In the author’s thesis, he is trying to tell his audience that even though the Puritans obey and implement rules and morals, they don’t comply with their own beliefs as others may think of them as too over said on religion. Morgan did a great job of proving this. As he mentioned woman, preferably said maids, were raped and sexual abused by their masters. Many would sneak out of their masters’ house at night to have sexual relations with a man or woman to whom they weren’t married to. This shows that even with the laws of adultery being in existence, these Puritans ignored the law and pursued their desires and pleasure anyway.
With the actual brief testimonies, the author did considerably a fine job of affirming his thesis. I really understood where he was coming from, and the evidence he provided kept his point of view clear yet concise. He took evidence from ministers, victims, plaintiffs and witnesses, the Puritan law, and testimonies from courts. Although bias was shown because most of the factual evidence made the men look as though they had necessity for sex and it was only right for them to fulfill it regardless of the outcome. While the woman would be seen as being manipulative and liars.
Personally, I believe that the way that the Puritans see sex and marriage is somewhat like the way we see it today. Except adultery isn’t a written law, it’s more of a commitment between two people and God. Even though society may look down on a child born as a bastard, there’s no law to enforce not being married and having sexual relations. To the author Morgan, he feels that Puritans and sex are not mentioned enough, although with any group, sex is a un-talked-about subject.