William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation

The Salem Witch Trials were a time of confusion, where half a dozen girl accusers threw the town of Salem on its head. The end result was 19 hung and one crushed to death for failure to admit or deny witchcraft and 150 more were imprisoned throughout the course of the trial (Hall p38). The Puritans came to the “New World” for their religious freedom to fallow their ideals for a new way of life, the “perfect way of life.” They were issued charter--to live on the land--. The King Phillip’s war labeled as “[t]he bloodiest war in America’s history …which…took place in New England in 1675” (Tougias par.1) had a dramatic effect on the Puritan society. Their charter was revoked and

The New England colonists, except for Rhode Island, were predominantly Puritans who practiced very strict religious lives. The civil government in these colonies dealt quite harshly with those who dared to disagree with the Puritan church. People were being exiled for speaking out against Puritanism. They whipped baptists. They cropped, or cut off, the ears of Quakers. They even went as far as to hang Quaker missionaries. They did all of this in an order to proselytize and convert people to be Puritan.

New England’s motive to settle there was for freedom of religion due to being in England if they worshiped other religions not been the Church of England, consequences would be imprisonment, fees, discrimination, and even execution. They had two main religious established, Pilgrims and Puritans, been two different religions. Pilgrims were the first permanent settlers on New England.1

The ideal most important to early colonists’ survival and success was piety. One way we see this is in William Bradford’s text, “Of Plymouth Plantation”. Bradford states, “Our fathers were Englishmen which came over this great ocean, and were ready to perish in this wilderness; but they cried unto the Lord, and He heard their voice and looked on their adversity.” This explains the pilgrim’s belief, that without God they would have succumbed to the harsh way of life. Piety in this moment was vital to the pilgrim’s survival, without their strong belief in God they wouldn’t have had the will to survive. Evidence of piety can also be seen in “A Model of Christian Charity”, by John Winthrop. “We must delight in each other, make others’ conditions

In the selections, Of Plymouth Plantation and The Life of Olaudah Equiano, they both start a new beginning. Through hard work, perseverance, and the determination not to give up, these two stories tell the tale of survival to begin. However, one story’s beginning is much happier than the others.

Introduction. The new boundaries and opportunities in the seventeenth century grew and challenged an idea of religious liberty. The lifestyle of the first colonists in the New England was heavily influenced by religion and church. Settlers considered that success of social life depends on the obedience to God’s will. The governor John Winthrop maintained and developed this idea. With a help of his Speech to the Massachusetts General Court in 1645, he summed up and explained an important idea of liberty. Winthrop did not only define a blessed way for a better life of the community but also clarified the role of citizens through the analogy of women’s position in the society. His concept of natural and moral liberty turned up to be suitable and clear for the settlers. With a help of well-built speech, Winthrop emphasized and explained correlation among society, authority, and God in the New World.

In Of Plymouth Plantation, William Bradford writes of multiple acts of God’s divine providence acting on the Pilgrims during their journey to Virginia and the subsequent founding of Plymouth Plantation. Bradford’s portrayal of events he labels providence, such as the death of the lusty seaman, the finding of the corn seeds by the exploring party, and the repulse of the Native American attack, shows his belief that God acted through natural events and reveals aspects of Puritan theology and thinking.

When the first American settlement on Roanoke Island was established in 1585 it’s primary force, Sir Walter Raleigh, had no idea that this “New World” would evolve into one of the most powerful voices in the modern world. But before it developed it would have to shaped by it’s founders from the Western world. Two of the largest voices in America’s early development are John Smith, who with a group of English merchants, hoped to get rich in this new land, and William Bradford, a puritan farmer who was one of the most influential men involved with the Mayflower compact. In their two pieces they both convey America as a place to escape but

