Courting Customs in America

~ Manners and Morals of Bundling ~

In the community, there was definitely a dispute as to the manners and morals of bundling. The moral question always involved the female. "Was it right and proper for a woman to bundle with a man to whom she is not married?" The question, in reverse, was never asked of a man

In those days, a young gentlemen might have the right to bundle with his beloved, if he was given the chance, and yet, at the same time, declare it to be immoral for the girl to accept his companionship in the bed. And, most certainly, a young gentlemen had every right to be disturbed if he learned that his partner had previously bundled with another.

Puritan New Englanders did not regard love as a necessary precondition for marriage. Indeed, they associate romantic love with immaturity and impermanence.

True love, the puritans believed, would appear following marriage.

A proper marriage, in their view, was not based on love and affection, but on rational considerations of property, compatibility, and religious piety. Thus, it was acceptable for a young man to pursue "a goody lass with an abundance of money" so long as he could eventually love his wife-to-be.