Guide to Puritan Dating 101

Dating, or courting, for a Puritan teenage girl in the 17th Century involved a lot of pressure from her parents, community, and men who had an eye for her. Coercion came first and foremost from a cultural pressure to marry, and all marriages had to be approved by the community at large.

All this might have been too much for a teenager to cope with if it weren't for the fact that Puritans generally believed that marriage should be for love. That love could be hard to find though in such small communities with so little time, but for some lucky enough to marry their childhood friend or to have love at first sight, that love would be rare enough and strong enough to break all bonds.