Product Description: The nine chapters in this book focus on the various constitutional problems surrounding the need to provide simultaneously a sufficient degree of union and public authority to guarantee defense and order, and a sufficient degree of individual liberty to satisfy the demands and expectations of private citizens who were wary of the arbitrary powers of government...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Distinguished by the critical value it assigns to law in Puritan society, this study describes precisely how the Massachusetts legal system differed from England's and how equity and an adapted common law became so useful to ordinary individuals. The author discovers that law gradually replaced religion and communalism as the source of social stability, and he gives a new interpretation to the witchcraft prosecutions of 1692.Originally published 1979.A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.