USA > Massachusetts > The Quaker invasion of Massachusetts > Part 4
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1 When the executioner whipped Ann Coleman " he split the nipple of her breast, which so tortured her that it had al- most cost her life." New England Judged, p. 430.
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ise presently to depart the town ; which be- ing loth to comply with, as they were on their way, they were sent for back, and Captain Gerish riding after them, com- manded them to return ; which they refus- ing, he compelled them thereunto, and sent them with a constable to Salem ; where, being brought before the magistrates, they were asked ' whether they were Quakers ?' to which they answered, 'that they were such that were in scorn called so.' Next it was objected to them 'that they maintained dangerous errors.' They asking what these errors were, it was told them, ' that they not only denied that Christ at Jerusalem had suffered on the cross, but also that they de- nied the Holy Scriptures.' They boldly contradicted this, and said ' they owned no other Jesus but he that had suffered death at Jerusalem, and that they also owned the Scriptures.' Now although nothing could be objected against this, yet they were car- ried to the house of correction, as such who, according to the law made at Boston, might not come into those parts. Some days after they were carried to Boston, where in the next month they were brought into the house of correction to work there. But
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they, un willing to submit thereto, the gaoler, who sought his profit from the work of his prisoners, would not give them victuals, though they offered to pay for them. But he told them ' it was not their money but their labor he desired.' Thus he kept them five days without food, and then with a three-corded whip gave them twenty blows. An hour after he told them ' they might go out, if they would pay the marshal that was to lead them out of the country.' They judging it very unreasonable to pay money for being banished, refused this, but yet said ' that if the prison-door was set open, they would go away.' The next day the gaoler came to Wm. Brend, a man in years, and put him in irons, neck and heels so close to- gether, that there was no more room left between each, than for the lock that fast- ened them. Thus he kept him from five in the morning till after nine at night, be- ing the space of sixteen hours. The next morning he brought him to the mill to work, but Brend refusing, the gaoler took a pitched rope about an inch thick, and gave him twenty blows over his back and arms, with as much force as he could, so that the rope untwisted, and then going
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away, he came again with another rope that was thicker and stronger, and told Brend, ' that he would cause him to bow to the law of the country, and make him work.' Brend judged this not only unreasonable in the highest degree, since he had committed no evil, but he was also altogether unable to work; for he wanted strength for want of food, having been kept five days without eating, and whipped also, and now thus un- mercifully beaten with a rope. But this in- human gaoler relented not, but began to beat anew with his pitched rope on this bruised body, and foaming at his mouth like a madman, with violence laid four-score and seventeen blows more on him, as other prisoners, that beheld it with compassion, have told ; and if his strength and his rope had not failed him, he would have laid on more ; he threatened also to give him the next morning as many blows more. But a higher power, who sets limits even to the raging sea, and hath said, 'Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further,' also limited this butcherly fellow, who was yet impudently stout enough to say his morning-prayer. To what a most terrible condition these blows brought the body of Brend, (who because
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of the great heat of the weather, had noth- ing but a serge cassock upon his shirt) may easily be conceived ; his back and arms were bruised and black, and the blood hanging as in bags under his arms; and so into one was his flesh beaten, that the sign of a par- ticular blow could not be seen ; for all was become as a jelly. His body being thus cruelly tortured, he lay down upon the boards, so extremely weakened, that the natural parts decaying, and strength quite failing, his body turned cold : there seemed as it were a struggle between life and death ; his senses were stopped, and he had . for some time neither seeing, feeling, nor hearing, till at length, a divine power pre- vailing, life broke through death, and the breath of the Lord was breathed into his nostrils. Now the noise of this cruelty spread among the people in the town, and caused such a cry, that the governor sent his surgeon to the prison, to see what might be done; but the surgeon found the body of Brend in such a deplorable condition, that, as one without hopes, he said, 'his fleshi would rot from off his bones, ere the bruised parts could be brought to digest.' This so exasperated the people that the
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magistrates, to prevent a tumult, set up a paper on their meeting-house door, and up and down the streets, as it were to show their dislike of this abominable and most barbarous cruelty ; and said, the gaoler should be dealt withal the next court. But this paper was soon taken down again upon the instigation of the high priest, John Nor- ton, who having from the beginning been a fierce promoter of the persecution, now did not stick to say, ' W. Brend endeavored to beat our gospel-ordinances black and blue ; if he then be beaten black and blue, it is but just upon him ; and I will appear in his behalf that did so.' It is therefore not much to be wondered at, that these precise and bigoted magistrates, who would be looked upon to be eminent for piety, were so cruel in persecuting, since their chief teacher thus wickedly encouraged them to it."
