The Position of Women in the New World's Puritan Society in the Seventeenth Century

The Position of Women in the New World's Puritan Society in the Seventeenth Century

Author: Stephanie MacHate

Publisher: GRIN Verlag

Published: 2011-03-14

Total Pages: 33

ISBN-13: 3640863739

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Essay from the year 2004 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,0, Dresden Technical University, 8 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: In order to examine women's status and life in a Puritan society in the New World, we first have to know why people left their native country. Marilyn J. Westerkamp tries to give some reasons in her book Women and Religion in Early America: In the early sixteenth century the Reformation arrived in England (3) and in the following decades a Puritan culture developed. A website1 tells us that in its core a description of man's direct relationship to God could be found and that thus no one needed a priest to contact God. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Puritan movement was attacked by Anglican bishops so that a few tried to flee. When Charles І became monarch, a tendency of being less tolerant towards Puritan clerics grew; as a result of this many influential Puritans were arrested. Due to the fact that under the reign of this king numerous ceremonies were formalized and made more complex, the Puritans felt that religious ceremonies became artificial and thus their dissatisfaction grew. From 1628 on, they started to think of emigration to escape the monarch's control (Westerkamp 13). English Puritans founded in April 1630 a colony in the New World, called New England. Westerkamp calls this community, which was built in the wilderness, a "holy experiment". As New England was created with the help of England, but without an interference of the monarch (Westerkamp 14), it was possible to develop the colony independently from the oversea's monarchy. In this "experiment" as many women as men were involved and due to the direct contact between God and the individual, religious power could be given to anybody (Westerkamp 11). Therefore the status and the role of a woman might differ to that in England.


The position of women in the New World’s Puritan Society in the seventeenth century

The position of women in the New World’s Puritan Society in the seventeenth century

Author: Stephanie Machate

Publisher: GRIN Verlag

Published: 2007-06-16

Total Pages: 14

ISBN-13: 363881324X

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Essay from the year 2004 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 1,0, Dresden Technical University, language: English, abstract: In order to examine women’s status and life in a Puritan society in the New World, we first have to know why people left their native country. Marilyn J. Westerkamp tries to give some reasons in her book Women and Religion in Early America: In the early sixteenth century the Reformation arrived in England (3) and in the following decades a Puritan culture developed. A website1 tells us that in its core a description of man’s direct relationship to God could be found and that thus no one needed a priest to contact God. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, the Puritan movement was attacked by Anglican bishops so that a few tried to flee. When Charles І became monarch, a tendency of being less tolerant towards Puritan clerics grew; as a result of this many influential Puritans were arrested. Due to the fact that under the reign of this king numerous ceremonies were formalized and made more complex, the Puritans felt that religious ceremonies became artificial and thus their dissatisfaction grew. From 1628 on, they started to think of emigration to escape the monarch’s control (Westerkamp 13). English Puritans founded in April 1630 a colony in the New World, called New England. Westerkamp calls this community, which was built in the wilderness, a “holy experiment”. As New England was created with the help of England, but without an interference of the monarch (Westerkamp 14), it was possible to develop the colony independently from the oversea’s monarchy. In this “experiment” as many women as men were involved and due to the direct contact between God and the individual, religious power could be given to anybody (Westerkamp 11). Therefore the status and the role of a woman might differ to that in England.


Puritan Family

Puritan Family

Author: Edmund S. Morgan

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 1966-01-01

Total Pages: 210

ISBN-13: 0061312274

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The Puritans came to New England not merely to save their souls but to establish a "visible" kingdom of God, a society where outward conduct would be according to God's laws. This book discusses the desire of the Puritans to be socially virtuous and their wish to force social virtue upon others.


Damned Women

Damned Women

Author: Elizabeth Reis

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 1999-01-18

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 1501713337

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In her analysis of the cultural construction of gender in early America, Elizabeth Reis explores the intersection of Puritan theology, Puritan evaluations of womanhood, and the Salem witchcraft episodes. She finds in those intersections the basis for understanding why women were accused of witchcraft more often than men, why they confessed more often, and why they frequently accused other women of being witches. In negotiating their beliefs about the devil's powers, both women and men embedded womanhood in the discourse of depravity.Puritan ministers insisted that women and men were equal in the sight of God, with both sexes equally capable of cleaving to Christ or to the devil. Nevertheless, Reis explains, womanhood and evil were inextricably linked in the minds and hearts of seventeenth-century New England Puritans. Women and men feared hell equally but Puritan culture encouraged women to believe it was their vile natures that would take them there rather than the particular sins they might have committed.Following the Salem witchcraft trials, Reis argues, Puritans' understanding of sin and the devil changed. Ministers and laity conceived of a Satan who tempted sinners and presided physically over hell, rather than one who possessed souls in the living world. Women and men became increasingly confident of their redemption, although women more than men continued to imagine themselves as essentially corrupt, even after the Great Awakening.


