Puritans Behaving Badly: Gender, Punishment, and Religion in Early America AS

"Tracing the first three generations in Puritan New England, this book explores changes in language, gender expectations, and religious identities for men and women. The book argues that laypeople shaped gender conventions by challenging the ideas of ministers and rectifying more traditional ideas of masculinity and femininity. Although Puritan's emphasis on spiritual equality had the opportunity to radically alter gender roles, in daily practice laymen censured men and women differently – punishing men for public behavior that threatened the peace of their communities, and women for private sins that allegedly revealed their spiritual corruption. In order to retain their public masculine identity, men altered the original mission of Puritanism, infusing gender into the construction of religious ideas about public service, the creation of the individual, and the gendering of separate spheres. With these practices, Puritans transformed their 'errand into the wilderness' and the normative Puritan became female"-- Provided by publisher "The gossip surrounding Content Mason and Peter Wood had circulated for years. Many thought the young widow Mason would quickly remarry. Instead, she found company with the already-married Mr. Wood. Juicy gossip surrounding their relationship turned into serious accusations once Peter's wife conspicuously left town after the birth of Content's second illegitimate child. Content realized that they had to get away. So she packed what she could from her father's house, pocketed some money, and fled with Peter. Along with all of her hurried thoughts on abandoning her home, she must have conceded that life could take unexpected turns. Thirteen years prior, in 1679, the twenty-year-old Content was just beginning her married life and settling in as a goodwife in the Massachusetts Bay town of Dorchester. Unfortunately, her husband died after only three years of marriage, leaving Content a young widow with two little children. She must have had suitors over the years, but no single man could win her hand in marriage. Rumors started to spread about exactly where her heart wandered. Things got worse when Content and Peter's wife, Abigail, both delivered sons only ten days apart, in the spring of 1688. Not until a few years later, though, with the birth of Content's second illegitimate baby, did things come to a head" Copyright_page 2 Dedication 6 Contents 8 Figures 10 Tables 12 Acknowledgments 14 Introduction 18 1 The Great Hen Squabble and Regulating the Godly Path 34 2 Drunkards and Fornicators on Meeting House Hill 61 3 “Wicked Tongues and Wayward Behavior” 84 4 A “Blubbering” War Hero and the Middle Ground of Masculinity 110 5 “Unquiet Frame of Spirit” 132 Conclusion 151 Bibliography 164 Index 188 Explores how church disciplinary practices gendered Puritanism and challenged ideas of ministers. Laymen punished men for public behavior that threatened the peace, and women for private sins that allegedly revealed their spiritual corruption. These practices transformed 'the errand into the wilderness' as the normative Puritan became female. Examines the sins and confessions in church disciplinary records to argue that daily practices created a gendered Puritanism