USA > Massachusetts > The history of Massachusetts, the colonial period. 1492-1692 v. I > Part 30
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The labors of Mr. Eliot, however, did not end here. Feeling the need of books of instruction, he executed the Herculean task of translating the Bible into the dialect of the Indians, and prepared catechisms, a grammar, a primer, a psalter, and translated other works highly es- teemed by our Puritan fathers, all which were printed at the expense of the Society for Propagating the Gospel. Even in old age, he abated not his interest in his work ; and his last letters to the President of the Corporation, show how deeply his heart was set on spreading abroad the word of God, and placing it within the reach of the poorest of his converts.
At the restoration of Charles the Second, the enemies 1660, of the Corporation endeavored its overthrow, and to divert its resources into his Majesty's coffers, or their own private purses ; but, through the intercession of its friends, among whom were conspicuous Dr. Lake, Bishop of Bath and Wells, and Robert Boyle, Esq., his Majesty was pleased to grant a new Charter, continuing several of the old members, and nominating and appointing others, of the
1 Homer, in 1 M. H. Coll., 5. 260. 2 Douglas. See also Neal's N. E., 1. 228.
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358
INDIAN CHURCHES.
CHAP. nobility and clergy, to conduct its affairs ; its revenues were XIII. augmented ; and its powers were enlarged.1
It was to King Charles that the first translation of the Sept. 5, New Testament was dedicated by the Commissioners of 1661. the United Colonies; and, to carry out the plans of the Corporation, a brick building, called the " Indian College," was erected at Cambridge at its expense, furnished with accommodations for twenty scholars; but, after several had been instructed, most of whom soon died, this, with " other obstructive dispensations of God," led many well wishers " to doubt the success of the enterprise, and some openly contemned it." But despite of these obstacles, Mr. Eliot moved steadily on ; and, as the fruit of his toil, 1674. two Indian churches were gathered in the colony, and fourteen praying towns were settled, connected with which were eleven hundred persons "yielding obedience to the Gospel." The war with Philip was a serious interruption to the work. The public mind was poisoned with suspi- cions of the fidelity of the Indians; and those of Natick and Marlborough, and perhaps of other places, were sent to Deer Island, where they were confined all winter, and endured great hardships. In vain did Mr. Eliot protest against this treatment ; and Gookin alone, of the magis- trates, had the firmness to second his remonstrances ; but, though he thereby exposed himself to the reproaches of his associates, and the insults of the populace, he was too confirmed a patriot to show open resistance, and too ardent a friend of the Indians to allow such conduct to divert or deter him from supporting their cause.2
At the close of the war, the effects of this erroncous 1677. treatment were strikingly perceptible, for the number of
1 Morton's Mem., 132; 1. M. H. Mather, Mag., 1. 511-12 ; App. Life Coll., 1, 172, 176; 3. 181-3, 187; Boyle, 319-35 ; Oldmixon, 1. 99.
5. 265; 7. 222-8; 8. 12, 33: 10. 2 Gookin, in 1. M. II. Coll., 1.
9, 11; 2 M. H. Coll., 9. 223-31, 172-4, 180-95, 228; 1 M. II. Coll., 242-3; 4 M. II. Coll., 2. 280-4; 2. 9; 6. 201; Biglow's Natick, 36-8.
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359
EFFORTS IN THE PLYMOUTH COLONY.
places of meeting was reduced from fourteen to seven ; CHIAP. and seven years later, Mr. Eliot could claim but four towns where meetings were statedly held. Yet the Natick 1.51. church continued many years to maintain its existence ; the town was principally settled by Indians ; a son of Wa- ban, in whose wigwam Mr. Eliot first preached, held the office of "Town Clerk; " and a succession of pastors con- ducted services in the rude church of Eliot's day, and those afterwards erected on its site, until the English became most numerous, and an English settlement was incorpo- rated : - but a house of worship still marks the spot where the rude Indian temple stood.1
In the Plymouth colony, the propagation of the gospel was likewise attended with success ; and Thomas Tupper, and Richard Bourne, of Sandwich, were the first who entered the field of missionary labor. Mr. Cotton, of Plymouth, was an assistant in the work; and we learn, from his letters, and from those of Mr. Bourne, that there 1674. were, within the colony, twenty places where meetings were held ; and although but one church was gathered, having twenty-seven communicants, and but ninety persons had been baptized, there were nearly five hundred attendants on public worship. Eleven years later, this number had 1085. increased to nearly fifteen hundred; and even so late as 1764, there were nearly a thousand Indians in the three 1:61. counties formerly constituting the old Colony of Plymouth.2
Humble as are the labors here recorded, in comparison with the more dazzling accounts of the Jesuits, they are still worthy memorials of the piety of our ancestors. If the value of an enterprise is to be measured by its success, the conversion of the Indians must be regarded as a failure. The race itself has dwindled away, leaving behind few
Biglow's Hist. Natick, 19, 20, 21, 2 1 M. II. Coll., 1. 172, 196-9; 3. 188-9, 191; Hutchinson, 1. 156; Mather, 1. 509; 2. 380-2; May- hew's Narr., 46-53, &c.
