Puritans Essays - English Colonization Of The Americas,

Puritans annon A religious fanatic is someone who takes his or her religion to the extreme, letting it control everything in his or her day to day life. The Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay colony are a prime example of this extremist view of religion. They had com plete religion based lives including the laws that they wrote, the way they treated outspoken women, and the way they treated people of other religions. The Puritans, for the most part, were good people, they just went way too far when it came to their r eligious beliefs. In the late 16 hundreds, the Puritans wrote their laws according to what the Bible states in the Old Testament, and to what they thought should also be a sin against God. These laws made some very petty and insignificant things illegal; such as worshipp ing a God other than the Lord God, cursing the name of God, a child over 16 cursing his parents, and being stubborn or rebellious against ones own parents. The punishment for all of the afore mentioned laws and for many others was death. Even interpr eting a preachers sermon in a different way was enough to get in trouble with the law. And for one woman it did. The mix of being a woman and committing an act against the church was even worse. Anne Hutchinson was a woman in the Puritan society with her own religious views. Ones that she shared with a select group of people in the community when she held small meetings at her home to reevaluate and reinterpret what the preacher had said in his sermon. For this she got arrested, put on trial in a severe cross-examination, and was finally banished from the community. In this day and age, sharing of religious vi ews, even from a woman, wouldnt even be thought of as bad, much less a serious crime. But to the Puritans, having different views of Gods word was enough to have a person put to death. Even if they were from a different community all-together. The peace-loving Quakers lived in Massachusetts along side the Puritans, but did not believe in the same things as them. The Puritan community saw this as a demonic act and believed them to be under the strong delusion of Satan. Serious injustices we re done to them, and most of the time it was to innocent people. People were kept days without food, women were stripped stark naked, one lay neck and heels in irons for sixteen hours, many were banished, and many more beaten to near death. This mistrea tment of the Quakers went on for years before the King of England finally made a decree to end all of the persecutions. All of this, merely because they werent the same religion. The Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay colony were good people, but they went so far off the deep end with their religion that they sacrificed their plain old human kindness and forgiveness. They just didnt understand that there were other things in lif e than their religion. The Puritans were the true definition of religious fanatics; they couldnt control their religion so they let their religion control them.

Brazillian Pepper essays

Brazillian Pepper essays The word exotic has always called to mind visions of the fascinating, unusual, curious, sophisticated, and even the bizarre (Kramer, 1998:5). This term seems to allure people to investigate, comprehend, and even collect exotic paraphernalia-including plants. The phrase exotic plant does sound glamorous, but not to the native plants in Florida. Native plants live well with each other, sharing food, water, shelter, and space. When brought to a different environment these now non-native plants have trouble adapting with native plants. They take control of the space provided and begin to overcrowd the area, taking out many natives. Non-native species also lack natural controls such as disease and predation, which helps to keep a balance between species. Exotic plants were first introduced to south Florida in the late 1800s and the population of them has been increasing ever since (Public Affairs Office, 1997a, 1997b). Most nonindigenous plants feel welcomed in the Sunshine States partly tropical climate. They are able to stand the heavy rainfalls and Floridas partial droughts (Kramer, 1998). One non-native species that has grown throughout south Florida, and has even been called the Florida Holly, is quickly spreading (Public Affairs Office, 1997b). The south Florida Water Management District surveyed an area of 284,708 Hectares taken over by Brazilian pepper in 1993. This evergreen shrub had the largest range out of six other species surveyed and has almost completely displaced native understory plants (Kramer, 1997). The Brazilian pepper (schinus terebinthiflius) was introduced in the nineteenth century as an ornamental plant, and did not begin to be pervasive until the 1900s-50 years later (Kramer 1997; Public Affairs Office, 1997b). Local distribution of its seeds is primarily by racoons and opossums, while birds spread the seeds long-distances. The Brazilian pepper does not require bar...