The Puritans were English Protestants who immigrated to America in the 1600s to escape religious persecution and establish a society based on their religious ideals. They believed that only a select few chosen by God could be saved through divine grace, demonstrated by hard work and virtuous behavior. Their beliefs and values shaped early American culture and society, emphasizing individual responsibility, equality, literacy, and reward for hard work.

1. The Puritan Legacy
American Literature’s Colonial Roots

2. Remember the Pilgrims?
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3. Pilgrims and Puritans
The Pilgrims were part of a group of English Puritans
called the “Separatists” who fled persecution in England.
•The Pilgrims traveled to America aboard the Mayflower
and landed at Plymouth in 1620.
Puritans is a general term for English Protestants who
wanted to “purify” the Church of England.
•The Puritans objected to the rituals, decorations, and
organization of the Church of England. They wanted a
simpler form of worship and organization.

4. A Puritan Time Line
In England
1600 1700
1620:
Mayflower
Pilgrims land at
Plymouth
1630:
Great migration of
Puritans to New
England begins
1692:
Salem witch
trials
1653–1658:
Puritan Oliver
Cromwell rules
England as lord
protector
1642–1651:
English civil
wars between
Puritans and
Royalists
1660:
Monarchy
restored under
Charles II
1608:
Separatists
flee England
for Holland
In America

5. What the Puritans Believed
•Religion is a personal, inner experience.
•Humans are wicked by nature, and most are marked
for damnation.
•A chosen few can be saved through the grace of God.
•Hard work and worldly success are signs of God’s
grace.
•Education is essential in order to read the Word of
God.

6. Grace: The Puritan Ideal
•Grace—God’s special favor—was the only way to
escape an eternity in Hell.
•People did not know for certain if they had grace, but
they could feel the arrival of grace as an intense
emotion.
•People who had grace were among the “elect” (saved).
•People who did not have grace were among the
“unregenerate” (damned).

7. Grace: The Puritan Ideal
•The presence of grace was demonstrated by a
person’s outward behavior. People with grace
displayed
•self-reliance
•personal responsibility
•industriousness
•temperance
•simplicity

8. Puritan Government
In Theory
•Every individual had an equal covenant with God.
•Laws came from God, as revealed in scripture.
In Practice
•Most people yielded authority to those seen as the
saintly “elect.”
•Conformity and obedience took precedence over
individual rights.

9. Puritan Literature
What the Puritans Read
•The Bible and other religious texts
Why They Read
•Puritans stressed individual responsibility for spiritual
development.
•Every person was responsible for reading and
understanding the Bible.

10. Puritan Literature
What the Puritans Wrote
•Sermons, essays, and poems on spiritual and religious
subjects
•Diaries and histories that recorded inner and outer
events of their lives
Why They Wrote
•Puritans used writing to explore their lives for signs of
grace and to describe the workings of God in their
communities.

11. Plain Style
Puritans favored a plain style of writing. Plain style is a
way of writing that stresses simplicity and clarity of
expression. Plain style
•emphasizes uncomplicated sentences and the use of
everyday words from common speech
•avoids elaborate figures of speech and imagery
“There is nothing between you and hell but the air; it is only
the power and mere pleasure of God that holds you up.”
from “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards

12. Salem: Believers Run Amok
•1692—Girls suffer from mysterious illness in Salem,
Massachusetts.
•Doctors blame witchcraft.
•Mass hysteria erupts; neighbors accuse one another.
•In the end, about 150 people were accused, and 20
were executed.

13. What Happened to the Puritans?
•The Age of Faith gradually gave way to the Age of
Reason.
•Philosophers and scientists stressed the importance of
using reason, rather than religion, to explain how the
world operates.
•The Puritans didn’t disappear—their culture was
absorbed into the colonial mainstream.

14. The Puritan Legacy
In the United States, we generally value
•individual rights and responsibilities
•equality of individuals
•literacy and education
•spiritual and worldly rewards for hard work

15. What Have You Learned?
1. Puritans believed that religion was a personal, inner
experience.
a. true b. false
2. Those who had grace were among the
a. damned b. unregenerate c. elect
3. A person with grace may display all of the following
characteristics except
a. simplicity b. self-reliance c. greed

16. The End