Puritans

1
Puritans

• Who were they?
• How did they live?
• Where is Salem?
• What is The Crucible?
• What is your assignment?

2
PURITAN LIFE AND RELIGION

• The Puritans were an English religious group who
  came to the United States to practice their
  religion without interference from the Church of
  England. The Puritans were pilgrims, but not all
  pilgrims were Puritans. Most Puritans settled in
  towns in coastal Massachusetts just slightly
  north of Boston.
• The Puritans had their own unique community and
  cultural practices, most of them based on their
  religious beliefs.

3
The Puritan Way

• In the 18th Century, following the teaching of
  the English philosopher John Locke, emerges the
  influence of a group known as Puritans. Locke
  believed that religious tolerance has to exist
  for the benefit of society because violence
  cannot sway belief.
• Puritans rejected the rituals and extravagant
  buildings of the major denominations in Europe.
  Puritans emphasized individual conscience before
  God, and rejected the dogmas of organized
  religion.

• Puritans, sometimes called Separatists, are those
  who reject the organized denominations' claims of
  authority. Church of England Separatists made up
  one small group, which began breaking away as
  early as the 16th Century. By far the largest
  group of Puritans came out of the Presbyterian
  Church, while the second largest group came from
  the Baptists.
• In a time when hatred and persecution existed
  between many denominations, every denomination in
  Europe hated and persecuted the Puritans. One
  small group after another boarded ships and came
  to America.

4
The Puritan Way

• Religion played an important role in Puritan
  life. The Puritans felt that they were chosen by
  God for a special purpose and that they must live
  every moment in a God-fearing manner. Every man,
  woman, and child was expected to attend the
  meeting on the Sabbath without question. Puritans
  were required to read the Bible which showed
  their religious discipline. If they did not read
  the Bible, it was thought that they were
  worshiping the devil.

• Preparations for the Sabbath began the day
  before. All of the food had to be cooked and
  clothes ready. No labor, not even sewing, could
  be done on the Sabbath.
• The Sabbath began at sundown the night before,
  and the evening was spent in prayer and Bible
  study.

5
Strict Order in the Church

• The church was usually a small bare building.
  Upon entering people would take their appropriate
  places.
• The men sat on one side, the women sat on the
  other, and the boys did not sit with their
  parents, but sat together in a designated pew
  where they were expected to sit in complete
  silence.
• The deacons sat in the front row just below the
  pulpit because everyone agreed the first pew was
  the one of highest dignity.

• The servants and slaves crowded near the door,
  into a loft, or a balcony.
• The service began with a prayer given by the
  minister that usually lasted around an hour.
• Puritans did not like music in their services.
  They also felt that music and celebrating were
  not appropriate in the church meeting house. It
  was many years before any musical instruments
  were allowed in the church.

6
Strict Order in the Church

• After the prayer, the minister would continue
  with an emotional sermon. The minister's sermon
  would last for two, three, even four hours at a
  time without restroom breaks or intermissions.
  The Puritans listened intently to the terrible
  warnings of sin and punishment.
• Church Deacons, such as this one, kept strict
  order in the church. Using this "staff," deacons
  would poke anyone misbehaving in church. In this
  illustration, the boy is being punished for
  turning around to talk to his friend.
• Churches were unheated and for many months of the
  year and in the winter were unbearably cold.
  Women carried small foot-stoves from home full of
  hot coals which were used to warm their feet
  during the church service.

7
Common misconceptions about Puritans include

• The Salem witch trials the Salem witch trials
  were not typical of Puritan life. In more than
  400 years of Puritan history there were only two
  such incidents. In Europe such trials were
  common. The things that happened in Europe can
  happen here too, in fact they happen a lot more
  today than they did in Puritan times.