Further evidence of the advanced civil- ization of the people, as contrasted with the inhumanity of the ministers and magis- trates, might be cited, but as this fact is generally conceded, even by very partisan writers, it is unnecessary to pursue the sub- ject further. It may be well to suggest,
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however, that had the right of suffrage been extended to all citizens of character and good repute, instead of being limited to church-members, it is probable there would have been an infusion of true religion and humanity into the laws, and the colony would have been spared the tragic record which now mars its history.
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CHAPTER IV.
CHARACTER AND CONDUCT OF THE INVADERS .- MODERN REVIEWERS REVIEWED.
THERE are some facts and more fancies in which popular writers believe they find not only the casus belli between the Pu- ritans and Quakers, but also great pallia- tion and partial justification for the perse- cution involved therein. At the outset we are met with the assertion that the Qua- kers had no right to come here, and that the right to prohibit their coming was com- plete. The simple act of entrance into the colony, regardless of the object of the visit, it is alleged, was an aggravated assault upon the Puritan homestead.
This theory, first propounded by the Pu- ritans themselves, has come to be accepted as historical truth, and no one of our prom- inent writers has thought it important to state that the Quakers denied it with as much emphasis, and with at least as great sincerity, as the Puritans asserted it. The
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Quakers claimed that as Englishmen they had the legal right to visit or to live wher- ever the English flag proclaimed English jurisdiction.1 This claim rested upon that clause in the charter which expressly guar- anties " all liberties and immunities of free and natural subjects of . . . the realm," to all Englishmen " which shall go to and in- habit " Massachusetts, or " which shall hap- pen to be born there, or on the seas in going thither or returning from thence." 2 The authorities relied upon the same charter, in which they professed to find warrant to build a Chinese wall around the colony. Now the only clause of the charter that can be used to justify such arbitrary legislation is the one already quoted, and which, as we have seen, is a grant of the war power to the colonial government, and nothing more. Legal quibbling was apparently as easy then as now, and the charter, wrested from its purpose, was made an instrument of tyr- anny. But if the Puritans quibbled, their apologists do something worse when they justify the treatment of the Quakers on the pretense that they had no business here,
1 See Bishop and other early Quaker historians.
2 Massachusetts Records, vol. i. p. 16.
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and that, by coming, they forfeited their rights; for the fact is, that four fifths of them were residents of the colony, and were recognized as such by the authorities long before the persecution began. Upsall, Southwick, and others were freemen. The Buffums, Whartons, Shattucks, and scores of others, were property holders and rep- utable citizens.1 Hereafter when the com- ing of the Quakers is under discussion, in the interest of justice let this fact be re- membered, and let it not be forgotten, that these people bravely maintained what they believed to be their chartered rights. They may have appealed, also, to the " Body of the Liberties," previously referred to, which af- forded ample guaranty of protection for both residents and strangers. Paper guaranties, it is true, availed them nothing; but they are of essential value to us when judgment is to be rendered. Sooner or later, the opinion now popular with historians must be reversed, and the claim of the Quakers, both to come and to live here, will be sus- tained.
1 Samuel Winthrop, a son of Governor Winthrop, was a Quaker. He does not figure in the Quaker annals of Massa- chusetts, but was a resident and a leading citizen of Antigua,
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But the main charge in the indictment of the Quakers, and the one upon which Pu- ritan apologists most rely to justify their own clients, is that Quakerism manifested itself here in the persistent and frequent lawlessness and indecent conduct of its ad- herents. We are taught to believe that the Puritans were exasperated beyond endur- ance, and that the solution of Puritan per- secution is to be found in the extravagances of the Friends. Will this plea bear the test of examination ?
