Quakers in Massachusetts

Welcome to Genealogy Trails!
The Coming of the Friends, or Quakers.

The Leading Facts of History Series
THE LEADING FACTS OF AMERICAN HISTORY
By D. H. Montgomery

Boston, U.S.A.
GINN & Company, Publishers
The Athenaum Press
1902
Transcribed and contributed to Genealogy Trails by ©2006, Sharon Wick

page. 91:

#84
The Coming of the Friends, or Quakers.

In 1656 the citizens of Massachusetts kept a solemn day of fasting and prayer on account of the news of the doings in England of a strange people called Quakers. It was said that they were turning the world upside down with their preaching, and that if they were not stopped they would destroy all churches and all modes of government. A fortnight after that fast-day the inhabitants of Boston heard to their horror that two women, who were Quaker missionaries, had actually landed in their town. To them it seemed that the two women had come only to do mischief.

The authorities at once thrust them into jail, boarded up the window of their cell that they might not speak to any one outside, and burned the books the women had brought with them. As soon as possible they put both the missionaries on board ship and sent them to England. But others came, and all Massachusetts was soon in a fever of excitetment.

#85
Why the Coming of the Quakers excited Alarm. --
Today there are no quieter, more orderly, or more self-respecting people thatn the Friends, or Quakers. Boston wuld welcome a colony of them now, and feel that the city was a gainer by their coming. Why did the arrival of a few of them then excite such alarm? The reason was that the Quakers of that time stood in decided opposition to the ideas of the great majority of sober and discreet citizens. When men asked "Where shall we find what is right?" the Church of England answered, "You will find in in the teachings of the Church." The Puritans repllied, "You will find in in the Bible." The Quakers said, "You will find it in your own heart." To most persons of that age such an answer seemed like rejecting both Church and Bible.
But the difficulty did not end there. The Friends, or Quakers, had peculiar ideas about society and government. First they would not use titles of honor or respect to any one, and they would not take off their hats to a magistrate or a governor - no, not even to the king himself. This appeared to the people then a reckless contempt of authority. Next, the Quakers observed no ceremonies in their worship.
But, acting in accordance with what they believed to be the teachings of the Gospel, they refused to do three things much more important: I. They would not give testimony under oath in a court of justice, or swear to support the government. 2. They would not pay taxes to support any form of public worship. 3. They would not do military service or bear arms even in self-defence. (The religious belief of the Friends, or Quakers, may be summed up as follows: To obey conscience, and dispensing with forms, to follow literally what they understand to be the commands of God.

#86.
Excesses committed by the Quakers -
These things in themselves would have been quite certain to set the Puritans against the Quakers, no matter how conscientious the latter might have been. But there were other reasons why the citizens of Massachusetts regarded them with intense indignation. The shameful persecution the Quakers had suffered appears to have driven some of them half crazy. These unfortunate people committed the wildest excesses. Some of the stripped off their clothing and went through public places to show the Puritans, as they said, how naked the land was of real truth and righteousness. Others smeared their faces with black paint and ran howling through the streets, or burst into Puritan meetings on Sunday, and calling the ministers hypocrites and deceivers, ordered them to come down out of the pulpit.

#87.
The Puritans punish and execute the Quakers; End of the Persecution. --

If such things were done now, we should send the offenders to an insane asylum; but the Massachusetts colonists were moved not with compassion, but with anger. They were stern men and they took stern measures. They arrested the Quakers, whipped some of them through the towns, cut off the ears of others, branded others with red-hot irons, and drove them out into the wilderness.
But the severity was useless; the Quakers felt that they had a mission to the Puritans, and they persisted in returning and preaching it in the loudest manner. They were non-resistants, they would not strike back when persecuted; but they would use their tongues, and their tongues were like two-edged swords. Finally, after repeated warnings, the Massachusetts authorities actually hanged four of these missionaries, one a woman, on Boston Common, and buried their bodies at the foot of the gallows.
The king, however, who was friendly to William Penn, a prominent English Quaker, thought it policy to order that the colony should cease punishing them or other persons on account of their religious, and the excitement gradually died out. From that day on this the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has had no better citizens than the Friends, or Quakers.