Monique

=**Facts of Puritans**=

It was a rainy day at my grandparents’ house and I decided to explore the attic. I walked up the stairs feeling that each step I stepped on was going to give in and send me falling straight though the steps. I didn’t turn back though. Once I was up I had to turn on the light. It flickered at first and barely stayed on. Then I started searching. I was walking past an old pile of boxes and accidentally knocked them over. I went to pick them up I saw a small treasure chest tucked away on a small shelf. I went over to check it out. It was covered with dust, so I took it downstairs to show my grandpa. We cleaned it and took off the broken lock.Inside we found cool objects all about the puritans. The [|puritans] were a group of people who disagreed with the Church of England and started to work at religious, moral, societal reforms. It was really interesting!



The first object I pulled out was a copy of the original [|portrait of John Winthrop.] by Van Dyke. He was an important puritan leader. He helped lead the puritans away from the Church of England and rebuild religious, mortal, and societal reforms. There was also a letter written by him. [|Letter by John Winthrop] It was funny to see how they wrote back then. Everything was written in old English. Another object that I pulled out of the chest was a piece of parchment with [|memorable providences] relating to witchcraft and possessions. They were written by Cotton Mather, a servant of John Winthrop. He was a puritan, during the time of the [|Salem Witch Trials]. This was a time when the puritans believed that innocent men and women were hung and old men were crushed to death by rocks because the people thought they were witches. Then once again I looked into the chest and saw a [|discourse] (speech/sermon) given by John Winthrop. He gave this discourse in 1630 to his fellow puritans when they were sailing to Massachusetts Bay on board the Arabella. He talked about models of christian charities. It was a nice speech with a good message.

During all this excitement I learned a lot about puritans that I didn't know before! From all the different objects and researching about them I found I learned more about John Winthrop and the Salem Witch Trials. In fact I don't think I knew anything about John Wintrop exept that he was the govener of Massachusetts and now that I know more about the Witch Trials, I would like to go to Salem, Massachusetts sometime and visit some of the old Witch trial sites, tours and museams. I think it would be alot of fun! The objects inspired me!