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Piety In Early America

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Piety In Early America
Piety
Piety was a very important value for the early settlers and it was something that was valued by almost everyone during this time period. To have piety means to have a deep respect and devotion to God, and people often demonstrated their faith rather than keeping it hidden and done in private. Even though piety was prevalent before the first Americans settled in the New World, it became even more crucial for them. To the Pilgrims, God was their protector who protected them as they made their way to North America, and so they believed having faith in God would shield them from danger in the new, unknown world. An example of this value is in “Of Plymouth Plantation”, “Being thus arrived in a good harbor, and brought safe to land, they fell
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This was important when the First Americans began to settle, because everyone depended on each other. If one person was falling behind in their work and being lazy, everyone would suffer from this because they had to pick up the pace from that person. This value allowed them to build the towns, hunt for food, farm, and store their food. This was an important value for everyone’s survival. Here’s an example of industry from “Of Plymouth Plantation”, “…with abundance of toil and hazard of their own health, fetched them wood, made them fires, dressed them meat, made their beds, washed their loathsome clothes, clothed and unclothed them; in a word, did all the homely and necessary offices for them which dainty and queasy stomachs cannot endure to hear named; and all this willingly and cheerfully, without any grudging in the least…” This quote shows the “great commendations” of a few people who worked to care for the others in their community. These members of the community stepped up in order to keep the community functioning, and this displays industry. The second example of industry comes from “A Model of Christian Charity”, “For this end, we must be knit together in this work as one man. We must entertain each other in brotherly affection. We must be willing to abridge ourselves of our superfluities, for the supply of others’ necessities. We must uphold a familiar commerce together in all meekness, gentleness, patience, and liberality. We must delight in each other, make others’ conditions our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, our community as members of the same body.” In this quote from Winthrop’s sermon, we see that he mentions the importance of working together. This displays industry because if they hadn’t worked as “one man”, their chances of survival would not be as great. The value of Industry is still an

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