41-3; 1 M. II. Coll., 10. 134; Mather, Mag., 2. 382.
360
DIFFICULTIES WITH THE QUAKERS.
CHAP. tokens of its presence in the country ; and nearly all that XIII. remains to remind us of the genius and exertions of Eliot, are the few scattered books which have descended to us from the past, as unintelligible as the inscriptions upon the obelisk of Luxor ; yet, like that, they are memorials of the labors of man, and impressive and instructive are the lessons they teach.
From this pleasing picture of the efforts of our fathers for the conversion of the Indians, we must now turn to one which presents us, in contrast, some of the extreme lights and shadows which flit upon the outskirt of Nature's capa- cious circle, and which, like clouds, obscure the fairest summer's landscape. As the Puritans of New England were fully persuaded of the correctness of their own reli- gious opinions, and came to these shores expressly to build up a new community, from which heresy was to be carefully excluded, the advent of the Quakers was regarded with even greater abhorrence than that of the antinomians, ana- baptists, and Gortonists. It was deemed "another assault of Satan upon God's poor people here ;" for their doctrines were condemned as " loathsome and pernicious," the " most venomous of all to the churches of America," opening anew that " dead sea of hetorodoxy, that vast and horrid sink, such as makes the land to stink in the nostrils both of God and man, more than the frogs that sometime annoyed Egypt."1
The founders of new sects, and their earliest disciples, whose tone of thought is in a habitual state of passionate elevation, and whose aims and objects are usually idealized by the glowing atmosphere of an ardent imagination, are not infrequently characterized by a zeal highly dispropor- tioned to the wisdom which is necessary to regulate and control the same ; and to this are we to impute the extrav-
1 Clap, in Chron. Mass., 361; Bishop's N. E. Judged, 380; Mather, Norton's Heart of N. E. Rent, 2; Mag. 2. 451.
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361
RISE OF THE QUAKERS.
agance of their conduct, and the intemperance of their CHAP. language. The history of enthusiasm is in all ages the XIII. ~ same. Rarely are zeal and moderation so happily and evenly blended in the temperament of self constituted prophets, as to lead to no excesses which are afterwards regretted. It is with sects as with individuals, age cools the impetuosity of youthful passions, and the wildest seldom fail to be sobered by its experience, and instructed by its warnings. Hence the maturity of religious bodies, is usually marked by a more grave and temperate deport- ment than might have been anticipated from the sallies of their earlier years. It is not surprising, therefore, that even the Quakers, now a quiet and peaceable order of Christians - somewhat singular in their habits it is true, but none the less honest, upright, and sincere - should have been denounced as "fanatics," and should have been guilty of follies, which their more staid and philosophic descendants will concur in acknowledging, must be imputed to the warmth of the neophyte rather than to the wisdom of the disciplined mind.
Of the history of the Quakers prior to their appearance in New England, it is not necessary that we should speak at length. The founder of the sect, George Fox, was a native of Drayton, in Leicestershire, and was the son of Christopher Fox, a weaver by profession, and a man of such integrity that he was called by his neighbors, " right- eous Christer." From his earliest years, George, the son, was marked by a gravity of deportment unusual in chil- dren ; at the age of eleven, he " knew pureness and right- eousness; " and during his apprenticeship, such was his honesty, that he "never wronged man or woman in all that time, and it was a common saying among people, if George says verily, there is no altering him."1 There is
1 Journal, ed. 1694, pp. 2, 3. 31
362
TREATMENT OF FOX.
