What is an American?

[Pictured above is an illustration of Jonathan Edwards giving his famous 1741 sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, which sent the crowd into a frenzy, and sparked a greater religious movement in the Colonies.  The illustration is from an upcoming book of mine on the man.]

Intro: What is an American?

When it comes to the current American culture, it has a tendency to revolve around questioning and challenging whoever or whatever is currently in charge. Americans regularly sound the alarm and call for change if they see a problem, specifically if it affects them as an individual.  The American’s authority-averse individualism has its roots within its Puritan heritage. The influence the thought processes of the Pilgrims and Puritans had on the generation that followed them and on the world-changing American Revolutionary War, is quite remarkable.  The impact they had on the American way of life, both concerning how it thinks of itself and how it thinks of the world, cannot be overstated.  

The Puritan Foundation:

The Puritans were Calvinists who dreamt of purifying the Church of England since they saw it as corrupt.  For this reason they were persecuted.  Alan Taylor in the eighth chapter of his book, American Colonies, notes that these folk were referred to as Puritans due to this devotion to purifying the Church.  Taylor continues to describe how those who were fed up with the persecution concluded that since the Church was so far gone and beyond repair, that the only rational thing to do was to leave and start their own society.  These people were the separatists, as they were seeking to separate themselves and their congregation from the Church of England.  These were the ones who referred to themselves as pilgrims.  These Pilgrims where the ones who later boarded ships such as the Mayflower, and founded Plymouth.  

A decade later, in 1630, John Winthrop would lead an exodus of Puritans to Massachusetts, to dwell in a colony created by the Massachusetts Bay Company in what is now known as ‘the Great Migration.’  The goal was to create a ‘City upon a hill’ (Dunn).  That is, it would serve as an example of what a Godly society should be: pious and profitable.  Here we see the beginnings of the American culture’s obsession with going out on one’s own and also its persistence in calling for change and new leadership. In this case, it was the Separatists and Puritans calling for the change.  This mindset ultimately led to the first group leaving the Church of England, and to both groups literally leaving England.  This parallels the American Revolution in that they too had an axe to grind with the current authorities.  However, the later generation would call for independence from English rule in and of itself.

In the mid-eighteenth century, a movement was sparked known as the Great Awakening.  Those who had been ‘awakened’ began questioning the existing clerical authority and church structure, and promoted smaller congregations as well as an independent and intense study of scripture, as well as a personal relationship with Christ.  One American who was very pivotal in starting the movement and ‘awakening’ the people, was a theologian and preacher named Jonathan Edwards.  Historian George Marsden chronicles his life, noting how his father instilled in him the Puritan ideals he would later champion.  Edwards would grow up to question and challenge the clerical structure, and call for an emotional and personal devotion to Christ.  America’s present preoccupation with traveling preachers, the repeated rise of revivals, as well as its emphasis on an individual’s relationship with Christ traces back to Edwards and the Awakening at large.  The Puritan ideals of self-reliance and independent congregations inspired Edwards, and through him, encouraged Americans to be independent when it came to religion, as well as politics (Marsden 229).

Puritan Ideology and the American Revolution:

Approaching the Revolutionary War, many voices were popping up calling for the colonies to declare independence from Britain. One such voice was Thomas Paine, a Quaker who was “the most radical egalitarian in America” (Nellis 92).  In his pamphlet titled “Common Sense,” which sold around 120,000 copies (Nellis 93), Paine argued, among many things concerning independence, that the monarchy was an anti-biblical institution, and was intrinsically sinful.  He even went as far as to say that, “For monarchy in every instance is the popery of the government” (Paine 338).  Compare the pilgrims who considered Britain’s official Church to be corrupt and sinful, to Paine who considered Britain’s government to be corrupt and sinful.  His arguments would not have have been as effective in convincing the colonists to support “a war that was already underway” (Nellis 93) if the Puritan tradition had not already conditioned them to accept such arguments.  Furthermore, as Historian Mark Noll explains in the third chapter of his book, Christians in the American Revolution, many Christians were claiming that it was God’s will that the colonies leave Great Britain.  Figures such as John Winthrop, William Bradford, and other Puritans had expressed similar sentiments and thus laid the groundwork.  All these men claimed that it was God’s will that they abandon Britain, and in many instances, this meant physically move from one continent to another, and not to break with the government per se.  Nevertheless, that is what happened, as their message inspired the future colonists to declare independence from Britain in 1776.  Each one of these generations believed that God was leading them towards something greater, and this notion would stick around to influence future generations.

The Lasting Impact:

The Puritans’ influence on American culture is still noticeable even today.  Alan Taylor had this to say about the lasting impact of the Puritans on American culture, “Compared with other colonial regions, New England was a land of relative equality, broad (albeit moderate) opportunity, and thrifty, industrious, and entrepreneurial habits that sustained an especially diverse and complex economy.  The region’s large, healthy families, nearly even gender ratio, and long life spans promoted social stability, the steady accumulation of family property, and it’s orderly transfer from one generation to the next.  And nowhere else in colonial America did colonists enjoy ready access to public worship and nearly universal education.  That those ideals remain powerful in our own culture attests to the enduring importance of the Puritan legacy” (Taylor 186).

Just as the Puritans were calling for the purification of the Church, many Americans today call for governmental reform.  On top of that, just as the Puritans stressed self-reliance and a hard work ethic, these two characteristics are still trumpeted by Americans today.  Moreover, their emphasis on personal responsibility later impacted the thoughts of Locke-inspired thinkers like Edwards (Marsden 62-63) to embrace a focus on the individual, which went hand-in-hand with the challenging of centralized authorities.  As Marsden pointed out, there were “two movements” impacting the colonies, both the Great Awakening and the growing support for commercial capitalism over centralized agencies, that were “not often link[ed]” by contemporaries, but “tended to flourish among the same populations, especially among nonelites in the countryside” (229).  Edwards’ questioning of existing authority appealed to those who were already questioning other authorities.  This newfound challenge to religious authority, brought about by the separatists and the Puritans, made questioning British authority, something the Pilgrims already did, feel more natural.  Overall, the Puritans have had an enormous impact on American culture, and have left an impression that has been of tremendous benefit to America both as a culture and as a country.

Conclusion: 

The modern American, whether one is Christian or not, has been heavily impacted by Puritan ideals of the past.  American culture itself is influenced by the Biblically-inspired thoughts of past generations, specifically the Puritans, who were some of the first to arrive and develop colonies that would later become part of the United States.  With this in mind, “What is an American?”  Truly, the American is, therefore, an individualist who is predisposed to challenging the current powers-that-be, and whose entire outlook is indeed indebted to those first Puritans to arrive on the American continent.

Works Cited

Dunn, Richard S. “John Winthrop.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 1 Apr. 2020, www.britannica.com/biography/John-Winthrop-American-colonial-governor.

Marsden, George M. Jonathan Edwards: A Life. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003. Print.

Nellis, Eric. The Long Road to Change: America’s Revolution, 1750-1820. Peterborough:  Broadview, 2007. Print.

Noll, Mark A. Christians in the American Revolution. Vancouver: Regent College Pub., 2006.  Print.

Paine, Thomas. “Common Sense.” 1776. The Mind and Spirit of Early America: Sources in  American History, 1607-1789. Ed. Richard Walsh. Lanham, M.D.: U of America, 1980.  335-42. Print.

Taylor, Alan. American Colonies. Ed. Eric Foner. New York: Penguin, 2001. Print.