Puritan society evolved from a Protestant religious and social movement rising primarily in England during the Protestant Reformation in the early 1600’s. During this reformation Puritan settlers set out towards the new found land of America in hopes of attaining religious freedom from the persecution of the Church of England. Although this promising land of America was full of golden opportunity, the Puritans were bound for hardships such as sickness and death, not to mention having to encounter the savages already inhabiting this land. Puritans viewed these people as wild animals and disagreed with their way of life.

When the Puritans set out for their new freedom, they were very skeptical about the land they were traveling to. Even though it was a great environment to begin their new lives and full of resources, the Puritans were doubtful of how they would survive. According to William Bradford, America was “devoid of all civil in habitants,” and only brutish beasts existed there (168). The Puritans feared the sickness and disease that came with adjusting to a new place, but feared even more what would become of them should they survive those things. They worried and

Mary Rowlandson was able to give a first hand account of the uncivilized living arrangements of the Indians and the inhumane treatment of Puritan captives by being a part of the Indians’ daily lives. She, along with three of her young children, was captured in an Indian raid. She was separated from all the ones that she loved and forced to remain a slave to the Indians for eleven weeks. In these eleven weeks she was able to get a closer look at the lifestyles of these people that the Puritans so deeply despised. These immoral people plundered Lancaster, the town where she lived, burning houses, killing people, and showing no mercy. She tells us in her story, “A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson,” how the Indians so savagely murdered a family in their own home. She told of how one man pleaded for his life after being wounded by a rifle, only to be knocked about his head, stripped naked, and then gutted as he lay dying (R!

owlandson 298). This kind of merciless action was common among these Native Americans according to the Puritans. Once Mary was taken away from Lancaster to travel with the Indians she learned much more about their lifestyle. She saw “the roaring, and singing and dancing, and yelling of those black creatures in the night” and thought of the place she was kept as a “lively resemblance of hell” (Rowlandson 300). She watched as a woman was stripped of her clothing and placed in the center of the Indians. They danced around her and sang in an evil manner, and then when they were done they knocked her on the head and did the same to the infant with her (Rowlandson 305). Mary Rowlandson not only endured watching many Christian people of whom she loved for their faith die, but she was forced to be a slave. She was the slave of a man named Quanopin and his wife, named Wetamo. Her woman master Wetamo was very hard on Mary, often taking her anger out on he!

John Winthrop was another Puritan who published works on Puritan beliefs. Most everything he wrote contradicted the actions of the Indians. Winthrop published some o

Some topics in this essay:
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