Lori Stokes, Ph.D., Independent ScholarDr. Will Holton, Partnership of the Historic Bostons

Five Myths about the Puritans

If you type “Puritans” into a search engine, your results will mainly include descriptions of…

…fiendish punishers,

religious cult members…

…and some really weird stuff about naked witch burnings.

Were the Puritans all about oppression, theocracy, and “tamping down your most basic human instincts”?*

*(Anya Taylor-Joy, star of The Witch, describing what she learned about Puritans from the movie script)

Were they really all “withdrawn and conflicted, because people didn’t talk about puberty in those days”?*

*ditto

Five Myths about the Puritans:

1. They came to America to establish freedom of religion.

2. They hated sex.3. They were constantly

persecuting and burning women as witches.

4. They banished Anne Hutchinson for being a feminist.

5. They established a theocracy.

Myth One: The Puritans came to America to establish freedom of religion…

…then denied it to everyone else!

“From that earlier set of founding fathers — the men who settled 17th century Massachusetts — came the first dark words about dark powers. No matter that they sailed to these shores in search of religious freedom. Once established, they pulled up the gangplank behind them.”

—Stacey Schiff, “Anger: An American History”, NYT, December 18, 2015

Myth Two: The Puritans hated sex because it was sinful……and even banned it!

“Sexuality was inherently evil, the sex act an abomination and a sin, women morally inferior and sources of temptation. If the sex act was needed to produce a new generation, let it be accomplished without lust. So much for the mechanics of Darwinian sexual selection. From a biological standpoint, it's a wonder the Western world did not go extinct before the Renaissance.”

—Dan Agin, “Thanksgiving: Puritans, Pilgrims, and Sexual Obsession”,

HuffPost, March 18, 2010

Myth Three: The Puritans were constantly persecuting and killing women as witches…

…because they thought witchcraft was real!

“The Puritans’ strict Protestant life and their fear of the Devil and his servants made [them] an easy target for the witchcraft hysteria. Primary and secondary sources from prominent sixteenth and seventieth century Puritan ministers document the Puritan’s strict way of living, views, fears and fantasies. …The Puritan’s beliefs [on] Satan’s powers and actions, and Satan’s effects over the Puritan society were the bases of the Puritan society’s witchcraft hysteria.”

—“Puritan beliefs on Satan and Witchcraft”, Gettysburg College, n.d.

Myth Four: The Puritans banished Anne Hutchinson…

…for being a feminist!

“Anne Hutchinson was a deeply religious woman [who believed] the ministers of Massachusetts had lost their way. …Her leadership position as a woman made her seem all the more dangerous to the Puritan order. …John Winthrop was leery of Hutchinson’s views and cautioned that women could do irreparable damage to their brains by pondering deep theological matters — a view not uncommon for the day.”

—U.S. History, “Dissent in Massachusetts Bay”, n.d.

Myth Five: The Puritans established a theocracy…

…and said democracy was the worst form of government!

“…I liken it to the control of Iran today by the clergy… [This] conclusion [is] well supported by the primary-source evidence:  ‘Thus was founded the theocratic Commonwealth of Massachusetts, with none like it to be found in history, except the Republic of Calvin; like it, brave, austere, but intolerant of inquiry, persecuting heresy without pity, and without mercy.’ Charles Borgeaud, The Rise of Modern Democracy in Old and New England (London, 1894) .”

—From a conversation thread on the American Historical Association listserv, January

2016

Unlike the Puritans, we will now take your questions.