Escaping persecution in England, the Puritans found themselves persecuting others in New England. One group which Puritan ministers, such as John Cotton, Increase Mather, and Cotton Mather, tried to banish from New England was the Quakers. In the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the General Court passed laws that would fine one hundred pounds to any shipmaster who brought a Quaker into the colony. Any colonist found having a Quaker book would be fined five pounds. If a Quaker was found in Massachusetts, he would be arrested, whipped and then exiled. Puritan leaders made it difficult for a Quaker, or even a Puritan who was tolerant of Quakers, to live in peace. A non-Puritan

Although the Puritan commonwealth began as a self-sufficient one, merchants eventually created a system of trade involving England and the Caribbean, otherwise known as the Triangle Trade. This brought wealth to some New Englanders, but it also brought all into contact with the outside world. Many merchants eventually had the power to dictate the prices of items and terms of credit. They expanded their influence by purchasing large parcels of land. They realized that intolerance was bad for their business image; they sought to eliminate the laws that prevented those who opposed Puritanism from settling in Massachusetts.9 Some Puritans, such as Max Weber, R.H. Tawney and David Little, believed that the Puritan emphasis on intelligence and vocation contributed to the growth of the materialistic society that was developing in the colonies.10

The Great Awakening, a religious revival throughout the colonies, restored prosperity to the Puritan tradition temporarily. Puritanism decayed because it lost its status as the unique religious force in much of New England. Revivalists of Christianity, not just Puritanism, but Methodism, Calvinism and Unitarianism, began to build

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Approximate Word count = 797
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)