In light of our discussion of Puritans last week take a look at "A Puritan Maiden's Diary" on the Cornell Library website.
This link 1675 diary of a Puritan girl, its author is unknown, appears to begin on her birthday and covers, roughly, a two year period. It was first published in the late 19th century - the link is to the article as it was originally published with text from the diary. Read through the article and text (it's five pages) and then write a paragraph or two about the diary.
What seem to be some of the girl's major concerns? What kind of a "snapshot" of Puritan daily life does it provide? What do we learn about Puritan daily life? How does this account compare to some of your other readings about Puritans and what you learned in lecture about their daily lives and concerns?
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A.J. Jewison
ReplyDeleteWhat initially struck me about this diary from a Puritan girl was the sense of paranoia detectable in her words. If she is not afraid of King Philip and Indian attacks then she if fearful of committing a sin. In one instance, the girl was too afraid to visit the seashore because of the threat of Indians, even though she longed to see it. Life in Puritan England must have been tiring. This girl is so young, and yet she spends almost all her time worrying about her faith and her protection. The entry on New Years Day, for example, highly exemplifies this girls conflicting impulses between being a good Puritan, and living her life as an ordinary teenager. She admits being too tired to stay away during a very very long mass (something probably normal for most people) and yet her Puritanical thoughts convinced her that her tiredness was sinful, and was a result of her detachment from God not the fact that the sermon was probably very boring.
The Puritan girl's diary fits right in with everything I associate with New England Puritanism: paranoia, fear of God, and boringness. The only thing I found unique abut this diary was the girl's gossiping. She writes some entries solely on gossip alone, including an entry about a couple fined for playing cards. How scandalous.
Lauren McTigue
ReplyDeleteI felt that this article was very much in line with our discussion and lecture last week regarding Puritan life. The young woman often speaks of her fear of God and what she believes to be sins. There is a great deal of talk about the Elders in the Church and the politics of the community. She occasional writes about Samuel and in one instance expresses that her smiling at him during a Church service was sinful as she was not focused on God. She speaks vaguely of daily life in the way of chores and family members, but so much of this article is centered on being in Church or praying or the general beliefs held by Puritans.
This gives present day readers a chance to see that while Puritans lives' were not devoid of drama and that family plays a major role in their lives, they went about a very routined, disciplined existence.
One point that I did find interesting and was also discussed in class is the role of women in Puritan villages. She notes that her Uncle thinks relatively highly of his wife and encourages men to not disregard the opinions and advice of women, simply because they are women. Personally, this is a much different conception than what I had prior to reading and discussing their lifestyles.
Peter Nickell
ReplyDeleteFrom the first two journal entries, you get the idea they lived a very strict, conservative life. She talks about how people say they did not catch a countrywide epidemic because they were baptized or how the things being done Britain for Christmas (such as having a good time) were not right. They thank God for every good fortune and thank him. The towns they lived in were very intimate in the sense that everybody knew what everyone else was up to. The Indians were still had a mysterious aurora about them and those who were not with them were thought of as savages. The women were mostly in their houses it seemed like, the girl writing this seems really sheltered by some of the entries she writes. This journal makes me think that they gossiped a lot more than they should have (it IS bad for your soul) and were maybe not as pure as someone would think. They seem very wrapped up in their own little world with little regard for anything happening away (aside from a few mentions). The reading sort of fits right into my idea of what their daily life was like. They want to do things like celebrate a joyous Christmas yet they are confined to live by the example set by their church. However what I did not think about was how much the people of this faith (seemingly according to this article) realized how strict it actually was.
The diary is a lot like our discussions in class. We talked about how the puritans were always afraid, and had a great deal of anxiety. The girl is afraid of a lot in the passages, she is afraid of indian attacks, afraid of committing sins, afraid of king Philip, etc. She also believes that if anything bad happens that it would be because of the sins her or her people have committed.
ReplyDeleteFrom our reading, it is evident the overtone of the diary is the Indian war with Phillip. The writer has many concerns, the sickness that comes out of Boston, her brother being sent off to fight for 5 years, and the ever waning possibility of ambush by Indians. After the war is won, you see more joyfulness in her writings. Plucking of flowers, dancing and opening of windows are ways of expressing happiness and safety.