In the first place, it is to be remarked that many writers accept this convenient solu- tion, and recount the story as told by prej- udiced authorities, while others rake the records, and, without caring to test their correctness, parade every instance of misde- meanor that they find charged upon the Friends, with relentless fidelity to the pur- pose of their search. In Grahame's History it is related that one Fanbord attempted to imitate Abraham, and was only prevented from sacrificing his son by the interference of his neighbors. This story is copied by a later writer and handed down as a speci-
where he bravely maintained the principles and testimonies of Friends. Besse, vol. ii. chap. ix. p. 371.
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men of a Quaker's "blasphemous atroc- ity." 1 Now to the mind of any one who has even slight knowledge of Quaker doc- trines the account in itself convicts its au- thor of malicious slander, for the Friends maintained unqualifiedly that the old dis- pensation had been superseded by the gos- pel of Jesus, and that outward sacrifice was an abomination.
One of the foulest calumnies that disgrace the pages of history is perpetuated by the Rev. Henry M. Dexter,2 who reproduces a story told by Increase Mather, to the ef- fect that two Quaker women and a man named Dunen danced naked together. One of the women, Mary Ross, said she was Christ, and commanded Dunen, whom she called the Apostle Peter, to sacrifice a dog. There is more of similar stuff which need not be repeated. After the recital, the reverend editor, probably to shield himself from the charge of willful misrepresentation, concedes that " the better sort of the new sect by this time had begun to repudiate such excesses ;" but, he adds, " the sober
1 R. H. Allen, in The New England Tragedies in Prose, p. 51.
2 As to Roger Williams, pp. 124-141.
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portion of the population of New England " found it " difficult to draw the line between ' Old' and 'New Quakers.'" This libel upon the Friends was exposed by one of them, a contemporary, who wrote a book in answer to the " calumnies, lies and abuses " heaped upon the Friends by Cotton Mather, who repeats the story. Referring to this particular calumny and to others, he says, "our adversaries . . . rake up such dirty stories to throw at us," and these " mad pranks no more concern the Quakers . . . than they do the Presbyterians." 1 But the extent of the meanness of this attempt by Mr. Dexter to dishonor the early Friends is the more fully realized when he is found characterizing them, in the same book, as " mild and peaceful." 2 This he does when he quotes their condemnation of Roger Williams for the purpose of justifying his own aspersion of Williams's character. The attack upon early Friends by Hon. Joel Parker,3 published by the Massachu-
1 Truth and Innocency Defended, pp. 129-132. Bound in one volume with New England Judged. Edition of 1702. 2 As to Roger Williams, p. 82.
3 This ingenious lawyer describes the Quakers as "the nuisance " of the colony, and proves (to his own satisfaction) that they were not persecuted by the Puritan authorities.
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setts Historical Society, is a master-piece of partisan pleading; but the unfairness of Mr. Dexter in his entire treatment of the Quakers exceeds even that of Parker.
The " Magnalia " 1 of Cotton Mather is a storehouse of ammunition for apologists ; and writers who would not willingly do injus- tice are sometimes betrayed into misrepre- sentation by consulting it and forgetting to consult Quaker histories. A striking example of this may be found in an arti- cle by Mr. John Fiske of Cambridge, pub- lished in " Harper's Monthly Magazine " for December, 1882. In this article Mr. Fiske adopts the popular view of the merits of the conflict waged between the Puritans and Quakers, apparently without having ex- amined the pages of a single Quaker au- thority, and enlivens it with the addition of Cotton Mather's statement, that the Friends called the Bible the " Word of the Devil." A slight familiarity with this branch of his subject would have been suf- ficient to prevent Mr. Fiske from marring his entertaining and instructive paper by the introduction of a stale calumny which even
