Puritan Laws in Early America

The first Puritan settlers in the Boston area were from England. They came to America seeking freedom of religion-of their religion to be precise. They were staunch believers of the Bible's teachings or whatever they interpreted it to be. They were so unyielding as to be repellent to those of the different beliefs. In fact, they managed to drive out the first settler on the Shawmut Peninsula-William Blackstone-within a few years of their settling there. Slowly but surely they turned their religious beliefs into the law of the land.

Banning Christmas

As most of us know, even if Jesus existed, he probably was not born on Christmas. The Puritans knew this too and rejected the date. Furthermore, those who did celebrate Christmas did so by (gasp!) feasting, drinking, not working and maybe even dancing and playing games. This went against everything the Puritans stood for. They were hard-working, serious people who thought all kinds of fun things were the work of Satan. A quote from H.L. Mencken describes them perfectly. "Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy."

Puritan leaders in Boston banned Christmas on May 11, 1659. Any person caught celebrating in any way would be charged "5 shillings as a fine to the county . . . for every such offense." In other words, if you were caught feasting, imbibing and dancing, you would be charged 15 shillings. He ban on Christmas was lifted by English official, Sir Edmund Andros in 1681.

Banning Quakers

To Puritans, Quakers were heretical troublemakers. The Puritan leaders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony found them intolerable. Therefore, in 1658, they put laws in place to discourage Quakers from entering Boston. The first time a Quaker man was found in Boston, one of his ears could be chopped off. The second time, his other ear would be removed. On the third offense, a hot poker would be driven through their tongue. They could also be jailed and hanged, if the offense warranted it. Female Quakers were spared from this horror. Instead, they were whipped, jailed and hanged.

In the end, England's rulers put a stop to this barbaric practice. The Boston Puritans were told to protect all Christians except for Catholics.

Miscellaneous Rules

Early Puritans believed that if a child cursed their parents, they could be executed. Kissing your spouse in public could get you a few hours in the stocks. They took Exodus 22:18 very seriously, as evidenced by the Salem Witch Trials. "Thou shall not suffer a witch to live." Anything that wasted time, money or energy was severely frowned upon. Clothing and styles were controlled strictly by Puritan leaders. Laughter? Joking? Teasing? All bad.

All of these laws show us that Puritans were, well, Puritanical. Modern New Englanders view them as something of a dangerous joke or a lesson in forcing others to live by your beliefs. However, Puritans were not all bad. They were very productive people and community oriented. Despite their shortcomings, they could teach the people of today a thing or two about work ethic.

Sources

Gier, Nick, Quaker Persecution by our Puritan fathers, retrieved 9/27/10, newwest.net/main/article/quaker_persecution_by_our_puritan_fathers

Dark Side of the Puritan Ethic, retrieved 9/27/10, humanismbyjoe.com/Puritans_dark_Side.htm

C. Danko, When Christmas was banned in Boston, retrieved 9/27/10, masstraveljournal.com/features/boston-cambridge/when-christmas-was-banned