American Women's History

American Women's History

Author: Susan Ware

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 160

ISBN-13: 0199328331

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What does American history look like with women at the center of the story? From Pocahantas to military women serving in the Iraqi war, this Very Short Introduction chronicles the contributions that women have made to the American experience from a multicultural perspective that emphasizes how gender shapes women's--and men's--lives.


The Religious History of American Women

The Religious History of American Women

Author: Catherine A. Brekus

Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 0807831026

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More than a generation after the rise of women's history alongside the feminist movement, it is still difficult, observes Catherine Brekus, to locate women in histories of American religion. In this collection of 12 essays, contributors explore how considering the religious history of American women can transform our dominant historical narratives. Covering a variety of topics--including Mormonism, the women's rights movement, Judaism, witchcraft trials, the civil rights movement, Catholicism, everyday religious life, Puritanism, African American women's activism, and the Enlightenment--the volume enhances our understanding of both religious history and women's history. Taken together, these essays sound the call for a new, more inclusive history.


Women's Roles in Seventeenth-Century America

Women's Roles in Seventeenth-Century America

Author: Merril D. Smith

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2008-06-30

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 0313087067

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In Colonial America, the lives of white immigrant, black slave, and American Indian women intersected. Economic, religious, social, and political forces all combined to induce and promote European colonization and the growth of slavery and the slave trade during this period. This volume provides the essential overview of American women's lives in the seventeenth century, as the dominant European settlers established their patriarchy. Women were essential to the existence of a new patriarchal society, most importantly because they were necessary for its reproduction. In addition to their roles as wives and mothers, Colonial women took care of the house and household by cooking, preserving food, sewing, spinning, tending gardens, taking care of sick or injured members of the household, and many other tasks. Students and general readers will learn about women's roles in the family, women and the law, women and immigration, women's work, women and religion, women and war, and women and education. literature, and recreation. The narrative chapters in this volume focus on women, particularly white women, within the eastern region of the current United States, the site of the first colonies. Chapter 1 discusses women's roles within the family and household and how women's experiences in the various colonies differed. Chapter 2 considers women and the law and roles in courts and as victims of crime. Chapter 3 looks at women and immigration—those who came with families or as servants or slaves. Women's work is the subject of Chapter 4. The focus is work within the home, preparing food, sewing, taking care of children, and making household goods, or as businesswomen or midwives. Women and religion are discussed in Chapter 5. Chapter 6 examines women's role in war. Women's education is one focus of Chapter 7. Few Colonial women could read but most women did receive an education in the arts of housewifery. Chapter 7 also looks at women's contributions to literature and their leisure time. Few women were free to pursue literary endeavors, but many expressed their creativity through handiwork. A chronology, selected bibliography, and historical illustrations accompany the text.


Puritanism: A Very Short Introduction

Puritanism: A Very Short Introduction

Author: Francis J. Bremer

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2009-07-24

Total Pages: 138

ISBN-13: 0199740879

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Written by a leading expert on the Puritans, this brief, informative volume offers a wealth of background on this key religious movement. This book traces the shaping, triumph, and decline of the Puritan world, while also examining the role of religion in the shaping of American society and the role of the Puritan legacy in American history. Francis J. Bremer discusses the rise of Puritanism in the English Reformation, the struggle of the reformers to purge what they viewed as the corruptions of Roman Catholicism from the Elizabethan church, and the struggle with the Stuart monarchs that led to a brief Puritan triumph under Oliver Cromwell. It also examines the effort of Puritans who left England to establish a godly kingdom in America. Bremer examines puritan theology, views on family and community, their beliefs about the proper relationship between religion and public life, the limits of toleration, the balance between individual rights and one's obligation to others, and the extent to which public character should be shaped by private religious belief. About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.