Most colonists that came in the early 1600’s were Christians, a religion that has very specific rules and rigid regulations that must be followed to be a “saved” person destined for a paradisiacal after life. Within these restrictions were the directions to “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). It seems clear that from the first the Christian religion was telling the colonists to “help” the natives by making them conform to the culture of the colonists and destroying their own. This was always done with a sense of Native American natural inferiority. In most cases, the Native Americans were not told the entire nature of their conversion. A Jesuit described the tactics used in converting Native Americans, “The outward splendor with which we endeavor to surround the Ceremonies of the Church…with a magnificence surpassing anything that the eyes of our savages have ever beheld – all these things produce an impression on their minds” (Le pays reneverse by denys delage 168). For those truly religious souls, coming to the New World meant a chance to bring salvation and Christianity to new

This colony was quite different from Virginia. In Plymouth, everyone was each others backbone, meaning everyone helped each other out. Whether it was crops or building etc. Everybody was entitled to religious freedom, their rights. One difference though is that Bradford was more caring of his people and he remained there the rest of his life.

As the Protestant Reformation lead to oppression of outside opinions and beliefs, many peoples took this opportunity to start anew in colonial America. However, each region adopted a slightly different religion. For example, New England became a stable platform for Protestants. As the Church of England underwent radical changes, some Englishmen opposed these changes due to their striking similarities to Catholicism, and therefore sought a new religion, Protestantism (Foner p.64). In order to avoid oppression and discrimination of their new religion in England, many fled to America in hopes of seeking religious tolerance. Some settled in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania. Protestantism preached about the importance of sermons, equality, and even adopted John Calvin’s idea of pre-determined salvation (Foner p. 65). Winthrop and the first settlers of Massachusetts set up a Commission in which Puritan beliefs governed society. For example,

In comparison Virginia and Plymouth had a reason for colonizing in the Americas. It natural that any foreigner would want more money and especially in a placed where no one has touched it. They both had a purpose of being here in the Americas, the colonist had good soil for the plantations and for growing new different groups in the field, and the pilgrims had a very rocky soil and it limited their farming skills, so the colonists had an advantage. The pilgrims were more involved in conflicts with the native Americans that the colonists, they were both were associated with them but numerous times the pilgrims had conflicts with them.The colonists from Virginia and Plymouth both came for the British monarchy of England. Complemnetary to this the colonies had some starvation rapidly going on in their civilizations and also a numerous titanic load of people died. When they arrived in the Americas the native Americans helped them by supplying food because they were not used to the different soils and plantations that they had back in England. The people of Virginia wanted to be wealthy and the puritans from Plymouth came because of religious freedom and because they had religious persecution in their native homelands. Bradford stays as governor in the colonies until the rest of his life and John Smith does not stay, he leaves after an accidental incident happened and he leaves the Americas and goes back to

Throughout William Bradford’s “Of Plymouth Plantation”, his attachment to his religion was very strong and very verbally shown throughout his work. Bradford was between the age of twelve and thirteen when he had first heard his first sermon by a minister named Richard Clyfton and he later joined with Clyfton in the year 1606. Bradford begins with “…some godly and zealous preachers, and God’s blessings on their labors…” God is already being praised in the first few sentences of this work to bless the labor of their works and throughout the land. The goal of this paper is to bring into light three different sections throughout the work, where Bradford uses his religion to prove a point and to show how his religious faith is freely expressed by leaving England.

“The Salem witchcraft trials,” a phrase not too often heard these days in everyday conversation. Witches burning at the stake, or drowning in a tub of water, and perhaps the most humane way of their execution, hanging. This piece of American history is a prudent example of how everyday people can, and were, be lead astray from what would normally be considered ridiculous and preposterous ideas, into something that warrants these horrible means of human demise. What or more importantly who was responsible for this catastrophic loss of life? The Quaker society of colonial America was where these events took place. The term Quaker refers to a member of a religious sect called The Society of Friends,

Where does the truth lay when there are two different perspectives on the same situations? Unfortunately, there is no clear cut answer. In William Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation and Thomas Morton’s New English Canaan, there are many discrepancies between each story. Both men seek to defame one another in order to preserve the innocence of their individual characters. They are not exactly successful in their mission when Morton and Bradford spend time discussing their issues with one another. There is a lot of finger pointing in these parts yet neither man assumes any responsibility for the troubles. William Bradford and Thomas Morton utilize different approaches to paint each other in an unfavorable way causing their goals to fall short.