I have a slew of Puritan ancestors from New England. Researching them is how I learned about Morton. It's not enough for me to just get names and dates in genealogy. It's the people's lives and stories that I want to know about. So I've read up on Puritanism from a number of sources to get an idea of what the time period was like in their colonies and among their contemporaries outside of the Puritan world. I learned more about colonial American history and British history that way than I ever learned in high school or college.
They were a mixed bag, some admirable, some despicable. And they were as human as anyone in their personal lives, breaking laws quite frequently. In my research I found a listing of punishments given for misbehavior in the Connecticut colony. There were enough adultery charges and punishments to change our use of the word puritanical.
One woman was whipped after giving birth to an Indian child who could not possibly have been her husband's. He divorced her. A sea captain was punished for kissing his wife in public on his return when she greeted his ship. He and his wife moved away after that.
The brother of one of my ancestors conspired with two friends when they were teenagers to break into a business, steal some money, and run away to the Indians where they thought life would be freer and more adventurous. They were taken captive by a Native hunting party that came across them on their journey. They had to run the gauntlet in the Native village several times before they succeeded in getting all the way to the end without falling. Then they were tied up while the village decided what to do with them.
They managed to escape and get back to their own village where they faced punishment for stealing. But they were let off easy since the community decided that God had already taught them a lesson through their treatment in the Native village. They had to pay the money back, of course.
= new reply since forum marked as read