religious practice was the only way and to become a minority would create problems. A decline of Puritans may lead to the total dissolution of the group and also the colonist decline in deference toward the practices of Puritans. The Puritan

Before coming to the new world, these people were in the vast empire of the time, known as New England. New England, at the time, was ruled by Charles I who created The Church of England. This church’s mission was to break away from the Catholic churches and create its own improved protestant religion. Many people agreed with this new change, however a special group thought that the new church still held to much alikeness to the Catholic church. This special group of people became known as the Puritans.

Within the colony of Massachusetts, religion played an important role in shaping the community’s people and interests. The reason for the Puritans move to North America was to escape the convictions the Christians of England were placing on them (Divine, 89). Winthrop and his followers believed that in this new land they must create a place where they could come together as a people and build the perfect religious society (Divine, 90). In a speech about his vision for the land, John Winthrop said, “We must delight in each

They came to the new world to better themselves and spread the word of Christ. Puritan John Winthrop wrote, "...to improve our lives to doe more service to the Lord; the comforte and encrease the body of Christe, whereof we are members"(42). The Puritans' one and only focus was to please God and fulfill their duties as Christians. Not only were they religious, but they were also very strict when it came to sin and disobeying God. A citizen at the time named John Josselyn writes about punishments if caught breaking the law. "...so for swearing and cursing, or through the tongue with a hot Iron"(59) Mostly families came together to the new world which meant the number of men and women were relatively equal, unlike the settlers residing in Virginia and Maryland. This was the catalysts for population growth in New England. All of their plans and intentions revolved solely around God and his plan. The second most important thing to them was education. The reason for this was so that the children could also learn about and worship God.

The Puritans goal in New England was to create the perfect pure society where nobody sinned and God ruled completely. They attempted this by making laws about and regulating every aspect of life in the colony. To achieve this, the church needed to rule the colony. And if the church ruled the colony, only the real Puritans could be part of the church. They believed only a minority of the population pure enough to be a part of the church. In reality very few people were ever able to give enough evidence that they had completed their part. As a result, two-thirds of the population failed to qualify as church members. The Puritans enacted many laws to keep the non-Puritans living religious lives. They created an official whose only job was to check up on ten families daily to see if anything out of the ordinary was happening and to make sure everyone who was able went to church. Their idea was that everybody, even if they weren’t part of the church, should be very religious. Therefore they created their laws with principles based on the Old Testament. They dreamed of a society where everybody followed the laws and lived a peaceful, god-fearing existence. To make this dream realizable, the Puritans created severe penalties for breaking the laws. These ranged from whipping and being thrown in the stocks for minor offenses, to banishment and death by hanging for serious ones. To be a good Puritan one had to work hard all

Puritans traveled to New England in the early seventeenth century. They believed that economic and political force, and religious disagreements were creating a decline in English society. It is important to note that Puritans were non-separatists, meaning that “they wanted to reform the Church of England, not abandon it.”(Baym 165) The first colony that the Puritans set up was north of Plymouth, at Massachusetts Bay. However, after finding a gap in the charter they received from King Charles I the Puritans moved their capital to Salem, Massachusetts. John Winthrop, the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Massachusetts Puritans sought to create their “City upon a hill” with laws and rules based on their religious rules. (Baym 177) A conservative hierarchical system was formed by Puritans based on "God 's will"