1st Edition

Puritan Family and Community in the English Atlantic World Being “Much Afflicted with Conscience”

By Margaret Manchester Copyright 2019
    172 Pages
    by Routledge

    170 Pages
    by Routledge

    Puritan Family and Community in the English Atlantic World examines the dynamics of marriage, family and community life during the "Great Migration" through the microhistorical study of one puritan family in 1638 Rhode Island.





    Through studying the Verin family, a group of English non-conformists who took part in the "Great Migration", this book examines differing approaches within puritanism towards critical issues of the age, including liberty of conscience, marriage, family, female agency, domestic violence, and the role of civil government in responding to these developments. Like other nonconformists who challenged the established Church of England, the Verins faced important personal dilemmas brought on by the dictates of their conscience even after emigrating. A violent marital dispute between Jane and her husband Joshua divided the Providence community and resulted, for the first time in the English-speaking colonies, in a woman’s right to a liberty of conscience independent of her husband being upheld. Through biographical sketches of the founders of Providence and engaging with puritan ministerial and prescriptive literature and female-authored petitions and pamphlets, this book illustrates how women saw their place in the world and considers the exercise of female agency in the early modern era.





    Connecting migration studies, family and community studies, religious studies, and political philosophy, Puritan Family and Community in the English Atlantic World will be of great interest to scholars of the English Atlantic World, American religious history, gender and violence, the history of New England, and the history of family.

    Introduction: The Verins--A Family "Much Afflicted with Conscience"

    The Verins and Family History

    The Many Puritanisms

    A Note about Methodology

    Women and the Historical Record in the Early Modern Era

    Women’s Agency in the Early Modern Era

    Part One: "Gone to New England for Conscience Sake": Family History as New England History

    The Verins

    Who Were the Puritans?

    Patterns of English Migration

    A New Community in Providence

    The Proprietors

    The Antinomians in Rhode Island

    Disputes over Land

    Post-Script

    Part Two: "Piety Tempers Patriarchy": Women of Conscience in the English Atlantic World

    Women and Puritanism

    Answering Christ’s Call

    On Marriage: Puritan Ministerial Literature

    The Antinomian Crisis Continued

    The Women of Providence

    Making Sense of Women’s Experiences

    Puritan Prescriptive Literature

    Controlling Insubordinate Wives

    Barren in Zion

    In Women’s Voices

    Family Violence in Early New England

    Sectarian Groups and Women’s Religious Rights: The Baptists and Quakers

    Women’s Spiritual Activism in the English Atlantic World

    Pamphlet Culture in the 17th-Century Atlantic World

    Part III: "Forced Worship Stinks in God’s Nostrils": Government, Law, and Liberty of Conscience in Puritan New England

    The English Context

    Puritan Women and English Law

    Controlling Insubordinate Wives

    On Liberty of Conscience and Forced Conformity

    Massachusetts Body of Liberties

    The Issues in Transatlantic Context

    On John Locke

    Conclusion: Women of Obstinate Faith

    Works Cited

    Index

    Biography

    Margaret Murányi Manchester is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Providence College, USA. She teaches courses on US history, American women’s history, and diplomatic history. Her current research revisits a spy story involving in Cold War Hungary.