CHAP. an apparent vanity in such statements, coming from the XIII. subject himself, and a lack of attention to the Scripture command, " Let another's mouth praise thee, and not thine own." But whatever of egotism his Journal may display, we cheerfully admit that his morals were exem- plary, that his piety was fervent, and that he labored sincerely and zealously for what he regarded as the true doctrines of godliness. Yet his own morals, however pure, did not prevent him from approving acts of his followers of questionable propriety, if not of positive indecency ; nor did the fervency of his piety, however vital, pre- serve him from the insidious, because imperceptible delu- sions, to which imaginative and melancholic minds are so often subject.1
But " dogwhips and horsewhips," "staves, clods, and stones," " mauling with the Bible until the blood gushed from his face," and thrusting into dungeons reeking with filth, were not Christian weapons of conversion, however striking ; and the fearlessness with which he rebuked sin ; the doctrines of peace which he advocated so consistently ; the persistence with which he sought to reform the morals of the people ; the personal honesty of himself and his followers ; his protests against the practice of robbing the shipwrecked ; and his uniform integrity, straight-forward- ness, and frankness, are qualities which commendably dis- tinguish him from his opposers, and which may cause us to cast the mantle of charity over the errors of his judg- ment, or the excesses of his zeal. Quakerism, without doubt, had a mission to perform in the world, or it would never have appeared ; and though it is easy to echo the popular cry of heresy, errors of the head may be much more excusable and far less dangerous than errors of the heart, though the latter are more often winked at and
1 Journal, 24, 54, 55, 56, 59, 103, 146-7, 239.
363
MARY FISHER AND ANN AUSTIN.
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applauded, than the former are tolerated, and treated with CHAP. lenity.1 XIII.
It was in 1656, that the first Quakers landed in Massa- July, chusetts ; and at that date, two women, Mary Fisher, and 165G. Ann Austin, arrived from England by the way of Barba- does. No law forbade their entrance into the country, save the general law against heresy. A month later,2 eight Aug. 7. others arrived, in the Speedwell, of London. These were all imprisoned, deprived of the books which they had brought to circulate, and treated, in some cases, with great indignity ; and, as it was feared there was danger of the spread of their opinions, even from prison, they were ban- ished without ceremony, and the masters of the vessels which had brought them hither, were placed under bonds to take them away.3
At the next session of the General Court, a penalty of Oct. 14. £100, was imposed upon the master of any ship bringing Quakers within the jurisdiction ; and all brought in, were to be sent to jail, whipped twenty stripes, and kept at work until transported. Letters were also written to the Commissioners of the colonies, recommending the passage of laws for the suppression of this sect, and the banishment of its members.4 In the following year, a fine of forty 1667. shillings was imposed upon any one harboring Quakers in their dwellings, for "every hour's entertainment and concealment ; " and at a still later date, all encouraging or May, 1678. defending them were to be fined ten shillings, and the speakers in their meetings were to forfeit five pounds. All importing their books were also to forfeit five pounds, and
1
1 Fox's Journal, 28, 68-9, 121, Reg., 1. 132-3; Hutchinson, 1. 180- 144-5, 186, 207, 209, 241.
2 The date is as in the text, in Bishop's N. E. Judged, p. 3. cd. 1702-3.
3 Bishop, 3-30 ; Whiting, 12-13; Besse ; Sewall, 203; N. E. Gen.
1 ; Drake's Boston, 342-3.
+ Mass. Rec's., 3. 415; Mass. Laws, ed. 1671, 6, 60; Hazard, 1. 630-2, Hutchinson, 1. 181-2, and Coll., 284, 286.
364
LAWS AGAINST QUAKERS.
CHAP. a like sum for dispersing or concealing the same. And XIII. every person " reviling the office or person of magistrates 1658. or ministers as is usual with the Quakers," was to be " whipt or pay the sum of five pounds." Every male Qua- ker convicted, was, by the law of 1657, for the first offense to lose one ear, and for the second the other ; every female was to be whipped ; and for the third offense, males and females were to have their tongues bored with a red hot iron. And by a majority of a single vote, and at the instance, as is said, of a clergyman, John Norton, zealous against heretics, the penalty of death was denounced upon all returning to the jurisdiction after being banished. These Draconian statutes were published through the streets of Boston with beat of drum ; and more sanguinary enact- ments it would probably be difficult to produce even from the legislation of the Anglican Church. Thus intense was the bigotry of New England and Old.1 " Heretical doctrine "- thus argued our fathers -"is not only a sin, but profession of a doctrine which is both all sin, and a way of sin."2
In contrast with the above, look at the cotemporary con- duct of Rhode Island. Say the government at Providence, in their letter to Massachusetts : " We have no law among us whereby to punish any for only declaring by words, &c. their minds and understandings concerning the things and ways of God, as to salvation and an eternal condition. And we, moreover, find, that in those places where these people aforesaid, in this colony, are most of all suffered to declare themselves freely, and are only opposed by argu- ments in discourse, there they least of all desire to come, and we are informed that they begin to loathe this place, for that they are not opposed by civil authority, but with all patience and meekness are suffered to say over their
1 Laws, 1671, 60-62; Fox, pas- 182; Hazard, 2. 399-400, 554, 562 ; Sewall, 1. 243-4, 249-50. sim ; Whiting's Truth and Innocen- cy, 145-7; Besse ; Hutchinson, 1. 2 Norton's Heart of N. E. Rent,63.
