Puritan Beliefs and Charity

The Pilgrims crossed the Atlantic to worship as they chose, and to establish a community based upon their religious principles. As other early groups like Scottish Calvinists and French Huguenots settled elsewhere in the colonies, their similar Puritan beliefs became the foundation for early America's social welfare philosophy.

These Puritans believed in an ordered, hierarchical universe with God reigning supreme. The world, as God's creation, reflected this hierarchy and the presence of a permanent underclass fit into this world view. Believing in predestination, Puritans could look at poverty as revealing a flaw in the poor person's character; a sign that he or she was out of favor with the higher power.

While acts of charity to help the needy were an important part of religious practice, there was not an expectation that such charitable acts would raise the underclass out of poverty. Charity was viewed as comfort to those unfortunates doomed to suffer in this world, and the charitable act a sign of the goodness of the giver.