ReplyDeletePuritan life is simplistic by nature but, profoundly ritualistic in prayer. This relates to our class discussion regarding their devout ways of life. Everything in Puritan life revolves on the Calvinistic message of proving your election to heaven. Anything, outside of this philosophy is unacceptable. This is evident by the example of Phillip’s son; the writer wants to feel humane thoughts for the innocent nine year old boy. Because of the teachings in Puritan Life, the Indians are not elect and therefore dammed to hell. It would be a sin to have sympathy or empathy for them.
Jenni MacDuff
ReplyDeleteI think this diary went along with everything we have read and talked about in class. Throughout the entries, it is easy to pick up on a sense of fear. She is constantly afraid that she is sinning and disobeying God. I found the part really interesting when she talked about smiling at a boy in church and how it made her feel so guilty and scandelous. It really emphasized the differences between Puritan society and modern day society. She also wrote many entries about how she was very scared of the Indians. She referenced Phillip a lot, which we had already talked about in class. She also referred to some Indians as "good Indians," which I assume are the Indians that are part of the praying towns we discussed in class. Overall, it was very interesting to read about the constant inner struggle she had with being a good Puritan and being a normal girl/teenager.
Rachel Marciano
ReplyDeleteI believe the diary is a reflection of what we discussed last week in class about the Puritans. The girl's thoughts are a basic summary to how we described the Puritans. They are afraid of nearly everything, and take normal mistakes or mishaps as works of the devil. One example would be how the young girl wanted so badly to see the ocean and visit the seashore, but was too afraid of the Indians to do so.
Something that I found interesting was the fact that she gossips quite a bit in one section about the couple who got in troube for playing cards, and it reminded me of how we discussed that although women did not have much power back in the Puritan days, they gossiped and had a lot of persuasion over their husbands. So if you crossed a woman or did something against "God's will", then soon the whole town would know about it and you would most likely be punished.
Kaitlyn Guerrieri
ReplyDeleteThis reading goes directly with what we have been discussing in class. The girl talks about how fearful she is in the "new world". She discusses her fear surrounding the Indians as well as her fear for God. I was interested in how she refereed to George as their Indian. I feel like these are the "good" Indians she is referring too. However, there does seem to be some conflict with George. I found this diary rather interesting because it shows how teenagers where growing up back then. I think it is interesting to compare it to today's teenagers. I do not think that in an average teenagers life there would be much fear of God or Indians. I think the fear that lives with teenagers today if parents and the pressure to excel in life. It seems completely different to what the Purtain's were afraid of.
Neil Maude
ReplyDeleteThis diary of the puritan girl really affirms my beliefs and impressions of a 17th century conservative lifestyle. This girl clearly lives in a comfort zone that has its cores; religion, community, and family.
This diary shows many example from are reading as well. The most concerning issue on the mind of this puritan girl is the Indians. She states the sightings of Indians by community members, family and others. You can see the fear in her writing.
There are also other aspects shown in this diary, like the sexism. In the diary the girl speaks of how the father says "women knew naught of such matters" (21) This was a very interesting thing to see, it shows the awareness of the inequality even in these times.
The girl winds down the diary with a trip to Boston. In this diary she states how differently Boston is. To her it is a center of wealth and luxury. For example, "Through all my life I never seen such and array of fashion and splendor as I have seen here in Boston." (24)
The religion is a major aspect of their lives clearly. They talk about how god is a powerful and vengeful god, and that many of there good luck and bad luck is attributable to god.
Puritans as they are portrayed in class and in the readings seem very in line with what we see here in this diary. Many of there customs, ways, and lifestyles are exactly in our readings.
