The Puritan Vision Essay, Research Paper

The Puritan Vision

From their beginnings in England to their settlement in the New World, the Puritans endured many setbacks and disasters. They suffered persecution in England. Many of the Puritans were put in jail, to be whipped by the guards. Their noses would be slit and their ears lopped off because of their beliefs. On their voyage here, they were encountered several times with crosswinds and fierce storms. With all these storms and problems the ship started falling apart. The upper works were leaky and one of the main beams in the midships was bowed and cracked. After two or three months time at Cape Cod, half of their people died, especially in January and February, because of the harsh winter without shelter. They were infected with the scurvy and other diseases. Two to three people would die each day. At last, only fifty remained. Out of those people, some even died after reaching land; because of the diseases and the shortage of food. The food on the ship was infested with worms and maggots. Most of the people got used to eating it. And that s why many died. Another disaster was when the Puritans suffered their first major Indian attack in nearly forty years in 1675. Twelve frontier towns were eventually destroyed and some six hundred Puritans were killed. This is what the Puritans went through before and after coming to the New World