grine White made his appearance as the pioneer American of
the New England dominion; and therefore the American type had to some
extent become confirmed in the one section before it had been modelled
in the other. So that synchronistic treatment of the development of the
American race in its beginnings is impossible, and this tends to produce
confusion of statement and consequently of thought. It is fortunate for
our present purpose, therefore, that the development of a distinct
feminine type seems to have been almost confined to New England. The
Virginia woman was not markedly individual; she had certain definite
characteristics, even from the first, but these seem to have been rather
of environment as modifying original race than of race as taking
impression from environment. There were many reasons for this, which we
shall consider later in the chapter; but for the present we will leave
the woman of Virginia to turn to her younger but stronger sister of the
North, the American Puritan woman.

If it be true--and denial is hardly possible--that during the period of
settlement women played but a small part, at least as individuals, in
the general result and progress, the same statement concerning the early
colonial period, at least in New England, would meet with prompt and
strenuous denial at the hands of history. We are accustomed to vaunt the
present as the day of feminine influence in matters of human interest;
but it may be doubted if, as far as our own country is concerned, the
palm must not be awarded to the early days of the Puritan settlements.
Such award may not be altogether to the liking of the fair sex, since
the effect of the feminine influence was almost invariably in the
direction of turbulence and revolt; but that effect was very intense and
formative. It was chiefly in the matters of religion, or that which
passed for such, that woman's influence was exerted and effectual; but
it must be remembered that religion was the paramount subject in the
consideration of the Puritan, whether male or female. None the worse for
that, doubtless, were those staunch, if stern, followers of conscience;
but one may be permitted to wish that they had been less unbending, less
gloomy,--less Puritanical, in short,--in their ideas concerning that
which they termed Christianity. As in all else, it was the women who
were the extremists in this matter; and fanaticism, persecution, and
enthusiasm were by the women rather than t