Between the Revolution and the Civil War, historiography about Puritanism was spearheaded by New England Protestants of Puritan descent and particularly by those affiliated with one of the lineal descendants of the Puritan Congregational church. These historians, ranging from amateur fumblers to serious researchers whose work set the contemporary standard of scholarly rigor, assembled, preserved, and at times mutilated an immense amount of data still assiduously mined today; provided the key sources for the historical portions of period oratory and historical literature; and set or at least anticipated the agenda of later historical inquiry and the basic ideological perspectives that have governed modern scholarship on Puritanism.

Most of this early work now looks shallow and repetitious. But it is rarely dull.