Ordinary Banana

"A classic example [of Puritan onomastics] was an unfortunate young woman named Fly-fornication Bull . . . who was made pregnant in the shop of a yeoman improbably named Goodman Woodman."

"[The idea of] the depravity of infants . . . led Puritans to conclude that the first and most urgent purpose of child rearing was what they called 'breaking of the will.'" nevermind i now hate the puritans

"The New England Way was distinguished by its exceptional austerity . . . It claimed to be a religion without ritual, but in fact it replaced one set of rituals with another." Puritanism, the first Brutalist religion and I mean that to denigrate both

"From the outside, [Puritan churches] made a grim appearance. The walls were rough, unpainted clapboards . . . The interiors were very plain . . . the congregation sat before the pulpit on backless benches." OG Brutalism

"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

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

Puritans also established the first US public schools, probably the blackest mark on their record