"An important part of every service was a ritual of purification. Members of the Congregation . . . were compelled to rise and 'take shame upon themselves' . . . Occasionally, they were compelled literally to crawl before the congregation." folkways endure
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Magic was verboten but apparently giant creepy anti-Devil apotropaic stone carvings were finepic.twitter.com/188g26CaW4
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Along with its intense religiosity and social control New England was by far the best-educated region which should give you pause if you think schooling is generally likely to result in some kind of liberal free-thinking
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Puritans also established the first US public schools, probably the blackest mark on their record
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"Sexual intercourse was taboo on the Lord's Day. The Puritans believed that children were born on the same day of the week as when they had been conceived. Unlucky infants who entered the world on the Sabbath were sometimes denied baptism."
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"Throughout the Western world in the seventeenth century . . . twice as many conceptions occurred in the peak month of April as in the summer months." Woh (this pattern was absent in New England)
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someone is going to write a book like this about us in 350 years and it is going to be utterly savage
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Got to the bit I was interested in re: treatment of the indigent "Chronic unemployment was a major problem . . . Most towns looked after their own; elderly residents were treated with decency, respect, and compassion." Towns had a dole of bread, butter, and coal. BUT
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"The vagrant poor were treated with great brutality. Pregnant women were expelled so their newborns would not become a charge upon the town. . . . In Essex, some of these vagrants were sent to . . . the dark dungeons of Colchester Castle."
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