But equally important is that we correct misrepresentations and recognise positive contributions made by the Puritans. Recognising and understanding them is an important part of advancing our understanding of the past. There is no question but that the Puritan settlers of Plymouth and all New England had their warts. In 16 Plymouth’s deacon, Samuel Fuller, was instrumental in advising the Massachusetts colonists in Salem, Boston, Watertown, and other communities on how to organise their religious life into what many refer to as the New England Way. I refer to the Plymouth settlers as “Puritans” because, as I have argued in my new book, One Small Candle: The Plymouth Puritans and the Beginning of English New England, the Congregationalists who settled the colony in 1620 were a segment of the broad Puritan movement. This is particularly apt when we talk about the Puritans who settled Plymouth, men and women who hoped to start in America an exemplary society based on their Christian values. We need to be aware of the warts but avoid the danger of making the warts all that is worth noting. We need to avoid Manichean-style judgments of people as all good or all evil, something that has become a tendency in the midst of disputes over historical statues and memorials. He recognised that just as there were blemishes in his personal appearance, so too were their offences in his life. Cromwell told Lely to paint him “warts and all”. Recently, I have found it useful to begin sharing my thoughts with a reference to the instructions that Oliver Cromwell gave the artist Peter Lely, who had been commissioned to paint his portrait. I have been researching and writing about Puritanism in the Atlantic world for more than 50 years. This year marks the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the Mayflower off Cape Cod and the settlement of the Plymouth colony by a group of Puritans who are often referred to as the Pilgrims.
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