Lucía M. and Elif N.

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PURITANISM:
1. Who were the puritans and what was puritanism?
Puritanism was a religious movement that started in the late 16 th and 17th centuries,
when Elisabeth I was the queen of England.
It was formed by some Christians who decided to divided from the Church of England
because they thought there were still catholic practices, which were not within their
principles.

2. Important puritans:
There were a lot of important puritans, but the most famous were Peter Bulkeley, John
Winthrop, Anne Bradstreet and Anne Hutchinson.

Peter Bulkeley  He was an influential puritan minister and founder of Concord (a

town situated in Massachusetts).
John Winthrop  He was noted for his sermon “A model of Christian Charity”, as well
he had a leading figure in founding the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Anne Bradstreet  She was the first female to have her works published in the British
North American colonies.
Anne Hutchinson  She was one of the first puritan females to be noted for speaking
freely about her point of view of religion and habits. In addition, she was so influential
in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

3. Puritanism in the USA:

In 1630 the British puritans were persecuted in England because of their beliefs so they
decided to moved to other countries like The United States of America, where John
Winthrop create a new colony called The Massachusetts Bay Colony.
This colony was formed by some states of the east coast like Maine, New Hampshire,
Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut and the capital was Salem.

4. Habits and prohibitions:

The puritans had some rules, habits and prohibitions related to religion, beliefs….
In the year 1644 they decided to avoid Christmas because they thought it was a pagan
celebration and has nothing related to the Bible. So finally, this came true because a
lot of puritans had important political positions.
Another habit was to keep one day of the week in honor of God, in this case this day
was Sunday, like it was said in the ten commandments.
And as well they couldn’t have sex outside the marriage and get divorced, so if they
renege on, they became sinners because they committed a sin.

5. Women:
In Victorian society puritan women had different and important roles like tending their
vegetables garden, were responsible for caring their husbands, guiding the next
generation of Puritan children…
As well they had some limitations written in a book like for example:
- They weren’t allowed to vote in the General Court.
Lucía M. and Elif N.
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- They were also restricted from buying and selling any piece of land, they only
do it men.
- And they couldn’t sue in a court of law, they couldn’t accuse anyone or plead
guilty of something they committed.
All these limitations happened because men thought that women were to important,
indispensable in their lives but at the same time they were culturally inferior than
them.
If the woman was married, she had to follow his husband, but if she was unmarried se
had to follow his father.