Historical Periods : Colonial America, Depression And The New Deal And War & Prosperity

Many religious peoples were being persecuted, and they were looking for a new place to put down their roots. Others fled the poverty of Europe to search for a better life in the Americas. No matter their reasons for leaving, people of all different backgrounds, origins, and religions came to the New World bringing with them their social and cultural traditions. The New World created a unique opportunity for people who used to be adversaries to come and coexist with the hope of a better future just as the Huguenots and English Catholics did. Seventeenth and Eighteenth century America was already showing signs of becoming what they would later be known as “the Great American Melting Pot”. Cultures from all over merged together, creating a uniquely American culture- taking influences from all the different colonists that settled there. There was no longer the Quakers, the Germans, or the Huguenots, they were all just American, and that’s what drew people to the New

Before the First Great Awakening, a revolution known as the Glorious Revolution of 1688, stopped the fighting between religious and political groups. The Glorious Revolution declared the Church of England the reigning church of the country. Now that all of the colonists were under the same religious rule, religion became a past time or a “go through the motions”

The treatment of mental illness has gone through many reforms over the years. Stemming from some of the earliest documented cases of treatment such as trephination in 5000 B.C. to the opening of “mental” asylums starting in the late 1300s to the development of the modern healthcare system. Through the 1800s until now, major developments in mental health treatment include the evolution of the “mental” asylum, widespread psychopharmacology, and psychotherapy treatments. Primarily focusing on the treatment methods of the past two hundred or so years, the United States of America has made leaps and bounds to provide humane treatment to aid those in need.

European immigrants from different parts of Europe flocked to North America, not only escaping religious persecution, but also seeking to attain social mobility. Religiously persecuted, they knew they were embarking on a journey that required tremendous entrepreneurial skills, and this might alone have set them aside from countrymen who chose to stay. “Even the most religious of the early Puritan settlers of Massachusetts Bay were alert to the need to create and maintain a viable economy” (qtd. in Perkins 165). As European residents, they might have had little in common, but as immigrants they unknowingly furnished many of the distinctive characteristics of American culture. Westward expansion continued during the eighteen century, when roughly 350 thousand Europeans moved to British North America. Once England’s overpopulation problems were solved, the crown came to regard a large home population as an asset and discouraged immigration to the colonies, but it instead promoted the colonies among German and French Protestants, who were offered free land, religious tolerance, and a relaxed path to citizenship (Norton 87). As earlier settlers’ family farms lost the ability to further divide inheritance among children, adult children migrated westward in search of their own estates. Even though traditional sects had difficulties

After the Revolutionary War ended, a rebellion against the church began during the 1730s, known as the Great Awakening. This Awakening transformed the topography of the European Religious culture. Americans wanted a religion that was compatible with their way of life. During the era of the Revolution, the most substantial denominations were the Quakers, the Congregationalists, and the Anglicans. After America’s liberation from the tyranny of the British Crown and religious ideology of predestination, they wanted to associated themselves with a religion that gave them more control over their destination. Americans adopted the freedom of choice allowing them to accept or reject God’s salvation for themselves.

In 1775, Daniel Boone blazed the Cumberland Trail, and in 1783 the Treaty of Paris gave the newly formed United States all lands west to the Mississippi River. With the end of the war, American interest in the West reached a new level of intensity. This second great migration had significant impact on American society. it is clear that this westward movement was a major factor in the nation's subsequent development. And that was certainly the case where American Christianity was concerned. In the wake of the Revolution, churches faced three major tasks: (1) organization (2) reviving vital religion and (3) following the population westward. The future of the Church was contingent on dealing with all three problems. Churches soon recognized that in such a large area, the old parish system--which assumed a town--would not work. Concerns that the West would lapse into barbarism or worse that the Catholic missionaries would reach these people first, created a crisis atmosphere in some quarters. French Catholics had long been active in the Northwest and along the Mississippi. People on the frontier were attracted to those who preached a more emotional faith, and dismissed of the more sophisticated rational faith of the Eastern seaboard. Churches that proved flexible in seeking these

