The Puritans - Did They Gain the Freedom They Sought?

The Puritans of New England, during their early years, had varying views on liberty based on the groups it affected. Different members of the society had to follow slightly different norms to achieve liberty. When these norms were crossed, trouble was inevitable. The Puritans set of a good foundation for liberty, but their views of social and moral liberty could not exist in our modern society.

John Winthrop, in his "City upon a Hill" speech set up a good foundation for the colony by giving people structure. He told the colonist that they must be God fearing and never give into sin. He said that if they let themselves fall into sin, it would lead to the "shipwreck" of the colony. He was essentially asking them to conform in to one body by following what is accepted as right, moral liberty; also he wanted them to follow rigid social guidelines, social liberty. One of the characteristics of our modern liberty is the ability to do as one pleases. If a man is forced to conform to one ideology, like moral/social liberty, then how can he be truly free? He can not unless his sole desire was to achieve that "City upon a Hill" status. This was a noble idea, but simply it was too rigid to be considered "freedom". John Winthrop told the Puritans that people from all other colonies should look up to them and try to be like them in their communal connection to God. This is a very good ambition because it conceptually should strengthen the colony as a whole and as parts. With this view instilled by John Winthrop, the community was encouraged to set themselves as a solely based on Christianity. Many of the people were more then willing to follow this, so it can be accepted as a system of liberty. Those who were against were stripped of and liberty they were given and sent on there way; it was basically chose our form of liberty or chose to leave the colony. John Winthrop's "City upon a Hill" speech set up a narrow but firm system of liberties for the Puritans of New England.

There were many factors that made up the early seventeenth century Puritan society. For instance children had to follow strict rules, rules like they had to formally present themselves in the presence of adults. For the most part this was not a bad system; it taught children good values that they could use for the rest of their lives. Children were taught to ignore errors committed by adults; rules like these are the ones that make the society overly rigid. They also felt they needed a well defined system that divides male and female responsibilities. Women's rights were far and few between; men and woman were on two distinctly different playing fields. Men were set up as the head of the house, meaning they had all the power in the relationship. He was also to be the head of his wife, meaning he was to love and protect her. Wives were to be submissive to their husbands and not interfere in men's responsibilities. This was not based on a system that they had created, it was based on what the Bible said; this lasted in ever modifying forms for many centuries. Overall the division of responsibilities did work, but eventually needed to crumble. This system did establish a firm form of liberties but there was no way it could last forever.

All the people were not given the liberty to gain a formal education. John Winthrop, in his journals, said that it is not fitting for a woman to take part in education. He, along with most of the mal community, thought that women should stick to household duties and leave education for their "stronger minded" male counterparts. This is a dramatic lack of for seventeenth century New England women; this is a reoccurring theme all throughout history. This lack of freedom for women has existed essentially from the beginning of time; its longevity does not constitute this mind set. Educations should be offered to all people, men and women. This lack of education in this Bible based society forced illiterate men and women to rely on second hand interpretations of the bible. They had no way to formulate their conclusions because the society limited their liberties. If a person created their own interpretation, they were likely to be banished. There was no way that this system of liberties could last forever, but it did a reasonable job in the Puritan colony.

Although many facets of the Puritan's liberty system could not be accepted by our society, it did a reasonable job at setting a system for future generations to modify and the world changes. The Puritans had constraints on their system of liberty like choice of religion. Different groups were treated differently. If you chose not to follow what the society set up, you were kicked out. The Puritans may have had a very rigid system of liberty, but no one can say that Puritans did not have freedom. Their system worked pretty well for them, but can not work with our modern society. We would not be able to accept the rules that they followed, but then again they were not set up for us. Instead we decided to modify their system; our system of liberty is a gradually changing system which was based on Puritan ideals. If the Puritans had not had their system of liberties, then we may not have the system that we have today.

-All facts, including excerpts form John Winthrop's "City upon a Hill", were use form Erick Forner's "Give Me Liberty ".(Forner 2005)