Methods.

Legal systems serve as formal ways to resolve conflicts in communities. But going to court is not the only way to resolve a conflict. Indeed, one reason that the colonial legal systems remained fairly simple in the 1600s was that they did not grow until the society was large enough and faced conflicts that required formal processes. Most disagreements between human beings are settled directly, but some conflicts prove harder to resolve, so all communities develop mechanisms of conflict resolution that extend beyond the individual. Colonial New England had three such venues: the town, the church, and the courts.

Well-Ordered Communities.

Many of the early New England settlements were dominated by Puritans, who showed much concern for well-ordered communities. They often viewed their churches as bound by covenants with God, and they saw their communities this way as well...