What Religious Groups Made Up The Society? - Essay Sample

Introduction

The seventeenth century experienced a religious awakening where different groups of people sought for religious freedom. This hence led to the split of the Pilgrims from the Church of England, as well as the Puritans from the Roman Catholic. The Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church were the mainstream religious groups during this time, and therefore, the Puritans and the pilgrims were considered illegal separatist groups. The pilgrims set off to the new world from England in search of religious freedom. This journey was undertaken through the Mayflower voyage. They landed in Cape Cod Bay, Plymouth, and came in contact with Native Americans inhabiting the area who were primarily of the Wampanoag tribe. They coexisted peacefully for some time, and even invented thanksgiving as a ceremony they celebrated with the natives after harvest. However, the pilgrims continued occupying more and more land leading to disputes that left 5,000 of them dead.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

The Puritans, on the other hand, were a group that ceded from Roman Catholic and were hence aiming at reforming some of the doctrines within that religion. They even disputed the celebration of Christmas. The Puritans, like the pilgrims, moved to the new world for religious freedom. However, instead of respecting the religions they found there, the Puritans executed the Quakers

How Were Women Treated Within Society?

Even with the reforms in the religious aspects, the welfare of women was often undermined. The invasion by the Puritans in the new world, as well as their population increase, resulted in restraint resources, a trend that the Puritans viewed as evil within them. This, compounded by a few episodes of evil manifestations resulted in a witchcraft craze that led to the arrest, and persecution of suspects. A majority of them were women who were believed to have made a covenant with the devil. Among these women were Tituba, Sarah good and Sarah Osborne. A small girl, Dorcas, who was Sarah Good's daughter, was also interrogated. These were women picked out due to the misfortune in society. Tituba was a slave, Sarah Good was a beggar who was also homeless, and Sarah Osborne was an impoverished elderly woman.

Religion dominated most of the seventeenth century as different groups of people seeking an identity as well as religious freedom. This hence resulted in two major separatist groups, the pilgrims and the Puritans who moved to inhabit the new world in search of freedom. The pilgrim integrated well with the natives, even though it later caused conflicts while the puritans discriminated and executed the Quakers. Women, even with these reforms underway, were always looked down upon, and this was more so exhibited in the Salem witch-hunt.

Bibliography

Blumberg J. A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials. One town's strange journey from paranoia to pardon. Smithsonian.com. 2007. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/a-brief-history-of-the-salem-witch-trials-175162489/

The pilgrims. History .com. 2018. https://www.history.com/topics/colonial-america/pilgrims