The Puritan Mission and How It Failed

The Unlikely Origins of American Democracy

I. The Second Side of English Colonization

How can colonies founded at roughly the same time by people from the same country produce such different influences on American history?

A. Puritan Ideals and American Culture

1. “cultural empire”

2. Emphasize education &

reform- Abolition- Temperance- Feminism - Transcendentalism

3. “City on a Hill” (John Winthrop, 1630)

- Americans chosen by God

- myth of “Redemptive Violence”

4. When the “mission” fails…

- recrimination, paranoia- tendency to persecute

Salem Witch Trials

McCarthyism

Terror alerts?

- Failure contradicts everything they believe(“God’s chosen people”)

- Only way this could happen is if they werebetrayed (internal threat)

Puritan Paradox

This inherently undemocratic society laid the foundations of American democracy

B. Comparison w/ Virginia1. Land distribution

2. Power structure

3. Economy

4. Environment

5. Ideals

II. The Puritan Dilemmas

The Evolution of Puritan Theology and American History

A. Roots of the Puritan Movement

1. Reformation in England

Henry VIII Bloody Mary Elizabeth I

B. The Ghost of John Calvin

1. Reform of the High Church

2. Blasphemy of “Free Will”

- “Grace”- good works don’t matter

3. Predestination

a. Advantages- “plan” for life- natural egalitarianism

b. Dangers

So…Puritans have to cheat

C. Your cheatin’ heart

1. Cheat #1a. The Covenant

John Cotton, 1636

b. Mayflower Compact, 1620 - community first

2. Cheat #2

Conversion process

[prominent role in American Protestantism]

3. Cheat #3

Visible Saints / the Elect

D. Cheaters sometimes prosper

1. Full church membershipa. receive sacraments

b. baptize children (membership)

c. vote on minister

d. political rights

Egalitarian, democratic(?)

III. Things fall apart

The failure of the Puritan Mission

A. Internal division

1. Egalitarian but intolerant

Roger Williams Anne Hutchinson

2. New England’s competing communities

B. Judgment Day deferred

1. English Commonwealth, 1649-60

2. Cromwell’s betrayal

3. the Restoration, 1660

Oliver Cromwell

4. Can’t save the world…save yourself

…by 1670s, even this seemed impossible

Loss of Confidence

Population Growth

Economic Prosperity

C. Loss of Confidence1. Lack of conversion (3rd generation)

- fewer church members- fewer voters

2. “Halfway” Covenant (S. Stoddard) cheat 4

- vote, but no sacraments

By 1700, Puritan church not so pure

D. Population Growth

1. Farms becoming smaller

2. Westward migration

E. Prosperity1. Diverse New England economy

- rise of the “Yankee” trader

Whaling and commercial centers

2. That “Visible Saints” thing comes back to bite them in the butt

- God’s favor

- capitalist ethic conquers communal control

When ideals fail in a society built on idealism, someone has to pay

IV. Salem Possessed

The last gasp of the medieval world

A. Wrath of God

1. King Philip’s War, 1675-76

2. 1680s smallpox epidemic

3. 1684 – Royal Colonyloss of political control

B. Witches among us

1. Feb. 1692, Samuel Parris’s daughterpossessed

2. Arrests did not calm fears

Trial of George Jacobs

C. Causes

1. Lysergic acid (LSD)

2. Economic/social rivalry

- Exploitation of initial fears

- Village v. Town

- Putnams v. Porters

D. The implications

1. Increase Mather, William Phips

1697 – Day of Atonement

1711 – Restitution to survivors and heirs

2. Embarrassment

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Some final thoughts

1. Puritans fail “upward”

2. Communal ideals build democratic tradition rights based on

inclusion in community basis of independence

4. Theological conformity (covenant) gives way to individualism (Visible Saints) - economic liberty, or capitalism

5. Witch trials leave New England fertile ground for personal individualism

Abolition Feminism Transcendentalism