Puritans

            Throughout history, the Puritans have been given a bad reputation because of their cruel, unacceptable ways.  They came to America to be set free. They wanted to be able to practice what they believed in the way they wanted to. Sadly, that progressed into something much larger. The Puritans believed that they were more pure than man. They were intolerant and punished those who they felt were sinners. Although they came to America for the right reasons, they approached it the wrong way. America is and has been a place of diversity and because the Puritans were not acceptive of other people's diversity they resulted in evil punishment. An example of this is the Salem Witchcraft trials where the Puritanical ways restricted the freedom of others. Although the Puritans came to American to pursue their version of the American dream, their ways resulted in a bad reputation for them that is well deserved.

            I do believe that the Puritans deserve the reputation they have today. On page thirteen of the article, there is a section describing a train of ideas that because the Puritans came to America on search of their needs, it lead others to follow. That is a positive impact the Puritans had, but it doesn't disregard the their misdoings. The Puritans followed their American Dream and attempted to "work up" to what they wanted, but it resulted in them rejecting anyone who was different from them. They went against their own religious beliefs and somehow found that it was justified to perform the acts they did. I feel as though because they were so parochial, it prevented others from pursuing their own American Dream which is counteractive.

            The only reason I would say that the Puritans do not deserve the reputation they have is because they were doing what they felt were necessarily for them to flourish and be the religion and people they felt they should be. It all depends on your own view of right and wrong to establish whether someone has done something evil or not. It is against my morals to kill others for my own personal gain, mistreat people based on ethnicity, gender, etc., but because it wasn't to them, they didn't see it as wrong, and there might be people out in the world who would agree. They did what they thought was necessary and I don't think that's wrong, but the way they went upon it and handled everything was. If I was forced to choose between the two though, they do indeed deserve the reputation they have.