Puritan versus Pilgrim

Some clarification of our discussion during the primary source activity. In general, the term Puritan refers to a varied group of religious reformers. Specifically, these reformers were the separating Puritans (known to us as Pilgrims) who founded the Plymouth Colony and the non-separating Puritans who wished to reform the Church of England and who settled Massachusetts Bay. In other words, the Pilgrims of Plymouth were Puritans, but the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay and in many other New England communities were not Pilgrims since they did not wish to separate from the Church of England.

I recommend Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War by Nathaniel Philbrick for a frank, eloquent description of Pilgrim settlement. For a more humorously discussion of the Pilgrim mythology , check out the prologue and chapter 13 of Tony Horwitz's A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World.

Some essential questions to build off of the discussion of Puritan Ideology:

1. Do we really have a separation of church and state in the United States?
2. How important was "freedom" to 17th century colonists?
3. How did having a religious centered government affect the rights of people like Roger Williams, Mary Dyer and Anne Hutchinson and what effect did this have on the Massachusetts Bay colony?
4. What is your (or any individual's) responsibility to the community, and what is the community's responsibility to you and other individuals.
5. What is the relationship between freedom and responsibility?
6. Were the Puritans Puritanical?
7. Why would the 17th century Puritans accept the doctrine of predestination?
8. How successful was the "city upon a hill" model?