Puritans drank beer, loved sex and didn’t burn witches

Not as puritanical as you thought

Pilgrims and Puritans were 17th century-party animals. Author captions added to 123RF stock illustration.

Looking to start a Thanksgiving dinner conversation that upends conventional historical wisdom about the beliefs and practices of the folks who started it all back in the 17th century?

Make the point that the Pilgrims and Puritans get a bum rap.

If that doesn’t work, point out that Puritans punished people for not having sex.

This should get Grandpa’s attention. And everyone else’s.

The colonizers of New England have been portrayed for more than 100 years as drab, glum and pleasure-hating. But scholars of that period of American history say the facts tell a different story, not only about the Pilgrims but the Puritans, a similar and larger religious group that settled a few years later in Massachusetts.

Should we mourn Thanksgiving?

Not only has the adjective “puritanical” become pejorative, but the traditional Thanksgiving story is increasingly questioned and criticized. “The Horrible History of Thanksgiving,” published in November 2019 in The New York Times, makes the case that there is nothing here to celebrate.

If this trend continues, future Thanksgivings could turn into a National Day of…