Cause of the Decline of Puritanism in Colonial America
...st of laws, called the sumptuary laws, was created concerning communal behavior. For women, lace was not considered an acceptable article of clothing in Puritan society, and their attire had to have acceptable sleeve measurements. At the same time, a man was subject to prosecution if he wore long hair, and men were not even allowed to kiss their wives in public situations. One man was forced to spend hours in the stocks for kissing his in front of his home after returning from three years at sea. In all actuality, such harsh social policies could have done nothing more effectively than bread dissenters over time. The political outlook of the Puritan faith was very similar to the social mindset; the people loved freedom, but their religion’s standards were at best limitedly democratic in many regards. In these colonies, only freemen, or adult churchgoers, were permitted to vote in provincial elections, which left over half the population without the privilege. Regardless of whether a citizen believed in Puritanism, the body politic still exacted taxes from them to pay for the supported church. Insomuch, religious leaders tended to dominate much control over the general populace (they placed checks on church membership until they were convinced that the men or women in question had truly experienced conversion). As compared to the more democratic of the colonies, the Puritan settlements contrasted well in political regard. Rhode Island initially extended voting rights to all males and had no tax-supported church, as Pennsylvania included a general representative assembly that at least served as an added bonus for misfits who entered into the region. In addition to the social and politic rigidity of the Puritan order, stern religious limitations may have played a role in the faith’s decline. Puritanism, founded on the strictest form Calvinism, really served legalistic purposes rather than spiritual ones. Anyone who exempted themselves from church services was fined, imprisoned, or whipped, and a citizen who denied the divine origin of any book of the Bible received a harsher sentence. These standards virtually eliminated any freedom of choice in regard to divine beliefs from the citizens’ grasps. Of the most famous exiled from the Puritan establishments were Roger Williams, who went on to found Rhode Island, and Anne Hutchinson, who for a while resigned with him there. As a result of these policies, most immigrants of the early 1700s settled in the middle colonies, where ethnic diversity and greater religious tolerance were the norm. With the Great Awakening, ot...