History of the United States I / Unit 3 USH1 0328 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Why the Puritans Came
The idea
Puritans sought to purify the Church of England of un-scriptural elements. Following Calvin they challenged festive culture, opposing bear-baiting and theatre. When James the First commissioned the King James Version to emphasise royal majesty over Puritan interpretations, tension rose, and by the sixteen twenties and thirties the state church prohibited Puritan preaching, viewing them as national security threats. Their leadership included Cambridge and Oxford educated ministers and gentry such as John Winthrop.
In practice
Winthrop's city upon a hill, meant as a reformed Protestant model for the world to copy.
Where people slip
They emigrated not to establish religious freedom but to practise their own faith without persecution. The distinction is the whole of it. A colony founded to escape persecution went on to banish Roger Williams, excommunicate Anne Hutchinson, and execute nineteen people at Salem. Freedom of conscience was not the project, and treating it as one makes the next century unintelligible.
Your place on the trail
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