Student Essay on Puritanical Influence on the U.S. Constitution

Explores the history of the Puritans who founded the United States. Analyzes how Puritans affected the development of the U.S. Constitution through their culture, religion, society, and thinking.

The founders of America - namely, the Puritans, were a number of pro-Reformers from the Church of England. Due to their dismay at the mild changes of the Anglican Church[1], these Calvinists[2] wished to escape religious persecution by beginning in a whole new world. When they arrived in the barren land half a world away, survival was dubious, and the strict Puritan religious doctrine and traditions almost promised a repeat of the rigid society found back home in England. However, subtle changes in government and social beliefs punctuated the years between the first landing and the making of the United States Constitution. Thus, although Puritans were known for their spartan philosophy and religious views, their ethics, beginning, and detrimental experiences with the English Crown/the Anglican Church helped spark a state of mind that would bring about.....