England’s American empire was founded partially on greed, along with pursuit of various religious sects for different branches of Christianity, which led to different colonies becoming dominated by varied religious beliefs (i.e. Rhode Island

“…The American Revolution is inconceivable in the absence of the context of ideas which have constituted Christianity. The leaders of the Revolution in every colony were imbued with the precepts of the Reformed faith” (Amos, Gardiner, & Dembski). The founding of America was affected by many events in history—events and religious teachings such as the Enlightenment and Rutherford’s Lex Rex. There were many trials for Christians in England. However, these troubles impacted the Founders of America, spurring them on toward independence. Such occasions were the Reformation, two revolutions which took place in England during the beginnings of America, and finally, the flight of Puritans and the Great Awakening that occurred in America. These historical events in the Christian Church were part of the prompting which led to America’s

The early American colonies were founded and settled by Great Britain. Accordingly, Church of England was the state sponsored religion in this area. Most individuals identified themselves at Protestants and most of the settlers considered themselves church members. Even with these facts the Anglican Church struggled to keep its base in the colonies and to move into newly settled areas. This happened because of the church leadership, several church practices, and the topography of the colonies.

The study of faith in colonial America is one of the most well established historiographies in the field, but much like Atlantic history it has gone through several iterations over the years. An excellent Starting point is William Warren Sweet’s Religion in Colonial America is an excellent example of old school longue duree history, covering the span of 300 hundred years in an attempt to catalog every Religion in early America. Widely considered a starting reference for any study of

Ron Powers’s book No One Cares About Crazy People and Nassir Ghaemi ’s book First Rate Madness, both describe the backstory of mental health throughout history. Power’s book begins with Bedlam, to the method of moral treatment towards mentally ill patients, to presidents in America undertaking the role in acting health care. Ghaemi’s book focused on world leaders who suffered from mental illness. Those leaders made positive and negative impact on today's society and the treatment of medications that they underwent.

Religious freedom served as a main reason for Europeans to endeavor to the American colonies (“The Colonial Period,”2012). The founding of European colonies in North America corresponded with Protestant Reformation-one of the turning point events of human history. The Reformation not only split Europe along Catholic and Protestant lines, it also created a diversity of religious groups whose members often persecution from civil and religious authorities alike. This persecution varied widely from country, both in form and in the degree of cruelty (“Destination America,”2005). In some places, members of different faiths resented paying taxes to support the established church and being forced to attend worship services; in other places, refusing to follow to the local religion meant death. To those suffering from

The passion for religious freedom was a powerful factor in motivation within the formation of the colonies. People left their native homes in Europe so they could freely practice their religion without fear of punishment for not following the established religion from the states within Europe. The 17th century was known for the upcoming of many major movements in religious views in the American colonies. During these times tolerance for minority religions and religious freedom was deeply entrenched in American Culture. Although people came to America for freedom of religion it seemed as if it was free but with conditions. The role of religion in Colonial America in the

The psychological composition and psychiatric challenges of Abraham Lincoln and Winston Churchill assisted them in becoming history's greatest world leaders. The mental suffering experienced by these men facilitated and contributed to many of their successes and achievements and increased their capacity for empathy, a deeper exploration of different states of minds and ways of taking action. Although, most specifically, being able to see clearly into the dark heart of events and express the nature of crisis' and provide ways out of terrible situations. A mental illness is a health problem that significantly affects how a person feels, thinks, behaves, and interacts with other individuals.1 Mental illnesses, particularly in the 21st century,

One of the major problems of mental health institutions is the abuse that many patients endured due to the historical problem of mental illness as a threat to society. In the case of mental institutions of Europe throughout the Middle Ages to the 18th century, these institutions were meant to house “disruptive individuals” that were