Thread: What is the most strict era in American history?

Doing a report. Google is of little help. In your guys' opinions (or according to text you've read), what is the most strict, uptight era America has been through.

I can't decide.

I mean you get sent to jail for minor misdemeanors now, but was it worse "back then?"

Share. Thanks.
Also, are these times most strict because they had the most severe punishments, or because people were arrested for the most minute of things?

The Puritan era.

after the civil war there was reconstruction in the south and the federal government sent troops down to enforce martial law on states that refused to give in to northern demands. this was a time when the KKK started as opposition to that martial law!

I'd have to go with the Puritan rule, but it must be remembered that their influence was in a relatively small area, primarily that of New England, and most especially in what are now the states of Massachusetts and Connecticut. The farther north you went, relatively speaking, the less firm a grip the Puritans had. New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine were considered the "backwoods," and though many Puritans did live in these places, there wee also infusions of immigrants, particularly those from Ulster (Northern Ireland), known as Scots-Irish. These folks also practiced a Calvinistic type of religion, so there wasn't a lot of religious antagonism.

Now, to return to Massachusetts and Connecticut, these places (especially Massachusetts) were really trying to establish a theocratic form of government, in which Old Testament law was the model. Thus, a woman could easily be executed for adultery (but men were normally spared capital punishment--go figure!) or a child could, at least in theory, be executed for disobeying his or her parents.

In order to hold any elected office, or even be permitted to vote in the town meeting, a man had to be a member in good standing of the Puritan church. There was a great deal of what we would call "legislated morality" today--such recreations as dancing or playing cards were strictly forbidden and could land you in the stocks, the pillory, or earn you a public flogging. If a woman dared to argue with he husband, she might earn herself a dunking in the local pond, river, or bay, or be required to wear what was called a "scold's bridle," an uncomfortable contraption that made swallowing almost impossible and could prove fatal in extreme cases.

One may point to a low crime rate and wax lyrical about "the good old days," but few stop to count the cost in terms of civil liberties and human rights.