[throwaway0a5e]

The puritans are undeservingly white-washed and praised.

They were extremists by contemporary standards (an insanely low bar).

They barely waited until they stopped starving to start being jerks to each other and antagonizing the natives.

If you want to idolize early settlers idolize Rhode Islanders, they were basically successive waves of people who left Massachusetts because the latter was no place for anyone who let their conscience get in the way of their ideology (amazing how little some things change in 400yr) and they managed to maintain some of the best relations with the natives.