The subtitle—"Four British Folkways in America"—provides a hint into the topic of the book at-hand. The four folkways—the Puritans, Cavaliers, Quakers, and Backcountry folk—formed the dominant culture in early America, ones that still exist to this day. I’ve mentioned the book before, specifically in regard to America not having one culture, but rather several of them. If I were ever in charge of a US history curriculum, this book would be at the top of the required reading list. It is quite thick, and this bullet-point style overview won’t do the thing proper justice, but my hope is that this series will prompt you to pick up your own copy.
The Puritans (pages 13-205)
I am beginning with the Puritans because the book begins with them, probably because, of the four groups covered, this group is the most referred to when thinking of Colonial America. We’ve all likely heard the phrase “Puritan work-ethic,” and are perhaps even guilty of throwing an “ism” at the end of the group’s name, almost never as a complementary add-on. And I’ll be honest, of the four groups, the Puritans might be my least favorite. But that does not mean that I dislike everything about them; in fact, this book as well as a cursory read-through for this writing may have even helped me gain some respect for the group. Perhaps this quick overview will do the same for you.
Origins:
The Puritans emigrated from eastern counties in England mainly from 1629-1641, with the John Winthrop Fleet of 1630 containing the largest influx of one-time arrivals. In England these people were mostly of middle-status. They travelled in family groups, settling in the New England area, mainly Massachusetts. “The heads of these families tended to be exceptionally literate, highly skilled, and heavily urban in their English origins.” (pg. 31)
The main reason for their migration, as we have likely learned at some point in our education, came down to religion. Religious persecution, while certainly central to this reason, might be more simplistic a reason than simply “religion” as a standalone; persecuted or not, the book paints a picture of a group set on establishing a community in which they could practice their faith away from those who differed from, and often actively opposed, them.
Family Ways (“The Puritan Idea of the Covenanted Family”):
“The people of Massachusetts thought of family not as an end in itself, but as an instrument of their highest religious purpose.” (pg. 68)
The Puritans placed importance on both immediate and extended family rings, with the father of each household responsible for maintaining family order within each nuclear unit of the extended ring. In the case of family disorder, community constables and selectmen were chosen for the distinct purpose of restoring order back into the family in which the head was failing to do so. Some areas of New England even went so far as to forbid single persons in their communities from “living of themselves,” resulting in systematically searching their towns with the intention of assigning singles to extended family rings; age mattered not in this process. And speaking age being of no consequence, family rebellion, even of males well into their adult years, was severely punished. An ordered Puritan community began with orderly individual family units, in which all units bore responsibility in maintaining.
Child-rearing ways (“Breaking of the Will”):
Since familial order was so vital in creating an ordered society for the Puritans, the breaking of the child’s will, which, consistent with the Puritan’s Calvinist orthodoxy, was considered to have a natural bent toward towards evil at birth, was of the utmost importance. In order to maintain the collective responsibility of the community, the “spiritual autonomy” of each child had to be extinguished; however, corporal punishment was typically used only in the most extreme circumstances.
A custom called “sending out” was commonplace among Puritan families of all classes, in which they would send their child to be raised for a portion of time under the roof of another family, while often they themselves took in a child of yet another family participating in the custom. Since extended rings of familial order existed in these communities, this custom was perhaps not as outlandish as it may initially seem; remember, families were units within larger “families,” so the destination of each “sending out” likely underwent careful consideration for the needs of the child, and these parents would have a strong awareness of which separate household would best fit those needs.
Religious Ways:
The people of New England worshiped not in beautiful structures, but rather in meetinghouses resembling the secular buildings of the town. Plain on both the outside and the inside—which was stripped of anything that might distract the congregation from focusing on the word of the minister—the style of service was akin to a lecture one might find in a university; only this lecture came not from a professor but from a minister tasked with bringing forth the Word. One differentiation between this place of meeting and the other town buildings was its placement. Often, these places of worship were built upon a hilltop, facing south so as to be “square with the sun at noon.” (pg. 118)
Men and women sat on separate sides of the aisle, arranged in order of rank and importance. The men were required to bring arms to service, with sentries posted at each opening. The buildings were not heated, which, in the New England climate, led to frozen congregations by the end of cold season services; still, the minister did not cut short his sermons during the colder months.
The three most important parts of the Puritan service were the time of ritual purification, the sermon itself—largely administered in a “text and context” style—and the prayer. The purification portion of the service involved members of the congregation who had sinned during the previous week having to “take shame upon themselves,” sometimes requiring the wearing of signs spelling out their committed sin. Praying did not involve kneeling or even the bowing of heads. Instead, members looked straight ahead, sometimes even directly into the Eye of God, which could be found painted on the pulpit, often the only form of decoration in the building. They closed each service with the singing of a psalm, almost never in a melodic tune but typically with an emphatic bluster that carried across the countryside.