365
ROGER WILLIAMS AND GEORGE FOX.
pretended revelations and admonitions, nor are they like CHAP. or able to gain many here to their way ; and surely we find ~ XIL. that they delight to be persecuted by civil powers, and when they are so, they are like to gain more adherents by the consent of their patient sufferings, than by consent to their pernicious sayings."1
Yet it must not be forgotten that, at a later period, Roger Williams himself was engaged in a controversy with George Fox, the founder of the Quaker sect ; and the work of the former, entitled " George Fox digged out of his Burrow," was answered by one equally severe, entitled, " A New England Firebrand quenched, being an answer to a lying, slanderous Book by one Roger Williams, con- futing his blasphemous Assertions." There is as acrimo- nious language in the one as in the other : which proves that the theory of toleration is not always extended to the speech as well as to the life.2
Connecticut and Plymouth concurred in adopting laws similar to those of Massachusetts ; and even the Dutch, at Manhattan, though the land of their birth was proverbially one where,
" At Amsterdam, Turk, Christian, Pagan, Jew, Staple of sects, and mint of schism, grew;"
so far forgot the proverb as to fall in with the example of their neighbors.3 Yet in all the colonies there were some who lamented these excesses of sectarian zeal, and strove, though in vain, to stem the current of popular prejudice. Hutchinson and Clarke, of the Massachusetts Colony ; Cud- worth, Hatherly, and others, of Plymouth ; and the benevo- lent Winthrop, long Governor of Connecticut, are worthy
1 Hutchinson, 1. 453-4. the cases against Catholics. See Backus, Benedict, Knowles, Staples, &c.
2 Nor was this the only instance in which a jealous if not a persecut- ing spirit was discovered, as witness his treatment of Wm. IJarris, and 31*
3 Howgill's Popish Inquisition, ed. 1659, pp. 6, 15-16.
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366
PROGRESS OF PERSECUTION.
CHAP. of mention as among those who protested against the XIII. sanguinary laws of their day, and who would gladly have treated more leniently this little sect of plebian philoso- phers, the insanity of whose zeal, and the intemperance of whose conduct, were paralleled only by the equally insane and intemperate violence of those who opposed, derided, and abused them.1
In dealing with repulsive characters and actions, how- ever, it is frequently forgotten, that persecution has been oftener found to strengthen than to weaken the cause against which it is aimed ; and the legislation of the New England colonies, with whatever reluctance it may have been adopted, and with whatever casuistry it may have been defended, so far from detering the Quakers from making their appearance in the country, only emboldened them to come the more fearlessly ; and, with a stubborn- ness and pertinacity which incensed and exasperated, they thrust themselves upon the notice of the clergy and the magistrates, and courted rather than shunned the penalties of the laws. Not only were the worthiest imprisoned for pitying them, but large numbers of the Quakers themselves, delicate women, with infants at their breasts, children, whose youth should have protected them from harm, and the aged, whose years should have excited compassion, were alike scourged, imprisoned, and fined :- nay, some were sent off, and sold into slavery !2 Appeals to England were treated with contempt; and Endicott, Wilson, Norton, and others, urged on the work of persecution, until a resilience was produced, - until the people recoiled from the scene of blood ; with loathing and abhorrence, repented of their misdeeds ; and clamored for the repeal of the most bar-
1 Bishop, 157-8, 168-76; Cod- hitherto, which is the world's won- dington's Demonstration, 9.
2 " Your cruelties," says Codding- ton, Demonst., 7, " have filled the contents of two printed treatises
der, and the astonishment of all that are men of ingenuity and tender- ness."
367
APOLOGIES OF THE COLONISTS.
