Errand into the
Wilderness
The Unlikely Origins of
American Democracy
Salem Possessed
February 1692, Samuel Parris’s daughter
possessed
- Sarah Good
Arrests did not calm fears
- Court of Oyer and Terminer
Trial of George Jacobs
The implications
1. Ooops!
1697 – Day of Atonement
1711 – Restitution to survivors and heirs
2. Reason triumphant?
- Church/state separation
- Natural Philosophy (science)
- Age of Enlightenment
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Last gasp of the medieval world?
I. Puritan Paradox
Undemocratic, theocratic society lays the
foundations of American democracy,
progressive tradition
A. Puritanism and American
Culture
1. “cultural empire”
2. Emphasize education, reform &
“progress” through cooperative action
-
Abolition
Temperance
Feminism
Transcendentalism/Unitarianism
communalism
Evangelicalism
3. “A Model of Christian Charity”
John Winthrop, 1630
The Mission: “City on a Hill”
-
Americans chosen by God
American “exceptionalism”
4. When the “mission” fails…
- recrimination, paranoia
- tendency to persecute
- Failure contradicts “covenant”
The Crucible
- Arthur Miller
Joseph McCarthy
II. The Puritan Dilemma
A. Something about Mary
1. Reformation in England
Henry VIII
“Bloody” Mary I
1535
Elizabeth I
James I
B. The Ghost of John Calvin
1. Reform of the High Church
- hierarchy v. assembly
What is a “church”?
2. Predestination
a. Advantages
- natural egalitarianism
antinomianism
Religion as Revolution
b. Awful logic of Calvinism
C. Your cheatin’ heart
1. Cheat #1
a. The Covenant
John Cotton, 1636
b. Mayflower Compact, 1620
- community first
2. Cheat #2
Conversion process
[prominent role in American Protestantism]
3. Cheat #3
Visible Saints / the Elect
Max Weber
D. Cheaters sometimes prosper
1. Full church membership
a. receive sacraments
b. baptize children (membership)
c. vote on minister
d. political rights
Egalitarian, democratic(?)
III. Things fall apart
The failure of the Puritan
Mission
A. Internal division
1. Egalitarian but intolerant
Roger Williams
Anne Hutchinson
B. Prosperity
1. Diverse New England economy
- rise of the “Yankee” trader
Whaling and commercial centers
C. Population Growth
4. Westward migration
- shrinking farms
5. “Visible Saints” thing comes back to bite them
- God’s favor
- capitalist ethic conquers communal control
D. Judgment Day deferred
1. English Commonwealth, 1649-60
2. Cromwell’s betrayal
3. the Restoration, 1660
Oliver Cromwell
E. Loss of Confidence
1. Lack of conversion (3rd generation)
- fewer church members
- fewer voters
2. “Halfway” Covenant (S. Stoddard)
cheat 4
- vote, but no sacraments
By 1700, Puritan church not so pure
IV. Utopia Undone
A. The Cheese and the Worms
1. “Now my charms are all o'erthrown”
- Prospero, The Tempest
- Malleus Maleficarum
1486
- Folk knowledge; “magic”
- rise of Modernity
B. Wrath of God
1. King Philip’s War, 1675-76
2. 1680s smallpox epidemic
3. 1684 – Royal Colony
loss of political control
C. Satan’s Sisters
- Tituba
- Sarah Good
- Sarah Osborne
- Martha Corey
- Rebecca Nurse
- Bridget Bishop
West Indian
homeless beggar
elderly; alone; poor church
attendance
had illegitimate, mixed-race
child; opinionated
elderly; dispute with previous
minister
3 husbands; non-demure;
worked in pubs
D. Do we know why?
1. Lysergic acid
(LSD)
“Little” Ice Age
2. Economic/social rivalry
- Village v. Town
- pro v. anti Parris
- Putnams v. Porters
- traditional v. mercantile
E. The Upshot
1. Puritans fail “upward”
2. Communal ideals build democratic
tradition
- rights based on inclusion in community
- participatory democracy
basis of independence
3. Theological conformity (covenant) &
individualism (Visible Saints)
- economic liberty & social contract
4. New England fertile ground for American
liberal tradition
Abolition
Feminism Transcendentalism
Temperance
Public Education
Public Services
Red vs. Blue regions?
Competing definitions of “Liberty”