Puritan/Indian Relations

Culture Clash: Puritans amongst Indians


In 1630, a group of Puritans fled from the Church of England to the Massachusetts Bay colony in search of the freedom to practice their “pure” form of Christianity, also known as Puritanism. The group of people known as the Native Americans (or American Indians) are the original inhabitants of the Northern and Southern American continents who are believed to have migrated across the Bering land bridge from Asia around 30,000 years ago. When these two societies collided, years of enforced principles, oppression and guerrilla warfare began. The great barriers of religion, ethics and world-views are the three largest factors which led to the culture clash between the Puritans and Native Americans.
Religion played a very important role in both Puritan and Native American society, though their ideologies different greatly. “Like all Christians, Protestant and Catholic, the Puritans believed that God was all-knowing and all-p...