• The Scarlet Letter clearly, Nathaniel Hawthorne
  was a great author, but it is also clear that he
  disliked Puritans. He took a custom that existed
  in Spain and an incident which took place in
  Spain, translated them into a Puritan setting,
  and created a story that was entirely fictitious.
  His book is filled with misrepresentations about
  Puritan beliefs.

8
Puritan intolerance

• Having discussed the intolerance of the major
  denominations toward Puritans, we must also admit
  that Puritans have, at times, also shown
  intolerance for others, particularly toward the
  denominations that persecuted them.
• When Roman Catholics in Pennsylvania called for
  freedom of religion though, Puritans decided that
  was what they really wanted all along.

9
Salem, Massachusetts and the History of Witchcraft

• The most infamous occurrence involving the
  Puritans were the events that transpired in
  Salem, Mass. in 1692.
• The events which led to the witch trials in Salem
  actually occurred in what is now the town of
  Danvers, then a parish of Salem Town, known as
  Salem Village.
• Launching the hysteria was the bizarre, seemingly
  inexplicable behavior of two young girls the
  daughter, Betty, and the niece, Abigail Williams,
  of the Salem Village minister, Reverend Samuel
  Parris.

10
What was Salem like then what is it like today?

• Salem is just a 40-minute drive from Boston,
  along route 1A. It's a lovely drive along the
  coast.

11

• Salem is a coastal town--it lies on an inlet in
  the Atlantic Ocean.
• Its location made it accessible to the early
  Puritan settlers who arrived by boat from
  England.

12

• Salem does not keep its infamous history a
  secret...
• in fact, it capitalizes on it through many
  tourist attractions.

13
There are many tours and museums that cater to
the morbid interest that people still have about
the Salem Witch Trials.
14
The "Witch House" dates back to the first Puritan
settlers (1642). It was the home of a witch trial
judge, Jonathan Corwin (who is not in the
Crucible).
The house still retains its authenticity and its
original spooky quality.
15

• One of the most historic--and saddest--stops in
  Salem is The Old Burying Point. It's a very old
  cemetery, containing the bodies of many Puritans
  dating from the late 1600s.
• The bodies of those who were hanged during the
  Salem Witch Trials are not buried here (it cannot
  be determined where their bodies are), but there
  is a memorial site for these individuals.
  Crucible readers should recognize many names.

16
Arthur Millers The Crucible

• Arthur Mille wrote the play
• The Crucible.
• The play is a fictional recreation of the Salem
  witch trials, their origins, a psychological
  investigation of the act of persecution, and
  McCarthyism.

17
The McCarthy era's anti-communist trials
destroyed lives and friendships. Arthur Miller
describes the paranoia that swept America - and
the moment his then wife, Marilyn Monroe, became
a bargaining chip in his own prosecution.

• It would probably never have occurred to me to
  write a play about the Salem witch trials of 1692
  had I not seen some astonishing correspondences
  with that calamity in the America of the late 40s
  and early 50s.
• My basic need was to respond to a phenomenon
  which, with only small exaggeration, one could
  say paralyzed a whole generation and in a short
  time dried up the habits of trust and toleration
  in public discourse.
• I refer to the anti-communist rage that
  threatened to reach hysterical proportions and
  sometimes did.
• I suppose we rapidly passed over anything like a
  discussion or debate, and into something quite
  different, a hunt not just for subversive people,
  but for ideas and even a suspect language.
• The object was to destroy the least credibility
  of any and all ideas associated with socialism
  and communism, whose proponents were assumed to
  be either knowing or unwitting agents of Soviet
  subversion.

18
The Hollywood Blacklist

• The Salem Witch Trials really did happen, but
  Arthur Miller used a more recent example from
  American history as the basis for The Crucible
  McCarthyism.
• In the 1950s many famous people were accused of
  being Communists and were called to testify
  Lucille Ball ("I Love Lucy"), Ronald Reagan
  (though he became a "friendly witness" and named
  names of those he reportedly saw at Communist
  meetings), Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson, and of
  course, Arthur Miller.