Puritan Life
As minister of Boston's Old North Church, Cotton Mather was a popular voice in Puritan New England. His involvement in the witch trials of the 1680s would bring him even more notoriety.
New England life seemed to burst with possibilities.
The life expectancy of its citizens became longer than that of Old England, and much longer than the Southern English colonies. Children were born at nearly twice the rate in Maryland and Virginia. It is often said that New England invented grandparents, for it was here that people in great numbers first grew old enough to see their children bear children.
Literacy rates were high as well. Massachusetts law required a tax-supported school for every community that could boast 50 or more families. Puritans wanted their children to be able to read the Bible, of course.
http://www.ushistory.org/us/3d.asp
