What is New England conscience?

In AP US history because I'm in the same class: people from the New England area in the colonial era, were thought to be hard working, honest and pious(really religious). This is because New England basically kind of sucks for the usual settler. The soil is way too rocky for any kind of plantation farming, the summers are extremely hot and the winters are extremely cold, and the puritan religion is way too extreme for just any settlers. Instead most people choose the south because the climate is milder, land is easy for farming, and theres no puritans putting people on trial for witchcraft. So anyone able to make a living in New England must be tough honest hardworking and probably religious, therefore they have the New England Conscience.