1 Book vii. chap. iv. The Quakers are called " devil driveu creatures " and " dangerous villains."
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partisan commentators have not had the presumption to renew, and which has been refuted by every Quaker writer who men- tions the Bible, and specifically by a con- temporaneous authority. In his review of Mather's charges, written soon after they were made, John Whiting says, " And as to any Quakers, whom he calls wretches, ordinarily saying among the people, we deny thy Christ; we deny thy God, which thou callest Father Son, and Spirit ; thy Bible is the Word of the Devil; both these charges we utterly deny, as false in fact, and challenge him to prove who or when any Quaker said so; and if any ever did or do, we should disown it and testify against them ; for we abhor the very thoughts of any such expressions." 1 Friend Whiting's challenge, it need not be said, was never an- swered. As the case stands, Mr. Fiske has revived and extensively published a slander- ous falsehood. But Mather, it should be said, has excellent indorsement which Mr. Fiske may have seen. If not, he can find it in the Diary of Judge Sewall, recently pub- lished, wherein the Puritan judge seriously defines Quakerism as "Devil worship." It
1 Truth and Innocency Defended, p. 89.
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will be easy now to construct a new justifi- cation of the Puritans, for what more natu- ral than for a people who worshiped the Devil, and accepted the Bible as the in- spired word, to maintain that the Devil wrote it? This important theory being conclusively established by the corrobora- tive testimony of two pious and truthful Puritans, one can only marvel at the for- bearance of the colonial ministers and mag- istrates.
In justice to Mr. Fiske it must be admit- ted that he is not singular in his methods of research ; for with rare exceptions every modern history of this subject confirms the suspicion that when early authorities have been consulted at all, it has been for the sole purpose of confirming preconceived opin- ions, and for the selection of material to be used in extenuating the crimes of John En- dicott, John Norton, and their associates. A notable illustration of the slip-shod method of some writers who aspire to become histo- rians is furnished by Mr. H. C. Lodge. He says the Friends were drunk with religious zeal. He evidently believes that it was not unsual for them to appear naked in pub- lic, and he describes them as rioters and
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disturbers of the peace.1 The " presentation of facts" which he professes to give is a mere rehash of some of the worst and most abusive attacks upon the Quakers by older writers and has no proper claim to be called historical. In the preface to his book, Mr. Lodge innocently assures the reader that he makes " absolutely no pretense to original research." Cela va sans dire.
Of the many apologists who essay to deal with this subject, the Rev. Dr. George E. Ellis is probably the best informed ; and if he could but address himself to the mat- ter with a mind free from the apparently inevitable New England prejudice, he might do history important service by correcting the errors of his predecessors. He finds something to admire in Quakers and Qua- kerism, and something to condemn in Pu- ritans and Puritanism. His judgments are not always consistent, and they sometimes positively conflict with each other, but in their general tenor and bearing they co- incide with the conclusions and judgments of other apologists. The main difference is, that while such critics as Parker and
1 A Short History of the English Colonies in America, p. 354.
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Dexter indulge in wholesale condemnation of the Friends, Dr. Ellis's verdict is relieved by some recognition of the Quaker virtues and by a recommendation of mercy. He concedes that " the Quakers had hold in common of an advanced truth, quick with the energy of the Spirit." He grants that " they were the advanced pleaders for a liberty which is now our life, for a form of faith and piety which alone has power for a free soul." He " can apprehend the high and pure motive which not only led, but really inspired these unwelcome missionaries to our bay." He pays a tribute to their " sincerity " and to their " meek, but always unflinching endurance of contumely and vio- lence." He even admits that " much of their terrible abusiveness of language was wholly free from malice and any ill-inten- tion, but was prompted wholly from an honest and severely righteons sense of the errors and superstitions which they as- sailed."
