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Puritan Politics: Government by Contract

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Puritan Politics: Government by Contract

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"Puritans believed that people should enter freely into agreements concerning their government" The Puritans had decided on their government while on the Mayflower. They created and signed the Mayflower Compact that stated how they would be governed when they landed. They had prepared for American constitutional democracy but their views were mostly undemocratic and there wasn't room for compromise.

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In Salem Massachusetts, two girls started to do magic. They were having, “fits,” and, “lesions appeared on their skin, and it seemed as though they were being choked by invisible hands.” They saw a doctor and he said they were, “victims of malicious witchcraft.” They accused two other girls, and a lady Tituba tried to save their lives by saying there were many more witches and she has seen the names written in blood, in the “Devils book.” This ultimately started a frenzy and they searched for every witch and punished them. Lots of people said they were victims of witchcraft and 150 people were accused of witchcraft and many were killed. The majority of people accused of being witches were women that threatened male power.

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-The Puritans believed that because of Adam and Eve's disobedience to God cursed many people for all eternity. They also believed that God sent his son down to save some people. Since they didn't know who was saved and who was cursed, the Puritans tried to act as pure as possible. The traits they picked up from this belief were ideal to developing a new society.

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In April of 1721, a ship from the West Indies docked in the Boston Harbor. The ship carried sugar and molasses but little did they know it carried smallpox. The disease spread rapidly and was often fatal.  Cotton Mather was an author who began to seek cures for certain diseases such as the smallpox. He then proposed a method for dealing with the smallpox which was invented by a Turkish physician. Mather succeeded treating people and stopped the disease. After the epidemic, 850 people had died.

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-Puritans believed that the bible was the literal word of god and connected events in their own lives to parts of the bible.
-Because of this Puritans deemed reading the bible as a necessity and emphasized education so that people could read and follow the bible.

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The Puritans were a group of protestants in the 16th century that opposed and wanted to purify the Church of England,  which had been tied to the government of England since King Henry VIII. They immigrated to America, led by William Bradford to escape the persecution of England, which had been throwing Puritans in jail for some time.

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The Age of Reason: Tinkerers and Experimenters

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The Age of Reason: Tinkerers and Experimenters

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The age of reason started in Europe with philosophers and scientists who called themselves Rationalists. Rationalism is the belief that humans use truth rather than relying on the authority of the past, on the religious faith, or on intuition. The rationalists believed God's gift was reason, which enabled people to discover scientific and spiritual truth.
-Sir Isaac Newton was a rationalist who compared god to a clockmaker. He thought God created the perfect mechanism of the universe so it could run on its own, like a clock.

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-The Europeans who arrived in the Americas during the 1400s  were faced with a vast land that was dangerous and unknown, but was at the same time full of undiscovered riches.
-They explored the land and encountered lots of native tribes, discovering that many of them were struggling to live off the land and ate very little. What they did eat was often not good food and was hard to find.

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The Puritans had a rather large impact on the early phases of American literature. Most characters were based off of their morals and ethics. Around 1620 they started colonizing New England. Even though they were very tied up in their religion they were also tied up in the business world and considered the two intertwined.

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-Most pieces of literature, which was either practical or political, during this time were published in pamphlets
-Benjamin Franklin wrote his autobiography based on the Puritan impulse of self-examination

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-Deists found God through the form of the natural world. However, they thought God made it possible for all people at all times to discover natural laws.
-Deists believed that everyone was good because of their own gift and has the use of reason. They could use their gift to lead to good for others.

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-When the Europeans first arrived to what is now North America, many groups of people were already living here.
-These people were already organized into societies and communities, and their traditions still remain in our country.