The Influence of Puritan Ideals on the Political, Economic, and Social Development of the New England Colonies from 1630 Through the 1660s
Sam Kokomoor
Honors U.S. History
Mr. Crump
2A
1/7/14

The New England colonies were widely influenced by the ideas and values of the puritans. Puritans influenced the political, economic and social development of the New England colonies from 1630 all the way through the 1660s. Their main purpose of coming to America was to gain religious freedom. They were the foundation for what America is now and their influence towards political, social, and economic development of the New England colonies shaped the America that we know and love.
In document J, John Higginson was quoted as having said "The cause of God and his people in New England" in 1662. He stated that New England is originally a plantation of Religion, not a plantation of trade. What he was trying to say was that they did not come to America to gain wealth and prosper from it, but came to America to spread their religion.Religion was very important in the lives of puritans. In 1666, a court article titled "Religious Conformity in the Bay Colony" showed us that three men by the names of Thomas Gold, Thomas Osbourne, and John George went to jail for refusing to attend their local church. To todays society this might seem excessive, but religion was their life. In fact religion was so important to the puritans that they created schools for learning Latin and English to learn how to read the Bible. Those schools ended up becoming the foundation of the top schools in the country, Yale and Harvard University. Puritans greatly emphasized that their religion was the most important thing in their life.
As was stated in the previous paragraph, the puritans were the foundation of these universities, yet the disappointing part was that only young males could attend these academies. In document E, titled-A statement about education in New England, 1643 it talked about the lives of the puritans after arriving to America. It explained that since they had arrived in New England, God had helped the puritans to build homes and build churches but that it was time for them to advance in learning to become ministers. This is the point in time when they built the schools, Yale and Harvard that we all know so well today. Young girls were homeschooled by their mothers. Women were not allowed to do anything but common house chores, cook food, and make clothing. The wife always did what the husband ordered. The husband was in charge of everything, from providing the family with food to dealing with the economic side of