preview

Puritan Dbq Analysis

Decent Essays

Should politics, economics and social issues be left to the hands of religion? The Puritans believed that they were acting under God’s word when they developed their cities to revolve around their religion, but the Puritans beliefs had a bigger effect than they believed at the time. The Puritan ideals and beliefs shaped the town layout, constructed the gender hierarchy and dictated what the education system was.

The Puritans had fled England to pursue their own religious freedom and when they landed in Massachusetts they did not waste time in beginning to exercise it. Document B shows the map of Colonial New England. The design and structure of the town was built around the church, minister’s house and town hall. As you walked farther away …show more content…

While we have come farther than the 1600s, there are still lots of misogynistic views and blatant sexism prevalent in media and even taught to children. In Puritan society, women faced inequality too. Like most of their social, economic and political policies it relied on religion. Document H quotes “Limitation of Government” which states that, “It is there fore fit for every man to be studios of the bounds which the Lord hath set: and for the people, in whom fundamentally all power lies, to give as much power word gives to men…. it Is good for the wife to acknowledge all power and authority to the husband…” This created many issues. Men having all the family power meant also political and economic power. The women had little to no rights and were expected to care for the family instead of attending the local school or going to look for any sort of job. These sorts of beliefs were passed down and upheld for centuries. Even today we are still pushing for women of all races and ethnicities to be represented in government and in all fields of academia. The Puritans religious beliefs had a negative effect on the gender hierarchy of the 1630s that would later lead to more serious

Get Access