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The Roles of Puritan and Colonial Women In attempting to examine, understand and explain the Puritan and Colonial women, her lifestyle and her many facets, an individual must comprehend the many hats that these women were forced to wear. The challenging roles and lifestyle of a woman of the Puritan-Colonial period reflected directly upon a society that was entrenched in a religiously driven, male dominated, oppressive social system that would define many generations in the New World. Unfortunately history has forsaken many of the important women of their time and the roles that they had to fill. Today it is important to recognize and understand these roles. Many titles could fit the everyday role of the Puritan / Colonial good wife.
A good wife might be described in many of the following ways: a mother, housewife, neighbor, mistress, and at times, heroine. This essay identifies two different women who have fulfilled these roles. It also sets forth to compare the roles of these women and their standing in American history. The women I have chosen to talk about are: As a Puritan woman in New England, Hannah Duston was supposed to live a simple ordinary life.
One that was retrospective of a woman of the time. Hannah Duston originally born Hannah Emerson was born into a hardworking, deeply religious family. From the time of her birth Hannah had seemed to follow in previous familial footsteps. Hannah married a farmer becoming a housewife at an early age. She also became a mother as she bore many children. Her life in New England to that point was uneventful in fitting in with male dominated, secular role of the Puritan woman of the day.
However one incident was about to change that status forever. According to the author When fate happened upon Hannah Duston on that March morning in 1697, she was recovering from the delivery of a child. Because reproduction framed every New England womans life, these women treated childbirth as a ritual, honored it by ceremony (Berkin 33). After giving birth Hannah was unwillingly captured by Indians along with two others. Upon being captured Hannah was imprisoned and forced from her home. Her and the other captives were then marched into the wilderness.
As a direct result of this captivity, Hannah lost her newborn baby. It was this overwhelming experience that forced Hannah and her fellow captives into the situation that would change their lives from that day forward. In actions unthinkable of the day, Hannah and her fellow captives were able to rise up against and slay their captors. With fierce revenge and anger, Hannah Duston scalped all who were responsible for her captivity and its deadly results (Berkin 22).
News of Duston's exploits spread quickly, and for one dizzying year, she was the most famous woman in her region (Berkin 22). She was the talk of the town, and for that matter all of New England. Both men and women spoke of her actions with preachers basing sermons on her fatal fury and uncommon nature. According to the author, one particular preacher known as Cotton Mather, commonly referred to her as New England's leading divine (Berkin 22). This deadly action had forced Hannah Duston into an extremely unfamiliar role for women of that day. Although as the author states, Hannah differed from her contemporary female counterparts do to the fact that she came late to the church, long after she had married and had children (Berkin 42).
She had now transformed her self unwittingly overnight from a Puritan good wife to a social Heroine! Her ferocious and zealous actions were not in keeping with the women of the time. Especially the action of a Puritan woman to strike up violently against her captor was unheard of. Women of the day were much more adaptable when it came to accepting roles presented to them. Within the Pilgrim and Puritan communities especially, the state upheld and legitimated the power of parents over children and husbands over wives (Berkin 27). This fact stated it was the women of Puritan society who were socially oppressed.
Therefore, their role in society had been preset as the standard for most women to follow. A woman would follow the lead of their husbands and the daily doctrine of the Puritan way without question. As stated by the author, the family was the mainstay of the social order in the wild Americas (Berkin 27). Women from the time of their birth were accustomed to not having a voice. Hannah Duston's brave actions spoke volumes for a woman of the Puritan day. Her example set the tone for women of future generations: both Puritan, and Colonial womans roles were about to change.
Hannah's statement to the New England community was bold and clear. She showed by powerful example, that even a Puritan housewife and mother could be heard! Hannah Duston was one of the first women to challenge and redefine the boundaries of Puritan / Colonial life. It is by her example that other notable women of history have followed. The other woman that I would like to discuss is Anne Hutchinson. Anne Hutchinson was originally born Anne Marbury.
She was born in 1591 and raised in Alford, England. She and her family crossed the Atlantic and arrived in New England in 1634. According to the author as a young girl her English upbringing exposed her to many discussions about theology (Berkin 37). This type of study and discussion was not normal for women. Her father was Francis Marbury, a preacher and clergyman at Christ Church in Cambridge England.
His ideals and standards were revolutionary in comparison to other preachers of the day. He personally stressed education and reading to his daughter, which upon her arrival in Massachusetts made her unique. Still while in England it was his non-traditional sermons and radical educational ideas that had made Preacher Marbury a dangerously perceived enemy of the Church of England. Francis Marbury would preach against the Church of England with non-traditional goals. He spoke and preached against corruption within the Church of England and for these types of sermons, he was at times jailed.