It is not easy for the ordinary mind to understand how a people, confessedly gov- erned by' a sense of religious duty and led and inspired to come here by a high and pure motive, were at the same time im-
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pelled by an "aimless spirit of annoyance," or that, " by every rule of right and reason, they ought to have kept away." Nor is it less difficult to realize that the pleaders for a form of faith and piety which alone has power for a free soul uttered, " in a prophet- ical way," " crude and indigested notions " that " sounded like the wildest rant," to be relieved of the reproach of blasphemy only by being referred to "a besotted stupidity or a shade of distraction." There is a sharp contrast, if not flat contradiction, between the portraiture of the Friends, as we have just seen it, and the following sketch, drawn by the same hand. The Quakers, says Dr. Ellis, were "seditious and rancorous visit- ors," and " most of them " were " lawless and ignorant." They were " intrusive, pester- ing, indecent, and railing disturbers of early Massachusetts," who " regarded themselves as led by the Spirit to give 'testimony,' which, as things then were, would subvert all civil and religious order in this colony, and overwhelm it with confusion and anarchy. . . . A spell wrought upon their spirits, and they yielded themselves, as they thought, to a guidance from above. . . . Modest and pure women under this spell
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would rush into the public highways, or into a crowded place of worship, and, inde- pendent of all the art or materials of dress- makers, would make a distressing spectacle of themselves. One such, coming into a meeting-house in this condition, had smeared herself with black paint as a sign, she said, of the black pox, which, she prophesied, God would send on this cruel jurisdiction." This graphic picture is drawn for our con- templation in order to "relieve the burden of wanton and ruthless cruelty cast upon our legislators," who were " beyond meas- ure provoked and goaded to the course which they pursued. . . . Their Quaker tormentors were the aggressive party ; they wantonly initiated the strife, and with dog- ged pertinacity persisted in outrages which drove the authorities almost to frenzy. . .. Our Fathers cared little, if at all, for the Quaker theology. They did not get so far as that in dealing with them. . . . Our Fa- thers dealt with them on the score of their manners, their lawlessness, and their offen- sive speech and behavior."
It is inconceivable how an artist can produce two such irreconcilable pictures as these with but one subject for his model,
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and it must be left to Philip sober and Philip drunk to settle their own differences.1 The substance of Dr. Ellis's diatribe against the Friends is reproduced here, because, as has been said, it is an epitome of current misconception, and because the main argu- ment used to justify the Puritans rests upon this misconception. The aim and purpose of Dr. Ellis is to portray the con- ditions under which the Puritans were "goaded," and thus to account for " the course which they pursned." In opposition to his view of the subject, three statements or propositions are offered for the considera- tion of the reader.
First. The testimonies of the Quakers were not blasphemous, nor do they indicate "a besotted stupidity or a shade of distrac- tion." On the contrary, they were fer- vently religious, and were often marked by a vigorous understanding that would do credit even to some of the wise men of our own generation. Much of their testimony, had it been heeded, would have strength- ened the civil and religious order of the
1 For what Dr. Ellis has written about the Quakers, see Massachusetts and its Early History ; The Memorial History of Boston, vol. i. ; and Proceedings of the Massachusetts His- torical Society, vol. xviii.
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colony. They testified in behalf of a re- ligions and social order that grows out of an intelligent and just administration of an enlightened government. Dr. Ellis has su- perior facilities for historical investigation, and no doubt holds in reserve much valua- ble information accumulated during many years of arduous study. If he has evidence to sustain his cruel characterization of the testimony of the Friends he ought to pub- lish it. Such reports as are ordinarily ac- cessible do not warrant his accusation ; and until he makes it good by substantial and conclusive proof, one is obliged to suspect that he has carelessly adopted the unsus- tained charges of some earlier writer.
The sermons of the Quakers were never written nor reported ; but there are letters addressed to the authorities, now on file with the court records, and also other letters printed in Friends' journals and histories, which not only reveal the religious and mental character and the views of the writ- ers, but may also fairly be relied upon to indicate some of the prevailing Quaker opin- ions, both as to ecclesiastical and civil law. A fac-simile of the signatures of two Qua- ker women to one of these letters is printed
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in " The Memorial History of Boston " (vol. i., p. 185). The letter is addressed "To thee John Indicott and the rest of the rulers of this jurisdiction." The editor calls it "a characteristic letter," and one therefore naturally expects to find it irreligious, where it does not betoken " a besotted stupidity or a shade of distraction." So far from this, a profoundly religious feeling pervades the whole letter, and the unsparing scriptural denunciation is relieved by a tenderness and pathos that free the writers from all suspi- cion of malice. The women were evidently of ordinary education, for their style is not only quaint, but often obscure. It must be remembered, however, that the writing of even literary men in those days was prolix and redundant, and much of it must be re- constructed in order to be made perfectly clear and readily intelligible to the modern eye and ear. The spirit of this letter may be judged from the following abstract : --
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