Sport Ways:
Moderation and lawfulness were key when it came to playing sports in New England. “Lawful recreation” was a common term used by these communities, of which horse racing was not considered to be a part because of how it encouraged gambling, an activity strictly prohibited. Sports allowed to be played were highly organized and purposeful; idle sports-playing with no purposeful application was simply another tool of the Devil. Specific times of days were set aside for games, but sports never allowed on Sunday. What’s now modern American football evolved from a game invented in New England: the game’s ordered action along with individual responsibilities within a collective group resonates with Puritan culture.
Work Ways:
Here is where we find that oft-used term “Puritan work-ethic.” This work ethic “rested upon the idea that every Christian had two callings—a general calling and a special calling.” (pg. 156). The first was every man’s duty to live a godly life; the second was what he did as a vocation. And it did not follow that a man’s vocation carried with it the main purpose of acquiring capital; in fact, the Puritans strongly looked down upon the pursuit of wealth, especially when it came at the expense of their fellow man. Instead, a man was to perform his job with extreme dedication because it was his way of honoring God’s granted gifts to him while also serving his fellow man in a non-predatorial fashion. The Puritan system was non-communist, however, because of its acceptance of property as well at least an implicit awareness of inequality being a necessary consequence of certain talents yielding less material wealth than others.
Order Ways:
Maintaining order in their communities was a religious pursuit of the Puritans, and they did not hesitate in using violence as a means for establishing said order. In fact, while court cases involving crimes against persons and property were certainly common, crimes against order were the most common. Examples of such disorderly crimes could be anything from familial rebellion to political or religious dissent to, of course, the practice of witchcraft. The two most extreme modes of punishment within the community were burning at the stake and hanging. Quakers, a group to be covered later in this series, were often victims of the Puritan’s violent institution of order.
Power Ways:
Town meetings were the main source of governance within the Puritan communities; for the more rural areas, this meant the nearest “urban center.” These meetings should not be confused with a majoritarian style of democracy, however; rarely were votes ever counted, and it’s safe to assume that the higher-ranking participants in these meetings, while fewer in number, carried more influence on policy than the participants of lower rank. While not formally written out, a guiding directive for the meetings came from the idea of “ancient customs of the town,” first coming to New England from the East England counties the Puritans emigrated from, then revised over years of living in their new land. Of the four groups covered in the book, the Puritans were—still are—the most activist with regard to community governance. When town meetings concluded with some new law or policy, what transpired within the walls where these new edicts were hashed out was to remain there so that public revealing simply represented the “will of the town.”
Freedom Ways (Ordered Liberty):
It’s been mentioned that maintaining an orderly community was of prime importance to the Puritans, so it should come as no surprise that their concept of liberty was not understood to be divorced from that desire but rather derived from it. Antithetical to most modern definitions, liberty was considered to be freedom from individual urges and desires because such things led to a more disorderly community; thus, the combination of individual responsibility leading to collective order.
When the Puritans did express themselves in terms of individual liberties, the book describes an idea of “plural liberties,” in which certain restraints—such as fishing privileges—might be lifted for a time and for certain inhabitants, while others were still denied the privilege. Of course, those with a higher rank in society were more likely to be granted these liberties, especially since they themselves were often doing the granting.
There were two other concepts of liberty espoused by the Puritans: “soul liberty” and “freedom from the tyranny of circumstance.” The first had to do with religious freedom, as we’ve come full circle to the origins of the Puritan migration. However, this particular religious freedom did not include the free expression of faith for individual inhabitants of the community. Rather, it was the freedom of all members of the community to practice their faith in the one true way—their version of Calvinist orthodoxy. The second concept can be conceived of in regard to the earlier example of not allowing people to “live of themselves.” It was better to grant poor people better basic provision—whether earned or not—than to allow them to wander about, opening up more opportunity for disorder. This may perhaps cause the reader to think only of social welfare, but there was actually a spirit of individualism behind this provisional liberty: a man is freer when presented with duties and responsibilities as opposed to freedom of motion.
To provide an example of how exhaustive the book truly is, below is a list of Puritan ways I did not cover in this overview:
Building Ways, Speech Ways, Gender Ways, Marriage Ways, Sex Ways, Naming Ways, Age Ways, Death Ways, Magic Ways, Learning Ways, Food Ways, Dress Ways, Time Ways, Wealth Ways, Rank Ways, and Social Ways.
Next up: The Virginians (Cavaliers)
Albion's Seed: The Puritans
It doesn't take much searching to find the influence of the Puritans in Calvanism today. I was taught as a child that horse racing was bad due to the gambling that takes place in that arena.
This is very interesting. Even now we can see the Puritan influence in our nation