The Puritan, Augustus Saint-Gaudens

As far back as 1623, David Thompson had founded a settlement at Rye on the Piscataqua, the nucleus of what was to become New Humpshire. From the 1620s there were further settlements up the coast in what was to become Maine, set up by dissenting fishermen. Between 1630 and 1660 about 20,000 Puritans came out, with Massachusetts and Connecticut forming the core area of settlement. This was characterizad by what have been called 'Christian, utopian, closed and corporate communities.'

The Puritans were successful settlers. They were homogeneous in belief, literate and skilled. They came as families under leaders, often as entire congregations under their minister.

Virtually everyone came from England and Wales. The religious exclusivity of the original settlements rarely lasted more than a decade or so, with dissenters being expelled. Gradually, Anglicans, Baptists, and even Quakers were allowed to settle. The social atmosphere became more secular, and the Puritan merged into the Yankee.