With the education of Anne at home while in England, it is without a doubt the direct result of her family experience in explaining Anne's future willingness to speak out against Puritanism. Anne admired her father and his defiance of traditional church principles. Upon her arrival in Massachusetts, it was apparent that it this uniquely strong and educated childhood was the defining factor in the development of this strong and confident woman. This confidence demonstrated by example her difference from other Puritan women of the day. Anne Marbury married Will Hutchinson and at the age of twenty-one Anne Marbury became Anne Hutchinson. She quickly took to her role of the day as housewife and mother until being drawn to a certain minister named John Cotton.
According to the author, John Cotton preached fiery sermons that differed from Puritan doctrine of the day. He focused on the corruption of the current clergy establishment and suggested change. Cotton's two main beliefs were the destructiveness of continuing Catholic influence in the Church of England, and the opportunities for success and religious freedom in America (Crawford, 26). Anne Hutchinson and her family, decided to come to the Americas in 1634. They arrived and then settled in New England, to listen to their preacher who had left England earlier. (John Cotton) More importantly Annes reason for this move was to gain newly dreamed of freedoms in expressing her religious conviction. Unfortunately, this was not to be true and the Massachusetts Colony turned out to be more religiously restrictive than England.
Anne's unorthodox views of the day did not begin to surface visibly until the families voyage to America. Anne met with a group of women to discuss religion and she taught them to communicate with God. She became a radical in the eyes of those around her, claiming knowledge of the day of their vessels arrival. This sparked the beginning of controversy associated with Anne. To most in the congregation it seemed that Anne was content in her role as a wife and mother. However others in the Congregations felt she might become a threat.
According to the author, When the Alford faction tried to organize a separate church but could not gain official recognition for it, they began to meet privately (Berkin, 38). She invited others to the Hutchinson farm to express their religious ideals in the privacy of her own home even after she was excommunicated from the Puritan church. An important point to note is that it was clear that there were womens meetings well established before Annes arrival. However it was these private farm gatherings that expanded this experience and caused fear in the male dominated politically challenged religious circle that was Puritanism. In a religiously based community the boundary between theological and political difference hardly exists. Both Clerical and civil authorities found Hutchinson's activities alarming and they set out to silence her.
In the course of her trials Hutchison was effectively isolated from her supporters including finally John Cotton (Evans, 32). Anne was never in open defiance of the Puritan principles yet she wished to remain a member of the church until her trial. Although Anne did disagree with Puritan doctrine, her main purpose seemed to be expressing her opinions in order to make positive change in those areas where the church she thought was in error. Anne Hutchinson lost her legal battle when she announced that she had had a revelation from God.
With this announcement, Anne was immediately excommunicated. In 1642 after here husbands death, Anne Hutchinson and her family moved to Rhode Island. Unfortunately five years later, Indians killed Anne and her remaining children. To quote Anne Hutchinson, and how she felt about her own personal communication with God, the author quotes her as stating, "I feel that nothing important ever happens that is not revealed to me beforehand" (Crawford, 33). Anne Hutchinson had created a legacy and identity unfamiliar for a woman of the Puritan / Colonial day. However in comparison to Hannah Duston both women lived and were outlived by their powerful deeds and actions.
Both women achieved notoriety in this volatile time, when the established religion ruled without exception. A day when woman of spirit and strength were often questioned, and groups of people came to their own conclusions on points of doctrine. This notoriety however spawned fear in religious and political circles. For this period of time in the New World within the Puritan / Colonial period, women like Anne Hutchinson and Hannah Duston learned to think about, openly question and take action for themselves instead of blindly believing what was taught to them by the clergy or men of the day.
Their actions are a tribute to a womans independent and courageous spirit. They demonstrated the rewards and unfortunately the downfalls associated with speaking out against a body of power, whether it is political or religious in manner. Without honoring the quest and ideas of women like Anne Hutchinson and Hannah Duston, womens history would not been complete. Berkin, Carol. First Generations, Women in Colonial America. New York: Hill and Wang, 1996 New York: Simon and Shuster, 1997 Crawford, Deborah.
Four Women in a Violent Time. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc. , 1970. Bibliography: Works Cited Berkin, Carol. First Generations, Women in Colonial America.
New York: Hill and Wang, 1996 Evans, Sarah M. Born for Liberty. New York: Simon and Shuster, 1997 Crawford, Deborah. Four Women in a Violent Time. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc. , 1970.
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Research essay sample on The Puritan Good Wife
