USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. IV > Part 43
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verse and unfavorable criticism, with charges of novel and unwarrantable language, of new and barbarous words, indicating vagueness and in- completeness of thought in the minds of the writers, and producing obscurity to their read- ers. Other charges, besides innovation and ob- scurity, are those of dogmatism and arrogance in the assertion of their opinions. He then goes on to a more direct discussion of the philo- sophy, to show its shallowness and falsehood, and incidentally eulogizes Locke, whose philo- sophy was especially assailed and disparaged by
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
Let us- in conclusion glance rapidly at some of the salient features of the excitable condition of mind which characterized the period with which we are dealing. In the sphere of morals, the strong assertion by Mr. Garrison and his followers of first and absolute principles opened the minds and roused the feelings of the community; and while it powerfully moved the sympathy of those favorably inclined by nature or education, aroused the fears, disgust, or bitter hostility of the adverse element. Two parties were thus arrayed in fierce antagonism, which showed itself in excited meet- ings and conventions on the one side and the other, or, with those of more brutal instincts, in mobs and violence. The discussion of abstract princi- ples, provoked primarily by the Abolition doctrines, soon ran off in all di- rections, and brought up all sorts of abstract questions and their unqualified application. Thus the whole theory of government, of social life, its arrange- ments and usages, -questions of the right to take life at all, leading logically to the doctrine of absolute non-resistance, and thus striking at the founda- tion of all governmental control and organization, - were brought under consideration. So the right of taxation to support a government of force was denied; and with some the Constitution of the United States, as not condemning slavery, -"the sum of all villanies,"- was of no binding value. Then followed the denial of the right to take animal life, thus lead- ing to the disuse of animal food and of substances derived to the use of man from the enslavement and slaughter of the brute creation. Then came the question of women having an equal right with men on the platforms of the free societies, which came up most naturally in connection with the broad principles of freedom professed; and this opened the whole question of woman's prerogatives, and of the right to exclude her from equal partici- pation in the duties and offices of society and government. These, and allied questions, led to inconveniences and embarrassments, and sometimes to ludicrous scenes and incidents, of which the hostile critics were not slow to make the most.
Another extreme question, which to some seemed to flow logically from acknowledged principles, as well as from those recognized as the very essence of Christianity, was that of the right to hold and use money, as in-
the opposite party. We give in his own words one of the objections which he, in concert with the popular voice, makes to this philosophy : " The distinguishing trait of the Transcendental philosophy is the appeal which it makes from the authority of reason to that of passion and feeling," - a statement to which the advocates and receivers of this system would doubtless most decidedly object. He also brings a charge which they might not be very anxious to repel, of its being a revival of the old Platonic School. In the Examiner, in November of the same year, Professor Bowen returns to the charge, and in a long and elaborate article compares and contrasts the claims of the philosophy of
Locke, or that of experience, with that of this new school. In this he pursues substantially the same line of argument and criticism, but in a more extended and elaborate way, and repeats the charges and objections against the Transcen- dental system and its adherents, - of arrogance, and obscure and unwarrantable use of language. He naturally has a good deal to say of the Ger- man metaphysicians, of whom he takes a very unfavorable view ; and of Coleridge, too, who among the English thinkers was considered as rather the type of this mode of thought and speculation. [There is a portrait and sketch of Mr. Bowen in the Harvard Register, May, 1881 .- ED.]
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. PHILOSOPHIC THOUGHT IN BOSTON.
volving, in substance, consequences inconsistent with human brotherhood. A small journal was published, and continued for a few numbers, called, we think, the Herald of Holiness, which maintained the moral evil of the use of money, and by its earnestness and appeals to high moral considerations interested and impressed some minds.
In all this tendency to extremes, and indeed to what may be called ex- travagances, it is interesting and gratifying to observe that in this region at least there was not that tendency to run into licentious doctrine or practice, or more lax principles of morality, which has sometimes shown itself in times of similar mental and moral excitement. On the contrary, the ten- dency was to a more strict and even ascetic behavior.
