Re: History Question about the Quakers
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In reply to:
History Question about the Quakers
10/06/01
Melissa,
I was unaware of Quakers being acused of witchcraft, but the treatment of Quakers and other sects by the Puritans of early New England was sometimes brutal.The following is from my own knowledge and understanding.Don't take it as scripture, by any means, but I do have many early Ameriican lines on all sides of the family including Quakers, Puritans, Pilgrims, Walloons, Dutch, Swiss, German, etc. and I have taken a particular interest in the religious movements of the several centuries that contributed to the great migrations to America.
As early as 1652 when Quakers began arriving in America, some were turned away from Boston and forced to return with the ship to England, and at the captain's expense!Some of these men later returned to Virgina and were expelled from that colony as well!With this liability looming, many ship masters refused to give passage to Quakers during this period.There are records of Quakers with missionary zeal having to travel by small bark to Holland and then from there elsewhere.Some even went overland to Italy, by ship to Egypt and then by Caravan to China and elsewhere in the mid and late 1600s, all because many were unable to secure passage to the Americas.
Yes the Puritans were brutal to the Quakers.One particular story I recall was the punishment of a Quaker in Mass. who refused to stop preaching so it was ordered that he have rocks piled upon him and he was slowly crushed to death over a matter of a couple days.Quakers were equally unwelcome in early New Netherlands (now New York and most of Ling Island), but not treated quite as harshly; I recall stories of one preacher being hung up in public and lashed, then imprisoned briefly (I descend both from his Quaker associates, AND from the Puritan magistrate who ordered the brow-beating!)Quakers were also in Virginia early, but most were forced to obscure settlements in Maryland and Delaware by the 1660s and 1670s.Quite a few Quakers found prosperity on Barbados and elsewhere in the Carribean (some even in early South America), and these places were very wealthy colonies in the early days (before 1670, Barbados alone produced more wealth than all English North American colonies combined!)It was not until the late 1670s when Quakers began arriving in New Jersey with the intent to really settle the place, and then accross the Delaware.After William Penn's Charter in 1683, Quakers began arriving by the droves in Pennsylvania --many from old England, but some from the older colonies and the Carribean.From PA, later generations would settle widely in VA and in the Carolinas, and from there and PA, west, through Ohio, Kentucky, Tennesee, then Indiana, Ill., and Iowa.
While the primary reason for many imigrations was freedom from religious persecution, the early colonies were far from tolerant places where religious liberty was concerned.New Jersey was really the first place in the New World where religious tolerance was dominant.Pennsylvania followed.This tolerance was mainly because of the broad Quaker influence and created an inviting atmosphere for many other religious sects from elsewhere in Europe, really picking up in the late 1600s and early 1700s.
Getting back to New England, Puritans should not be confused with Pilgrims.While they were all mostly disenters from the Church of England, the Pilgrims had left England for Holland some years before the Mayflower sailed in 1620.They, and the few who joined them soon after, were relatively tolerant people who wanted to worship in their own way.The Walloons were the next group of settlers to arrive; they were mainly from Flanders (Belgium) and France and had gonr to Holland as well, trying to secure a place in the first English Virginia colony, but then signing on with the Dutch West INdia Company in 1624.Starting in the early 1630s (and mainly with the "Winthrop Fleet"), Puritans began to arrive from England.While they established their own churches in MA, CT and RI, they established parishes very similar to England.This sense of an Established Religion not only had the authority to condemn and fine church members, but also had the power of taxation (tithes) and real judicial authority over anyone in their parish! --to understand this really gives us a better sense of what the Framers of the U.S. Constitution likley meant when they wrote "no state shall pass any law respecting the Establishment of religion" --a clear reference to not merely to an "official" or state "endorsed" or "supported" religion, but a religious "establishment" or "institution" with real legislative and judicial authority, simialr to the Established Churches of England and Scotland.
While the Puritans, who settled mainly in Mass., Conn., RI and Long Island, then in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, sought religious freedom FROM the Church of England.They had no intention of creating religious liberty FOR anyone, including themselves.As we see with many sects of the period, from the Pilgrims and the Puritans, to the Wallons, Baptists, Anabaptists, Monnonites, Amish, and even Lutherans and Scotish Presbyterians --they were all very strict among their own members.Some created "closed" communities, while others created "open" communities.And the Puritans of MA and CT especially created their own new official religion and used every bit of power, similar to that power the Church of England had exerted over them, to persecute others.There were some Quaker setlements in New England, however.Some Quakers were quite successful on Long Island, in Rhode Island, and in the whaling communities on the island of Nantucket!
The salem witch trials were really the nastiest form of religious persecution in America and I believe is the clearest indication that many Puritans really did not seek liberty FOR any sect, including themselves, but rather simply freedom FROM old-world authority.This allowed them to erect their own religious establishments that persecuted others, especially the Quakers, "freely."
I really think that the United States owes its sense of Religious Liberty to the Society of Friends.It is because of the Friends that no person in the USA can be required to take an oathe (and can simply affirm, at his or her discretion) and there is no religious test for public office.The fact that the Constitutional Convention was held at Philadelphia, the Center of Quakerism in America, no doubt played some part in this.I should add that the old-line Puritans far from dominated American politics in the early years; and the free Masons also had considerable influence at the Constitutional Convention.Moreover, the large presence of early Americans of Scottish, German and Swiss (English won over German as our official language by only ONE vote!) extraction really made religious liberty and autonomy a necesity.
I hope that shed a little insight.It is far from a doctoral thesis, but gives you one perspective.I would invite others' comments or opinions on the subject.
--Nick Sheedy
John Day, Oregon
More Replies:
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Re: History Question about the Quakers
Karen Mullian 11/30/01
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Re: History Question about the Quakers
Nick Sheedy 11/30/01
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Re: History Question about the Quakers