Matt Adamitis
ReplyDeleteI thought it was fascinating to see how perceptive the Puritan girl was, and even how normal she was even by today's standards. I thought it was especially insightful when she questioned her aunt's reassurance that God would "not allow the daughter of [her] good mother to be lost', and she goes on to wonder what happens to girls who do not have good mothers. There seems to be a conflict between the influences of her Puritan community and her inner reason. She also questions how Philip's son can be held accountable for his father's actions, but then reconsiders that this type of thinking could be potentially sinful. This hints at a constant state of paranoia that says any disagreeement with the church ministry is a sin. But despite her internal conflicts, it seems that her paranoia has had its desired effect because she is a very pious young woman.
Jigisha Dalal
ReplyDeleteI thought this diary was very interesting, because it gave us a puritan girl's perspective.This diary of the girl, goes along with everything we have been talking about in class. As I read these entries, I could easily pick up the parts of her tone when she was scared, especially when she was talking about the Indians. In class when we talked about the Puritans always listening to god and always fearing the devil, the girl's diary states the same thing. She was afraid of disobeying god by doing something wrong. Their religion is definitely a major part of their lives. She talks about how powerful god is and how god will help them. But if you ever do something against god's will, you will get punished for it.
Michelle Booker
ReplyDeleteThe girl’s major concern is clearly staying committed to her faith in as many different ways as possible. It gives us the reader a really good look at the point of view from Puritans of the India/Puritan relations. This story is exemplary of the seriousness of the puritan faith to the puritans as well as the animosity that flourished in Puritan beliefs of Indians. Despite what the real story of King Philip maybe, it is clear that the narrator does not think highly of the Native race. Backtracking to discuss the Puritan Faith, it is clear that the law of Puritan settlements were based on moral belief in the bible. This is most evident when the girl speaks about public congregational confessions for moral injustice. Overall, this is very insightful for the chapters we have read on the Puritan lifestyle because it demonstrates the popular beliefs of Indians and Religion during that time.
After the reading, it is very evident that the early settlers lived in constant fear; much of it from Indians, but the vast majority from the wrath of God. Stories from Church or of Church seem to relay the religious undertones of the period. The author describes her birthday as gloomy, because she hears of unbaptized children in the new world. Even in situations of excitement or hapiness, she is weary of God's vengeance. Although Samuel tells her he'd rather serve her Church refreshments before everyone else, as an act of affection, she feels she has sinned him into saying such things. At one point, she feels bad for the son of King Philip beong sold into slavery at age 9, but she thinks feeling bad for him could be a sin.
ReplyDeleteIt is very evident in some parts that skepticism about God and his actions clearly exist. During Christmas, she writes about her aunt describing the Christmas festivities in England, and how great they sound. But then her aunt tells her how awful England is because of the sinners there, so that it's better off to be away from there. She wonders why her aunt would even tell her of the finer things in England? In another occassion, her brother Stephen writes of Miles Standish, who holds rank in society and has done much good for his people, despite neglecting Church services. How can he be such a good man and not be devoted to God?
Despite these questions, it's clear the colonists, like the author, based their daily lives around the word of God, in the hopes God would protect them from Indians and all of the other ills, many being mental and moral, as evident from the piece. This concept of "big brother" watching, but in this case God watching everyone's actions, sets the tone for everyday life. Above all, the colonists lived in daily fear of God's vengeance.
Madeline D.
ReplyDeleteThis diary gives an account of some of the daily troubles the Puritans faced. It seems they struggled with two main issues. First, the Puritans obsessed over living up to the "city upon a hill" ideal and in accordance to thier covenant with God. Many of the sins that the girl recorded are things we would consider to be light gossip today. This shows just how straightlaced this society was, but also their commitment to thier religion. And second, they had to protect themselves from the threats of their Indian neighbors. With these two concerns, the Puritans seemed to live in a constant state of fear.
I feel like this reading reflects very well what we learned and discussed in class last week. The girl seems to be very concerned with her family, and her sins. She seems to become very upset about her sins that she has committed. She also seems concerned with everyone else in the community's sins. She knows when someone else commits a sin and even what they are fined with for their crimes, such as playing cards. This seems to make her even more paranoid over her own sins. She worries about the consequences of her sins, and also wonders why she is always sinning.
