Puritan Intolerance in the 17th Century

1. DOCUMENT C: Map of English Settlements in the 17th century (including the Massachusetts Bay Colony) This demonstrates Puritan intolerance because it shows the location of the MA Bay colony which was on the edge of the frontier with Native Americans This created fear in the Puritan community. DOCUMENT D: Image of Giles Corey, accused of witchcraft, being pressed to death in Salem (1692) This demonstrates Puritan intolerance because it shows what happened to those who resisted Puritan laws and ideasand how hysterical Puritans could be.

2. This demonstrates Puritan intolerance because it shows the idea and need for community and that Boston will be an example of a pure Christian city. They will not tolerate any bad actions or differences from Puritan thought. founder of Boston DOCUMENT A: Excerpt from John Winthrop’s A Model of Christian Charity (1630)  … we must uphold a familiar commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience, and liberality, we must delight in each other, make others' conditions our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, our community as members of the same body So shall we keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and byword throughout the world, we shall open the mouths of enemies to speak evil of the ways of God and all professors for God's sake, we shall shame the faces of many of God's worthy servants, and cause their prayers to be turned into curses upon us till we be consumed out of the good land whither we are going. DOCUMENT SET B: Puritan Woodcuts from the 17th century This demonstrates Puritan intolerance because they show the consequences of sin in Puritan society. Makes it seem as if the devil is present in every sin.

3. This demonstrates Puritan intolerance becauseit shows the many issues and fears that Puritans had that led them to resist different ideas and changes. Also an example of Puritans inability to understand the world around them. DOCUMENT E: Excerpts from Decoding the Salem Witch Trials by Lori Stokes, PhD. (2013) The whole social order of the village was turned upside-down as children held power over adults, fully integrated members of society were accused, tried, and executed; and it was far more common in Puritan Salem to be executed for adultery than witchcraft.  Salem cannot be explained away as just another consequence of the Puritans’ supposedly terrible and ignorant religion. It was an anomaly, it was seen as one at the time, and should be seen as one now. By 1692, Salem was in a state of anger and confusion, and was on high alert: the people feared an American Indian attack, they had just had their system of government overthrown and their independence taken away, and they were suffering from tension and conflict between Salem Village and Salem Town. On the eve of the witch scare, Salem was ripe for a spark to ignite an explosion of violence. Witchcraft became that spark. DOCUMENT F: Quote from John Endicott’s address to the Quakers (1659) This demonstrates Puritan intolerance because it shows the Gov. of MA point of view on different religious beliefs. He wanted non-Puritans tortured and killed. They were out of control.

4. DOCUMENT G: Quote from Roger Williams before his banishment from the Massachusetts Bay Colony (1635) This demonstrates Puritan intolerance becauseit shows the beliefs of a man who was banished by the Puritans. Williams believed people should not be forced to worship and be the same. DOCUMENT H: Page from The New England Primer (1681) This demonstrates Puritan intolerance becauseit shows the harshness of Puritan society and how the rules were conveyed to children. Children were expected to follow all rules in Puritan society.

5. This demonstrates Puritan intolerance becausethe strict laws and punishments in Puritans society. DOCUMENT I: Excerpt from Colonial Crimes and Punishments by James A. Cox In Puritan New England, a religious message leaps out from almost every page of the early criminal codes. Sin, of course, existed in the eyes of the beholders, and the eyes were everywhere—as you might expect in small, inbred communities. Consider the scrutiny given to observance of the Sabbath. The law usually required churchgoing, and someone was always checking attendance. In early Virginia, every minister was entitled to appoint four men in his fort or settlement to inform on religious scofflaws. In the early seventeenth century, Boston's Roger Scott was picked up for "repeated sleeping on the Lord's Day" and sentenced to be severely whipped for "striking the person who waked him from his godless slumber." In l668 in Salem, Massachusetts, John Smith and the wife of John Kitchin were fined "for frequent absenting themselves from the public worship of God on the Lord's days." In l682 in Maine it cost Andrew Searle five shillings merely for "wandering from place to place" instead of "frequenting the publique worship of god." And woe to the man who profaned the Sabbath "by lewd and unseemly behavior," the crime of a Boston seafaring man, one Captain Kemble. He made the mistake of publicly kissing his wife on returning home on a Sunday after three years at sea, a transgression that earned him several hours of public humiliation in the stocks. But, of course, the codes concerned themselves as much with the secular as the divine. The laws, especially in New England, made crimes of lying and idleness, general lewdness and bad behavior.