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A Great Appearance Of Force: Puritan Family Government In Colonial Connecticut, 1672-1725, Alicia Desiree Martin-Cowger

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to take up Edmund Morgan’s thesis in The Puritan Family that the family incorporated “economic as well as political and ecclesiastical functions” and discover how the Puritan family interacted with social and political structures, in this case religion, belief, and the community, in colonial Connecticut. In order to explore such dynamics, several cases of incest will be explored. Colonial Connecticut’s history of incest prosecution provides a window into the workings of family government and its function in preparing individuals to integrate fully into Puritan society. Even as the American Puritan justice system based on …