ReplyDeleteAlso she is very concerned with her family and traitor indians. This make sense because it is the middle and the end of the King Phillip's War. It is also interesting that her family employed indians for different work at their home. The indians that they employed also learned english to some extent. This worries the girl, but I think that this is an important addition to what we discussed in class.
EGarcia:
ReplyDeleteThis could be one of the most boring diary I have read. It has some similarity with Anne's Frank Diary since both girl were completelt scared. But at least Anne Frank had a reason to be scared because if the natzy found her, she would have been executed. This puritan girl was afraid of everything. She was afrraid of God, sins, the devil, and indians. She hought every action was dictated by God or the Devil. At one point she didnt even dare to smile at a boy in churech since she thought it would be a sin. She didnt dare to see trhe sea shores since she was scared of an indian attack. This girl worried so much about her religion and her protection that she denied her youth experience even though she promise herself she will live like any other teenager.
When reading the diary passages, I found that the Puritan maiden’s major concern revolved around any improper thoughts which entered her head. In interpreting her concerns, the reader at times has difficulty locating the impurity in her thought process, and is often confused as to what sins she’s actually repenting. At times, the Maiden also displays concern regarding King Philip’s war, and is uncertain as to how the war is panning out in between the letters she’s receiving from her aunt in Boston.
ReplyDeleteThe view this gives on Puritan life is the sense of impurity present in their everyday lives. The maiden often worries of the sins encoded in her conscious/ subconscious thought process. It’s obvious that the Puritan people not only worried about their actions, but also included the thought process leading up to them when considering sins worth repenting.
In comparison to what I’ve come to learn about Puritans, this passage correlates the idea that god has allowed the Puritans to triumph over the “savage” Indians. This passage also includes some of the different alternatives that were considered when dealing with Philip’s son after his father was killed. Basically this passage further progresses my already existing view that the standards by which the Puritans lived their lives was somewhat psychotic.
This reading depicts puritan life as it was. I think it illustrates the readings discussed last week and how things such as gulit, repression, pre-destination, and fear played themselves out in everyday puritan society. While reading this, I wondered what socially constructed seperatist "baggage" still existed years later in the Colonies.
ReplyDeleteThe Puritan Madien talks about everything from gossip, to death. It seems to me that pre-destination is so evident in her guilt and beiefs that she is a sinner, and inheriently so.
I also thought her descriptions of disease and remedies for sickness were quite telling of the times, beacause they were truly contrived and backward, (while they may have tried other methods better suited from theit neighbors the indians)
It was interesting to see that the maiden thought the indians to be savages, but ultimatley ended up living side by side with native workers her father had attained. I found this telling of social change in puritain society.
This reading highlighted a large part of last week's class discussion. It seemed that every aspect of how she lived her daily life was in fear of god, King Philip, or the indians. She also talked about how occurrences that proved to be beneficial for the community were acts of god and bad things that happened were caused by the devil because people were sinning. Overall, I think that the Puritan lifestyle is pretty dull. The people were devout followers of their god who lived in constant fear of doing something wrong. They were scared of their surroundings and their native neighbors. They were constantly feeling guilty about, what seems to me, insignificant and minor happenings. The aspect of this diary that I found most interesting was when she was gossiping. It gave me the feeling that it was almost a competition amongst the Puritans to see who was the least sinful and "worthy" to go to heaven. I think this account of Puritan lifestyle is similar to how I pictured it in my mind and is on par with what we have discussed about them so far.
ReplyDeletesamantha nickolaou
ReplyDeleteIt is definitely evident that this Puritan Girl is concerned not only about Indians, war, disease and other things present in her atmosphere, but she has a terrible concern for the wrath God will impose on her if she doesn't adhere to the "puritan lifestyle". Which goes along greatly with the information we learned in class the other evening. These diary entries illustrate the stress and concern even young members of puritan society dealt with.
As much as this diary reflects what we discussed about puritans, with their belief in pre-destination, God's judgement, and their long long hours of sermon, it was still evident to me that this girl experienced one or two slip ups from puritan norm. In one instance although she reckons not to be merry in times of danger, she laughs at the periwig of her minister that has gone awry. She also catches herself smiling at a boy during sermon and losing track of what was going on. It is things like these that show that maybe although puritans prided themselves on many things, they shared weaknesses we are more apt to showing today.
