today we're looking at the puritans
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questions down in the description the puritans were basically the second wave of settlers to
come to america for religious freedom similar to the pilgrims the puritans did not agree with the
anglican church of england and wanted to find a place where they could establish a community built
on the teachings of the bible and where they would not be persecuted for their religious beliefs
now unlike the pilgrims who felt the church was beyond saving and wanted to separate and
start their own churches the puritans believe the church could be saved and they wish to purify it
so that's where we get the name puritans in 1629 the puritans formed the massachusetts bay company
and got a royal charter to establish a colony in north america now you might notice that unlike
the pilgrims who had to go through the virginia company of london to come to america the puritans
formed their own company this is because the puritans were predominantly more wealthy and had
more resources than the pilgrims did and unlike other colonies that were established in america
the puritans did not struggle when they arrived primarily because they were able
to bring everything that they needed because of that wealthier status in 1630 john winthrop led
900 puritans to america landing north of plymouth near what is today boston once off the boats john
winthrop gave a sermon known as the city on a hill sermon and in it he said for we must consider that
we shall be as a city upon a hill the eyes of all people are upon us winthrop was basically
arguing that the puritan colony in america itself would be an example to the world on how to live
winthrop believed the puritan colony would inspire the rest of the world to follow their beliefs
during the 1630s and 40s over 30 000 puritans would come to america to escape persecution
and an economic crisis in england in what became known as the great migration the puritans were
very strict about their religious beliefs and in fact in order to participate in the colony
you had to be a practicing member of the church in order to participate in elections you had to
be a male member of the church and later they added the requirement that you had to own land
in order to vote what is ironic about the puritans is that they came to america to
escape religious persecution yet they themselves would not tolerate any different beliefs and
persecuted anyone in america that differed from them hence there are other colonies that formed
out of the massachusetts colony because of this persecution some examples of these were thomas
hooker who was a puritan minister who in 1636 led his congregation out of the massachusetts colony
and founded the colony of connecticut in 1635 roger williams was banished from the massachusetts
colony for arguing that the government should not force you to worship in a certain way
and in 1644 he founded the colony of rhode island in 1638 john wheelwright led a group of persecuted
colonists north and in 1679 new hampshire became an independent colony with so many puritans moving
in and wanting land throughout the early to mid 1600s conflicts with native americans arose
much of the conflict arose because english settlers very much had a clear idea
of land ownership and how land should be used and equaled wealth whereas native americans looked at
the land as something for all to share and did not have a defined system of land ownership this
disagreement would lead to several small conflicts breaking out between the puritan settlers and
native americans until in 1675 a major conflict erupted between the puritans and wampanoag tribe
known as king phillips war and i'll cover that in another bell ringer although the puritans would
really overshadow and eventually really consume the the pilgrims original colony eventually the
puritans themselves would kind of dissolve one reason being that like i said the puritans were
very strict in their religious beliefs and these strict beliefs extended to how they conducted
business by only trading with church members well when an economic downturn occurs in the mid 1600s
puritans were basically forced to start trading with non-church members and then they began to
see the economic opportunity that was there the profits that could be made from that trade and
so puritans began some puritans began to stop following strict puritan law secondly by the
1660s there was a major land shortage and many puritans began fighting among themselves over
who got what land and this further weakened the puritan colony although some stuck with strict
puritan beliefs many drifted away and by the early 1700s the puritans no longer held all the power
and they basically kind of dissolved into these new england communities
so with that hopefully you learned something and thanks for watching