Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson

Two parts of the book I found particularly interesting were the stories of Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams. I tie the two together in the same post because I feel that they had a relatively similar path. To start, they were both different than the average Puritan in the fact that they didn't conform to a single set of beliefs, but also followed their personal thoughts. Williams would preach his own beliefs and Hutchinson started a woman's group in order to share hers. Because of this, they became outcasts and were banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

After Williams left the colony, he proceeded to help find Rhode Island, and Hutchinson helped find Portsmouth. But, Williams didn't stop at being the founder of a state. He also traveled back to England and acquired a charter that allowed freedom of religion in Rhode Island. Because of this, he can be considered the father of the First Amendment which promoted freedom of speech. I also believe that Anne Hutchinson was a founder of the First Amendment because she also spoke her mind at any cost.

John Winthrop and Early American Puritans

Before reading this book, I didn't know anything about Puritans nor had I even heard of them. Now I think I have a basic idea of what a Puritan is and what it means to be one. A Puritan is someone that follows Calvanism because they thought the English church was too impure. This led many Puritans to the New World to get away form England's church. One of the first groups of Puritans to move to America was John Winthrop and his men on the Arbella. But, being a Puritan didn't just mean believing in a certain God and having certain ways of worshiping Him. It also meant hard work and severe punishment for those that broke rules. Because of how hard they worked and how how severely punished small things were, Puritans are known today as uptight, boring people.

Puritan Influence on Modern America

Although Puritans were much different than today's average American, there are definitely some things in our society that seem to be influenced by their way of life. First of all, the Puritans were obviously very devoted to God which has carried on to some people today. Most of these people aren't quite as intense in their love of God as the early Boston settlers were, but their religion has still been carried throughout American history.

Another thing we have in common with the Puritans is the idea that hard work pays off. Much of their society was built around working hard in order to get ahead in life which can often be applied today. In our capitalistic society, we allow people to reach higher levels of wealth than others based on the amount of work they put in. Without this belief bestowed upon us by early American Puritans, we might be a communist society today.

Finally, I think this quote by John Winthrop still hold true to this day: "We must delight in each other, make other's conditions our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, our community has members of the same body." By saying this, John Winthrop means that all of the people need to take others into consideration rather than just living for yourself. This is applied today by people donating to charities, donating their time, and by just plain caring about other people.

Sarah Vowell's Writing Style

Throughout this book, I often had a hard time understanding Sarah Vowell's main points due to her odd style of writing. One of the first things I noticed while reading this book was that there were tons of run on sentences. It seemed as though every page would have whole paragraphs that were just one sentence, which of course was a bit difficult to adjust to. Also, Vowell would often explain small things in great depth, while the really important points were at times under explained. At one point in the book, Vowell spent almost five pages explaining how John Winthrop tried to be kind even though he had to enforce rules. She did this by telling a story of how he let a banished man stay in Boston so he wouldn't freeze to death, how he let a poor man use his wood to keep a fire lit, and then she compared him to many other people throughout history. Although it may seem like she was just trying to put a lot of detail in, it seemed like a bit of overkill while I was reading. The last thing that I think is weird about her writing is that she jumps all throughout history in order to explain one small event. Because she couldn't stay in one time period for more than a page or two I had a hard time understanding what she was trying to say, and it often had me re-reading full paragraphs or even pages.