[MuttTheHoople]

Puritan Massachusetts always did have trouble controlling their passion.

So did the Scot-Irish South. Dueling was a pastime in the Old South. The most notorious was Alexander Keith McClung, a notorious duellist.

[DiogenesLamp]

Scots and Irish are both irascible hot heads. Couple that with their feelings of being "Aristocracy", and it seems completely predictable that they would get into fights and duels.

But these were generally individual affairs. Massachusetts Puritans couldn't help but stir up trouble with entire populations of their neighbors. They are busybodies that cannot refrain from poking their noses into people's affairs outside of Massachusetts.