barous statutes. It was no squalid pantomime, but a terri- CHAP. ble tragedy which was acted by our fathers. There were XIII. gradations of cruelty in their treatment of the Quakers ; and the severity of their punishment increased in arith- metical progression. For, from imprisonment, they pro- ceeded to fines and confiscations ; from fines and confis- cations, to whipping with the knout; from whipping to mutilation, and cutting off cars ; from mutilation to banish- ment ; from banishment to servitude ; and from servitude to death. "You are court, jury, judge, accusers, witnesses, and all," said Coddington. Mr. Wilson seemed beside himself as the sad work proceeded. "I would carry fire in one hand," said he, " and fagots in the other, to burn all the Quakers in the world." " Hang them," he cried, " or else "- and with a significant gesture he passed his hand across his throat.1
It is an insufficient apology for such preposterous mad- ness, that the conduct of the Quakers was in itself highly provoking. John Norton might say,
" Region, Estate, Rule Civil and Divine, Religion, All they seek to undermine :"2
that was no excuse for whipping and hanging. 3 What if one of that sex whom all delight to honor, laying aside the usual delicacy of woman, begrimed herself with coal-dust, as emblematic of the black-pox which God was about to send forth upon all carnal worshippers ? What if others, in sombre attire, paraded the streets, proclaiming the speedy arrival of an angel, with a drawn sword, to take vengeance upon the people ? And what if still another,
1 Bishop, 124, 141 ; Whiting, 79 ; 1678: " when did ever the true Apostles and Teachers, whip, hang, brand with on hot iron, banish upon pain of death, and spoil the goods ?"
Coddington's Demonstration, 11. 2 Heart of N. E. Rent, 60.
3 " When," asks Fox, p. 4, Ans. to New Laws of Rulers of Boston, ed.
368
EXTRAVAGANCES OF THE QUAKERS.
CHAP. with a modesty closely allied to prurience, outdoing the XIII. legend of Godiva of Coventry, in a state of entire nudity presented herself in the public assembly, in the midst of divine service, as an illustration of the spiritual nakedness of the colonists ? What if Faubord, to rival the faith of Abraham, proceeded with his own hands to sacrifice his son, and was prevented from accomplishing his object only by the interference of his neighbors ? What if all de- nounced the magistrates, vilified them as worthless trees cumbering the ground, and invoked upon them the direst judgments of God ? Such extravagances, if noticed at all, should have been treated with the mild discipline of a luna- tic asylum, rather than met by a fanaticism equally repre- hensible, and equally abhorrent to the sensitive mind. 1 Yet it was the doctrine of those days, and openly avowed, that " the very light of nature teacheth all nations, that madmen, acting according to their frantick passions, are to be restrained with chains, when they cannot be restrained otherwise. " 2
Four victims the scaffold claimed, before the tide of per- secution ebbed. William Robinson, Marmaduke Stevenson, and Mary Dyer, were the first who suffered; and in the account of their trial, and of the scene at their execution, there is much that excites both pity and disgust. It will hardly be believed, that they were guarded by soldiers lest the people should rescue them ; that drums were beat to drown their voices ; and that, when the bodies of the men had fallen to the ground, they were treated with inhuman indignity and scorn.3 "We desired their lives absent, rather than their death present," was the best excuse the magistrates could offer.
William Leddra was next placed upon trial; but in the
1 Bishop, 373, 386 ; Whiting, 43 ;
3 Besse, Bishop, Sewell, &c. See Mather, 1. 453-5; Hutchinson, 1. also Coddington's Demonstration,ed. 187, and Coll., 327.
Norton, 52.
1674, p. 6.
369
WENLOCK CHRISTISSON.
very midst of the proceedings of the Court, Wenlock Chris- CHAP. tisson, already banished on pain of death, came boldly for- XIII. ward, and, confronting the magistrates, whom his appear- ance dismayed, protested against their conduct, and warned them of its consequences. Upon his own trial he demanded, by what law they condemned him ? When it was anwered, " our own " - " Who empowered you to make that law? " was his immediate inquiry. And when the patent was pleaded, " can you make laws," he asked, "against those of England ?" None but a negative reply could be re- turned. "Then," added he, " have you overstepped your bounds, and your hearts are as rotten towards the King as towards God." It was useless to continue the controversy, and a verdict of guilty was promptly pronounced. "I deny all guilt," was the fearless rejoinder : "My conscience is clean in the sight of God." When the sentence of death was passed, " What do you gain," he exclaimed, "by taking Quakers' lives ? For the last man you put to death, here are five come in his room ; and if ye have power to take my life, God can raise up ten in my stead." 1
Intelligence of the proceedings of the colonists soon reached England ; and Edward Burroughs, waiting upon his Majesty, Charles the Second, who had recently been restored to the throne of his father, said : " There is a vein of blood opened in your dominions which, if not stopped, will overcome all." "I will stop that vein," was the prompt reply. "Then do it speedily," said the ally of Fox, " for we know not how soon many may be put to death." " As speedily as ye will," was the answer of his Majesty ; " call to the Secretary, and I will do it presently." The Secretary was called ; a mandamus was granted; and per- Sep. 9, mission was given the Quakers to forward it by whom they 1661. pleased. Samuel Shattuck was selected as the messenger,
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