One of my four classes this semester is titled: Puritanism in America, and is taught by a walking encyclopedia of Puritan history. Never before have I understood the significance of Peabody (FYI: it is not pronounced pee-body, but peebuddy), Essex, Ipswich, and even the amazing history behind Boston. Names like John Winthrop, Anne Hutchsinson, Anne Bradstreet, John Cotton, and the Mather family have all come alive to me as real people who actually lived, and whose legacies are still around me two and a half centuries later. I live next to Danvers, which is the former town of Salem Village, where the famous Salem Witch Trials took place. I am surrounded by the first scenes of American history. Pretty cool.

This last week my class took a field trip (yay for field trips in graduate school!) to Newburyport, to the burial grounds of George Whitefield, who is praised as the greatest preacher of the 18th century. He is actually buried in the Old South Church under the pulpit from which he preached. The church itself is 250 years old this year and, for all practical purposes, is the original building built by the Puritans themselves. They did it in three days. Absolutely mind boggling.

This is George Whitefield's tomb (the skull is not actually his; he is buried below it) which is in the basement of the church directly below the pulpit. Below his name on the plaque is the epitaph he wrote for himself. It reads: I am content to wait till the day of judgment for the clearing up of my character: and after I am dead I desire no other epitaph than this, 'Here lies G.W. What sort of a man he was the great day will discover.'"


It is hard to tell, but this is a picture of the rafters above the sanctuary ceiling. The wood is the original timber cut by the Puritans.

You should all come visit me and see the places for yourselves!