The voyage across the Atlantic was a long and sometimes very dangerous journey. The puritans were set to make a migration to a land were they could practice their religious beliefs in peace. Their migration to this 'New England' had a major impact on their religions future. In the beginning of the new colony the hardships they suffered only brought them closer to their religion. Only after the colony was finally well established the absence of these hardships proved to pull the religious community apart.
The movement of most families to New England was far different than in any other migration to the New World. Most of the other areas that were starting new colonies were largely composed of young men that were looking at this as an opportunity to advance their financial position. The settlers in the Chesapeake region had a much more difficult time than the family oriented area of New England. They didn't have the family structure and religious ties to pull together into a tight nit community. The families that migrated to New England were following Puritan religious leaders. Before starting off on this journey they had already been part of a religious community that was established throughout England. This made it so there was an organized group of people with a purpose already established. The purpose of starting a whole new religious community.
The first few settlements of New England had many hardships and established a very close community. As more ships arrived every year the original settlements wanted to keep the same tight nit communities intact. The community was so close because everything was based around religion. Every house once established made an effort to keep to the religious ties close to their family. Individual families were kept close due to the way that land was distributed and redistributed to the children.
As children grew up with their families they worked hard preparing their parents land. They knew that one-day when they started a family of their own they would receive a portion of their parents' lot. The children earned this land through all of their hard work during childhood. This is what the leaders of the puritan community did not recognize. When the first generation began to die off more land was being passed down to the younger generations. This land was already well prepared and had hoses and other buildings built on it. The elders in the church community began to notice this and thought that receiving all this newfound wealth from their fathers was spoiling the young generation.
The Puritan leaders were worried that the new generation was becoming too focused on the possessions that they had just received from their parents that were quickly passing away. The Puritan leaders saw this as a major threat to the church because their way of life was not supposed to be focused around worldly possessions. The younger generation was able to attain more material goods without trying any harder than ...