Divine Providence In William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation

A second reason for the religious prevalence in Colonial America was the evil that people faced. “The providence of God was ‘wonder-working’ in making manifest the reach of his sovereignty; such acts of ‘special providence’ represented God’s clearer and more explicit than usual intervention into the affairs of man. But he was not alone in having supernatural power. The events

After her house was burned during a raid by local Indians. Rowlandson’s friends and family members were killed or captured by Native American in the 1676. Rowlandson and her baby were wounded, capture and forced to walk for days after the raid and Rowlandson had to watch her own child wither away and die due a lack food and medical care. During Rowlandson’s captivity with the Indians, the only thing she had to fall back on for her survival was her bible and her Puritan beliefs in God. This paper shows how Rowlandson’s understanding of the Puritan Tenets or beliefs helped her in deal with her captivity physically and spiritually. The reader should have an understanding of the Puritan Tenets and understand that the Tenets are not just words but a way of life for the Puritan.

In Of Plymouth Plantation, by William Bradford, the colonists face trials of many kinds. From ships sinking, to being blown off course, and landing in the winter, they were put in an awful position. Yet, they got through it by, “Showing herein their true love for their friends and brethren; a rare example and worth to be remembered.” They survive by these men who stayed strong. “And yet the Lord so upheld these persons as in this general calamity

In of Plymouth Plantation William Bradford talks about how the Puritans left England to relish in their own religion beliefs and how things should be handled. While doing so they went through tough

In the text it states “ I had gotten into a world of bad spirits” (Equiano 58). Equiano referred to his captors as bad spirits because as soon as he arrived on the boat he was roughed up by the captors. He called the captors savages because he had never been around people like them. In the text Bradford states “ He directed them how to set their corn where to take fish and produce other commodities” (Bradford 11). This shows how the pilgrims became accustomed to being around the Native Americans. They were so kind to them that the Pilgrims were no longer scared , and they learned skills to live.

The poems, journals, and sermons by William Bradford, John Winthrop, Anne Bradstreet and Jonathan Edwards displayed these characteristics: the love of something, the courage to do something, the belief in something, and the ability to stand strong and stable in their beliefs. In “Of Plymouth Plantation” the people traveling to find the people on the ship had the love and desire to seek God in everything they did. They believed in God so much they were putting not only their health but lives in jeopardy by traveling so far. “Thus his curses light on his own head, and it was an astonishment to all his fellows for they noted it to be the just hand of God upon him.” Even though they under came harsh conditions they were determined to find a safe

Throughout William Bradford’s “Of Plymouth Plantation”, his attachment to his religion was very strong and very verbally shown throughout his work. Bradford was between the age of twelve and thirteen when he had first heard his first sermon by a minister named Richard Clyfton and he later joined with Clyfton in the year 1606. Bradford begins with “…some godly and zealous preachers, and God’s blessings on their labors…” God is already being praised in the first few sentences of this work to bless the labor of their works and throughout the land. The goal of this paper is to bring into light three different sections throughout the work, where Bradford uses his religion to prove a point and to show how his religious faith is freely expressed by leaving England.

In William Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation he articulates that living in young America was a tough life that included dangerous living, starvation and disease. Bradford sailed from Holland with the Pilgrims and when their first governor died in 1621 Bradford was elected. Bradford’s opinion was well respected in the community and he was reelected to his position thirty times. This position gave him the ability to have many of his works published and read by many. An example of him describing the new world as dangerous is when he painted the picture of a wicked forest across “the whole country” . He went on to describe this forest as having a “wild and savage hue”. Another problem addressed in William Bradford’s piece is starvation. He described that once winter arrived many people began to die and by February “half [the] company died”. Finally Bradford described the new world as a haven for disease. As the starvation began to set in in the early winter so did the

In the New World Bradford and Morton were both important men of our history. The stories of both great men give us an insight into the way religion and influence affected Puritan life.

In the trial of Anne Hutchinson, we meet a well intentioned yet lost people described and labelled as the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Company. These self governing Puritans, once a people who sought God to set them on their way, settled only to be found as a people who simply lost their way. This journey to lost began when first motivated by a desire for religious reform and separation from the liturgy, ceremonies and practices of the Church of England. Once they banned together, they set on their way and traveled in groups to the New World. With the Word of God as their ultimate authority and the desire for a personal relationship with God, these people landed in Boston in 1630 united to self govern the newly founded Massachussets Bay Colony. Unfortunatly, this self rule resulted in a government of intolerance, fear and a liturgy not much different from what was once found in the Church of England. A system designed to set apart outward morality, or sanctification, to strengthen the authority of the Church only worked to neglect the place of true piety purposed to strengthen the spiritual lives of the people it served.

Puritans live in a life with a life of rules. They live by religious beliefs and literature purposes. The puritans believed in God being all powerful, Bible is God’s true law, success is a sign of improvement, and how education was written to glorify God and for education only not for entertainment.

In September of 1620, the Mayflower full of Puritans not satisfied with the system of the Church of England and people referred to as “strangers” began their voyage (Desperate Crossing). A Puritan man named William Bradford was among the passengers of the Mayflower and wrote “Of Plymouth Plantation” throughout his odyssey. The use of plain style is effective in historical writing and in William Bradford’s “Of Plymouth Plantation” plain style did not affect the main details of their journey, but rather his bias when comparing the writing to Desperate Crossing: Untold Story of the Mayflower.

Bradford’s interpretation of Merry Mount in his book titled, Of Plymouth Plantation, initiates with insulting accusations about Morton’s personality. Bradford titles Morton as the “Lord of Misrule” and declares that Morton was a “pettifogger” for throwing a feast for the Indians knowing that they had a shortage of food in order to get them to build a relationship with him (Bradford 155). Bradford disapproval of the occupants of Merry Mount’s “profane” and “dissolute life[style]” may place some doubt in the truthfulness of his writing, proposing that Bradford’s religious disparities with Morton has obscured his understanding of the maypole celebration (Bradford 155). Unsurprisingly, Morton’s maypole celebration signified the type of religious and societal viewpoints that the Puritans were trying to flee with their arrival to Plymouth. Morton’s presence threatened the Puritan’s idealistic concepts that Bradford valued for his neighborhood. In order to prevent that from occurring, Bradford’s intention for twisting the truth becomes comprehensible: to eradicate his enemy before he corrupts the Puritans with his “immoral lifestyle” (Bradford 156).

William Braford used allusions to the bible and referenced God’s intervention in “Of Plymouth Plantation”. In the 4th chapter, Bradford alludes to Proverbs 22:3 when he says “a wise man seeketh the plague when it cometh, and hideth himself” (Bradford A: 125). This statement basically says that when intelligent men know that evil is near they should seek refuge or hide. An example of God’s intervention can be found in Chapter IX when he states “But it pleased God to smite this young man” (Bradford A: 131). He then reinforces the notion of God’s intervention when he follows the statement with the assertion that the young man’s friends believed what happened to him was God’s will.

Through his writing, Of Plymouth Plantation, William Bradford emphasized the divine power and grace of God and how He was the complex being that controlled the consequences of sin and the benefits of being a good Puritan. Bradford once stated that Puritans in England were frequently “taken and clapped up in prison” or “had their houses beset and watched night and day...” For these reasons among others, Bradford and many other Puritans journeyed to America for religious and authoritative refuge. Bradford fervently believed in the capacity of God’s forgiveness but also in His punishments. In reference to seven dignified and respected men, Bradford recognizes that it was their Puritan ideals and faithfulness to their religion that kept them in God’s grace. “And yet the Lord so upheld these persons as in this general calamity they were not at all infected