The Prologue orients readers to the classic tradition of American exceptionalism based in the Pilgrims and puritans, explaining how that tradition arose and to what effect. Sketching the development of a “puritan origins” thesis from the early republic through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the prologue ends in 1990, when a recognizable shift in puritan studies gained momentum. The Prologue gives readers a sense of how American collective memory built a story of noble Pilgrims fleeing persecution and establishing religious freedom on American shores. Pilgrim anniversaries of Plymouth Rock and the Mayflower landing were traditionally meant to celebrate and venerate an exceptional story of America rooted in New England and attributed to the singular virtues and values of the puritans. Yet even when scholars, politicians, pundits, and commentators turned against the puritans and despised them for various reasons, they still wrote stories in which the puritans were held responsible for all that the United States had become. Whether in love or hatred, in both praise and condemnation, the “puritan origins” thesis guided a great deal of American puritan studies throughout the twentieth century.

Puritans kept records of disciplinary practices, recording the censures, sins, admonitions, and confessions of members who strayed. By analyzing types of sins, punishments, and the language of confessions, this book reveals how Puritans altered the expression and practice of their faith, creating a “gendered Puritanism.” Examining more than fifteen congregations for the first three generations, this book shows how ordinary laymen shaped the gender conventions of Puritanism, challenging the ideas of ministers and reifying more traditional ideas of masculinity and femininity. Through the gendering of Puritanism, laymen contributed to the modern ideology of separate spheres, reifying public spaces for men and relegating women to the private space of personal piety. Chapter 1 explains the founding of the Dorchester congregation and the establishment of their covenants and disciplinary practices. Chapter 2 explores how laity charged men and women with different types of sins. Chapter 3 analyzes the language of confessions and the varied expectations for men and women. Chapters 4 and 5 explore the censures of John Underhill and Anne Hibbens, to illustrate the gendering of Puritanism.