A Reforming People: Puritanism and the Transformation of Public Life in New England

Abstract

In A Reforming People David D. Hall returns to the Puritans, exploring how first-generation New Englanders structured institutions to achieve their social vision. Hall argues that the mainstream migrants to the four orthodox New England colonies (Plymouth, Massachusetts, New Haven, and Connecticut) aimed to create not only a godly society but one that promoted harmony and equity. In clear, elegant prose Hall reviews the creation of central governments, the business of land distribution and taxation that occupied towns, the practices of church governance and membership, and the reformation of English legal codes. A chapter on each of those topics is followed by a case study focused on Cambridge, Massachusetts, under the ministry of Thomas Shepard. In the last of these, Hall is at pains to show that Shepard stayed out of town government—making an appearance in town records only to receive land—and that residents were not divided along fissures of church membership or social status.