Table Of ContentPraise for A Reforming People
“In this elegant and richly nuanced book, David Hall rescues the New
England Puritans from the dark myths of repression. By recovering
their probing ideas and eloquent debates, Hall reveals our original
revolutionaries in search of equity, justice, and community.”
—Alan Taylor, author of The Civil War of 1812
“A bright history . . . and [a] reminder that we have inherited more than
a few of our forefathers’ growing pains.”
—Boston Globe
“Hall shows how a culture of participation and a social ethic of equity
broke through the crust of authority to make possible the legal institu-
tions and practices of mediation and compromise prerequisite to
American democracy.”
—James T. Kloppenberg, author of Reading Obama:
Dreams, Hope, and the American Political Tradition
“[A] captivating study. . . . Hall’s first-rate book offers a glimpse of a
small slice of American religious history, challenging prevailing ideas
about the nature of reform in Puritan New England.”
—Publishers Weekly
“A Reforming Peoplepowerfully transforms our understanding of the
role of Puritanism in the re-making of political culture and institutions
in seventeenth-century New England. A model of elegance and erudi-
tion, David Hall’s thought-provoking book re-opens the testing ques-
tion of the roots of modern politics in the Anglo-colonial world. It
tells a compelling story that has immense resonance for our
understanding of the past—but also the present.”
—Alexandra Walsham, author of Charitable Hatred:
Tolerance and Intolerance in England 1500–1700
“A remarkably sophisticated and lucid work that ultimately shifts the
established paradigm and opens up numerous avenues for further
research.”
—Library Journal
“David Hall shapes mounds of evidence into a depiction of New
England unlike any we have ever seen. His Puritanism is neither
authoritarian nor democratic but something of its own. Hall makes
Puritanism intelligible to the 21st century.”
—Richard Lyman Bushman, author of The Refinement of America:
Persons, Houses, Cities
“This book presents a well-argued thesis that will be of value to both
specialists and well-informed general readers.”
—Booklist
“Thanks to Nathaniel Hawthorne and Arthur Miller, Puritan New
England is popularly identified with authoritarian theocracy. In this
book, a brilliant historian of early New England takes us beyond the
stereotype, and reveals how the first Puritan settlers enacted their own
‘English Revolution’ in public life. Hall depicts a society that (despite its
failings) prized and institutionalised accountability, participation, and
equity. Never before have we had such a compelling account of the New
Englanders’ civic achievement.”
—Professor John Coffey, co-editor of The Cambridge
Companion to Puritanism
“Hall’s book is persuasive, thanks to his detailed research . . . [and his]
prose helps to elucidate complex issues.”
—Providence Journal Arts Blog
“Hall reminds us of the political accomplishments of New England’s
founders, their radical remaking of the nature of public life, through
their commitment to self-government and their ethic of equity and
mutual obligation. With an authority rooted in his unmatched mastery
of the sources, Hall provides an elegant and heartfelt testament to the
continuing relevance of the Puritans.”
—Mark Peterson, author of The City-State of Boston, 1630–1865
“Hall effectively dispels the stereotype of Puritans as authoritative, intol-
erant, and repressive. . . . An excellent study for any reader seeking a
precise account of Puritan New England’s accomplishments.”
—Magill Book Reviews
A REFORMING PEOPLE
Also by David D. Hall
Ways of Writing
The Practice and Politics of Text- Making
in Seventeenth- Century New England
Cultures of Print
Essays in the History of the Book
Witch- Hunting in Seventeenth- Century New England
A Documentary History, 1638–1693
Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgment
Popular Religious Belief in Early New England
The Faithful Shepherd
A History of the New England Ministry in the Seventeenth Century
The Antinomian Controversy, 1636–1638
A Documentary History
A Reforming People
puritanism and the transformation
of public life in new england
w
With a New Foreword by the Author
DAVID D. HALL
The University of North Carolina Press
Chapel Hill
Copyright © 2011by David D. Hall
Foreword copyright © 2012by David D. Hall
All rights reserved
Originally published in 2011by Alfred A. Knopf. Paperback edition published
in 2012by the University of North Carolina Press, by arrangement with
Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group,
a division of Random House, Inc.
Manufactured in the United States of America
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and
durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity
of the Council on Library Resources.
The University of North Carolina Press has been a member of the
Green Press Initiative since 2003.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the
original edition of this book as follows:
Hall, David D.
A reforming people : Puritanism and the transformation of public
life in New England / David D. Hall.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. New England—History—Colonial period, ca. 1600–1775. 2. New England—
Politics and government—To 1775. 3. New England—Church history—17th century.
4. Puritans—New England—History—17th century. 5. Local government—New
England—History—17th century. 6. Religion and politics—New England—
History—17th century. I. Title.
f7.h2272011
974'.02—dc22 2010051851
isbn978-0-8078-7311-3(pbk.)
isbn978-0-8078-3711-5(ebook)
16 15 14 13 12 5 4 3 2 1
For Hannah
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When we first set up Reformation in our Church way,
did not this expose us to as greate an hazard as we could
run both from abroad and at home? Did not our frends
in England many of them forewarne us of it ere we
came away? Did not others send letters after us, to
deterre us from it? Did not some among our selvs (and
those no meane ones) inculcate our inevitable dangers
at home from no smale Company left out of Church
fellowship, and Civill Offices, and freedome hitherto?
Yet we trusted in God (though there appeared no
meanes of safety) and went on our way....
—John Winthrop (1643)
