Define Puritanism and Democracy and Show how They Were a Mixed Legacy

From Inequality to Equality
In "Puritanism and Democracy: A Mixed Legacy," Stephen Foster shows how, despite their assumptions of inequality, the government established in Massachusetts by the Puritans, evolved into something that was never intended; a government based on democracy. To be a Puritan was to be a member of "simply the most important body of people since the Apostles" (pg 23). Puritans felt it was their job, their divine duty, to establish a pure society based on God's word. They would be "as a Citty upon a Hill, the eies of all people are upon" them (pg 24). Meaning they believed they would be this pure, godly society that the rest of the world would notice and strive to emulate. They loved their Mother England very much and were hoping to purge from her Catholicism, and their acceptability for things not of God. …