Jeremy Kohlenbrener
ReplyDeleteThe diary entry of a 15-year-old Puritan girl during the 17th century gives us an idea of what life must have been like for Puritans living in the New World. The Puritan girl that is writing this diary gives us a pretty good snapshot of Puritan life; a life that is very much like what we have been discussing in class. Like we talked about in class, the Puritan life is one of infrequent activity and a fear of God. Most days there is some presence of religion. Either the girl talks about literally going to church (she talks about the New Years mass) or she mentions her relationship with God usually her fear of the ramifications for her actions. On one account she combines the two when she writes that it weighed heavily on her conscience when she almost fell asleep during a sermon.
While we know a lot about the Puritan way of life in class and through our readings, this diary entry gave us an idea of the day-to-day goings on of the people at this time through this girl’s entries. Basically we can tell that the Puritan life was boring. The days where this girl writes more, it is still so short. There are even some days where she only writes a sentence or two. This is a very good indication of the scarcity of activity day-to-day. Overall, I think that what is to be taken away from this diary, the readings and what we have discussed in class is that the Puritans were a people that were in constant fear of reciprocity from God for their every action, word or thought.
This is an interesting supplement to the portion of last week's lecture on Puritanism. These entries illustrate that the Puritans lived as simply and piously as possible. One can see where the people were coming from as far as trying to be "good" people, but compared to modern standards, it seems a bit extreme. For example, the girl talks about how celebrating Christmas too extensively is a sin, when today it is practically a sin to not go crazy about Christmas. At the same time, there is some amount of theological contradiction which wonders about--"If those things are so bad why did she tell me of them?"
ReplyDeleteAnother major portion of the Puritan day is spent in worship and prayer. She makes several mentions of people praying for long periods of time, and of having lengthy church services. She references scripture as well, which talking about how they will deal with Philip's son.
dara
ReplyDeleteThis diary entry definitely describes the life style that the puritans lived by. The fear of sins as well as sinning itself. It also seems that the girl is more afraid of everything,due her upbringing in the puritan way. I truely shows how strong they belived in this relgion as well especially, just by staring at someone thats definitely crazy. As someone said in an earlier blog all these fears would be considered petty in today's society. Now i actually see that its the Puritan way or no way for this poor girl.
Raed Khawaja
ReplyDeleteI am reminded of our discussions in class with these entries. "Fear" is such a common theme through out the course of these entries. I'm reminded of the predestination that we discussed in class. It is almost as if she fears that she is destined to be a sinner because hell and heaven was already decided for her. The anxiety causes her to leave a submissive and secluded lifestyle, one filled with fear of life itself.
After reading this girl's entry it seems as though we get to see a day-to-day account of what life was like for a puritan teen. She first starts off talking about her birthday but then quickly shifts gears to talking about more negative things. She first says that her friend tells her of sickness which has fallen upon Boston and how this has in a a way ruined her birthday. She then starts to talk about prayer and God. We can see from this that like all Puritans at the time she has a great deal of fear for him. We learned about the way Puritans feared him through our readings and discussion.
ReplyDeleteWe can also see that she has a fear of the indians and of King Phillip. Her family has hired indians and they have come to learn english and this worries her a little bit.
These diary entries directly relate to last week's lecture. Her lifestyle is the exact same as Puritans during that time. Obviously she was very big on religion because she spoke about praying and fasting and such things. i got a sense that she felt she loked down on Native Americans, referring to the ones that cooperated as "friendly Inidans".She seemed very into ritual practices and fearful to not practice them for fear of being sinful. It is very clear that the Puritan lifestyle was one of structure.
ReplyDeleteWas this diary real or fiction? These writings seem very complex for a 15 year old. In any case, the main worry that the writer has is about being attacked by indians, especially the Narragansett indians. There are many references to religion and serivces which seem to be the escape - or perhaps what brings the community together. Other than that, the colony is united in fear of the indians. The writer even goes to great lenghts to describe how people were killed at the hands of the indians and when they died.
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