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5. Clashing Views In American History, //**The Puritans: Bigots or Builders**?//
 * Chapter 2 Study Guide:**
 * (Darrett B. Rutman, 1970).

Robert Keayne’s notes on John Cotton’s lecture- The Average Person's View of Puritanism** • Certain people are “marked”- predestination • Puritans want to make good and just laws so God will deem them “worthy” of His love - Puritans must obey and serve God * If you want God's protection, “Give yourselves more to God…with the gladness of heart obey his command and observe his statutes” • God’s punishment is “poured out upon the inhabitants of the earth…with indignation” • The lesson was to “Learn to deal well with God” • Puritans travel → New England * Religion pervaded 17th century - Puritanism has been “undoubtedly important” in shaping the nation - Puritanism must be separated from New England; One cannot stereotype all colonial New Englanders as Puritans • John Winthrop had a strong belief in God - Virginian William Fitzhugh also had a strong belief that God would protect him • Puritans are defined not only by religion but also by social, economic, or political attitudes - In England they rose up as the new middle class ** - As part of this emerging middle class, once settled in the New World, the Puritans represented the original American work ethic - - The Puritans wanted to purify the church in England (Protestant Reformation and Puritanism), which rationalizes their middle class • Puritanism is not defined solely by geographical terms - Puritans have undoubtedly shaped America as a nation - Their philosophy and way of life has been carried in the code of values of New England • Puritan families put their children out to work as servants for other families (this is something unique found only in old New England and Virginia) • Because New Englanders were mostly Puritan because of their shared views, they were often spoken about as one group of people (monolithically); this Puritan stereotype is wrongly applied to all of New England - Puritan → Yankee (New England eventually became a source for the revolutionary movement) • Recent scholarly work has concluded that there was no single Puritan "unity" running through New England - In the end, Puritanism = a belief system imparted by ministers onto the world’s laypeople
 * //Robert Keayne was a citizen/merchant tailor of London//
 * //John Cotton was a minister of Boston//
 * God will neglect his children in times of peace
 * • Puritans believe they are God’s chosen children and he will save (or hide) them in times of “danger and calamity” **
 * What is Puritanism? Several Definitions and an Approach**
 * * The seventeenth century men defined themselves, their society, their activities, and their institutions in terms of God __(SMAG: Society, Man, Activities, God)__
 * - By studying Puritans, we can know what life was like in early New England