Why the Puritans Came to America: Goals, Values, and Legacy
This paper examines the Puritans' emigration to the New World in the early 17th century, drawing on primary sources and secondary literature to explain why they left England, what they hoped to achieve, and whether they succeeded. It covers the hardships of colonial life, interactions with Native Americans, and the core values expressed in figures such as William Bradford, John Winthrop, and Roger Williams. The paper also considers the contradictions in Puritan ideals — particularly their pursuit of religious freedom for themselves while denying it to others — and assesses the lasting relevance of Puritan morality and ethics to modern American society.
- Introduction: Overview of paper's scope and research questions
- Why the Puritans Came to America: Religious persecution drives Puritan emigration to New World
- Puritan Goals and Their Achievement: Puritans sought freedom for themselves, denied it to others
- Hardships of Colonial Life and Interactions with Native Americans: Survival struggles and complex Native American encounters
- Puritan Values and Beliefs: Winthrop's vision and the theology of work and community
- Relevance of Puritan Values in Modern Society: Puritan ideals echo in First Amendment religious protections
- Conclusion: Legacy of Puritan education, moderation, and American identity
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What makes this paper effective
- Strong use of primary sources — Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation, Smith's General History, Winthrop's "A Model of Christian Charity," and Williams's "A Key into the Language of America" — grounds the analysis in the voices of the era.
- The paper acknowledges internal contradictions in Puritan ideology (seeking freedom while denying it to others), which adds critical depth and prevents hagiography.
- The conclusion effectively connects 17th-century Puritan values to the First Amendment's Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses, giving the historical argument contemporary relevance.
Key academic technique demonstrated
This paper demonstrates the integration of primary and secondary sources to construct a layered historical argument. The author quotes directly from period texts and then contextualizes those quotations with modern scholarly commentary, showing how historians evaluate historical actors against the standards of both their own time and ours.
Structure breakdown
The paper is organized around a series of explicit research questions — why the Puritans came, what their goals were, whether they achieved them, how difficult colonial life was, how they interacted with Native Americans, what their values were, and whether those values remain relevant. Each question forms a headed section, producing a clear, interrogative structure that guides the reader through the argument sequentially before drawing conclusions.
Introduction
By the turn of the 17th century, much of the New World had already been explored by Europeans in search of gold and glory, and reports of the opportunities and riches available encouraged others to follow. Not everyone who ventured into the New World wilderness was in search of money, however — the Puritans braved the elements in search of religious freedom. This paper provides a review of selected primary sources from the era together with other relevant literature to determine why the Puritans came to America, as well as a description of their overarching goals and an analysis of whether they achieved those goals. In addition, a discussion of the difficulty of life for these early colonists and a description of their interactions with Native Americans are followed by an assessment of their values and whether those values and morals remain relevant in modern society. Finally, a summary of the research and important findings concerning the Puritans and their emigration to the New World is provided in the conclusion.
Why the Puritans Came to America
According to Baym (2008), one of the most important early Puritan figures was William Bradford, who would go on to become the first leader of the Plymouth Plantation in Massachusetts. Baym notes that "Bradford epitomizes the spirit of determination and self-sacrifice that seems to us characteristic of our first 'Pilgrims,' a word used to describe the believers who sailed from Southampton, England, on the Mayflower, and settled in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620" (p. 57). In sum, this "community of believers" came to America in an effort to avoid the religious persecution they had been experiencing in the Old World and their inability to reform the Anglican Church from within (Baym, 2007). Gaddy and Lynn (2006) confirm that "most of the first European settlers in North America came to flee religious persecution and seek religious freedom" (p. 300).
The momentous arrival of the Puritans was recorded by Bradford in his account Of Plymouth Plantation, wherein he wrote: "Being thus arrived in a good harbor and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of heaven, who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them" (p. 60). As members of the official state Anglican Church in England, the Puritans were convinced that the only way they could practice their faith in peace was to find a place in the world where they would be free of persecution and could live their lives in accordance with their own values.
References
Baym, N. (Ed.). (2008). The Norton anthology of American literature, vol. 1. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Danson, T. & Hutchinson, A. (2017). The Puritans and freedom of religion. The Historic Present. Retrieved from https://thehistoricpresent.com/2008/10/27/the-puritans-and-freedom-of-religion/.
Gaddy, C. W. & Lynn, B. W. (2008). First freedom first: A citizen's guide to protecting religious liberty and the separation of church and state. Boston: Beacon Press.
Hatch, O. G. (2001, January 1). Religious liberty at home and abroad: Reflections on protecting this fundamental freedom. Brigham Young University Law Review, 21(2), 413–416.
Stanley, T. (2010, November). To build a shining city on a hill. History Today, 60(11), 24–26.
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