The excitement and interest of this discussion and action of the time reached and pervaded various classes of society, - alike those of high culture and those less educated, but in whom the moral instincts and principles asserted themselves with force, and often in language of rough strength, which was quite current at the time. The Antislavery meetings naturally abounded in specimens of forcible and often rude eloquence, as they had for their staples the exciting and inspiring themes which easily lent themselves to stirring oratory. On their platform might be witnessed a remarkable combination of the higher mixed with the ruder but forci- ble oratory. Here were, indeed, the refined feeling and feminine dignity of Lucretia Mott and the Misses Grimké; the splendid power, rare bril- liancy, glowing words, and trenchant logic of Thompson and Phillips; but also the more rude, but most effective and telling blows of the Goodells and Burleighs and Fosters. That this period has left an abiding influence on the moral and intellectual thought and culture of the country we cannot doubt; and may we not hope, too, that the later, broader, and freer spirit, grafted on the strong and sturdy Puritan stock, will yield rich and whole- some fruits ? 1
1 Our limits have obliged us to omit the men- tion of several who deserve notice among those whose teaching or writing has had an influence in modifying, directing, or enlightening the thought of our community, like the Rev. O. A. Brownson, Professor C. C. Everett, and others; but we have chosen to dwell at some length upon some prom- inent names, rather than furnish little more than a bare catalogue of all who might seem to require notice. We cannot, however, allow ourselves to pass by the name of Miss Elizabeth P. Pea- body, without some reference at least to her long- continued, disinterested, and unfailing exertions and zeal in promoting everything that prom- ised greater freedom, elevation, and breadth of philosophic, philanthropic, or religious thought or action. We trust that better justice may be done to her character and efficient services than belongs to our subject. Her conversations with Dr. Channing, reported in the volume recently published by her, are in this wise very important,
as through various channels they found their way to the minds of a wide circle in the commu- nity. This influence was also felt in her teach- ing, which has ever been characterized by high and ideal aims.
At one time (about 1840) she opened a room for a circulating library and the sale of foreign books and journals. This became a sort of Tran- scendental Exchange. Persons young and old resorted here, partly to talk with the learned and active-minded proprietor, to get the literary news of the day, the last word of philosophy, of religious literature and thought. Many persons of high culture, or of distinction in the sphere of religious philosophy, philanthropy, or litera- ture, were often here, and likely to meet others, like themselves, interested in the questions then agitating the community, or to talk on the calmer topics of literature and philosophy. Some of Miss Fuller's conversations were held at Miss Peabody's house in West Street.
VOL. IV. - 42.
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
Though the phase of thought which gave its name and character to this period is no longer so marked and conspicuous, it doubtless gave a permanent and still existing impulse to the mode of thinking and feeling on matters of philosophy and religion. New questions have since arisen to take the place of the old; or more accurately, perhaps, the old ones have passed into new forms and aspects. The hostility and ridicule which it aroused have died away, and its modifying influence is now silently, per- haps unconsciously, felt in many minds to whom it once seemed portentous in its aspect and pernicious in its consequences, and has undermined or lessened the hold of other opinions and doctrines. If we may venture to draw a lesson from a retrospect of the field which we have passed over, when we look back on the angry controversies and bitter hostilities of the past, it may impress upon us that what when novel and strange often seems sinister and threatening, a meteor "shaking from its horrid hair" all sorts of evils and disasters, "may by and by," to borrow the language of another, " take its place in the clear upper sky, and blend its light with all our day."
Good Bradford
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CHAPTER IV.
THE WOMEN OF BOSTON.
BY MRS. EDNAH D. CHENEY.
W THEN an English gentleman was asked what seemed to him the most remarkable thing in Boston, he promptly answered, "The Women !" Mary Carpenter said "she did not see what more the women of Boston could ask for," so favorably did their position compare with that of women in any other country.
There is a strong and recognizable type of Boston women whose char- acteristics are clear and enduring; and the gradual formation of this type may be traced from the earliest periods of the town's history, as in leading individuals those qualities are clearly seen which have made the woman of to-day what she is. The Boston woman inherits from a line of well-bred and well-educated ancestors, mostly English, a physical frame delicate and supple, but enduring. It is capable of great nervous force and energy, and can be made to serve the mind and will almost absolutely. But she is liable to attacks of disease, and under unfavorable conditions her nervous energy degenerates into irritability. More intellectual than passionate, her im- pulses are under control; and she is reserved and cold in manner, while a gentle purity inspires confidence even before it awakens affection.
Her morality is stern and exacting, and she does not understand the temptations which beset other natures ; her own sense of chastity is so high that, like the lady in Comus, she walks amid a thousand dangers unheeding and unharmed. She shrinks from contact with evil until it appears as suf- fering, when duty and benevolence overcome her sensitiveness. She is speculative in theology, while conservative in her tastes; and, though in -. dulging great freedom of thought, is devout in her habits. This conflict sometimes produces a strain upon her feelings too great for endurance, and she seeks refuge in an established church. Perhaps this is only a brief rest in her onward career, or it leads to a life of moral or benevolent activity in which she is content. Her æsthetic nature is serious and refined, preferring the classic music to the modern opera, and pre-Raphaelitism to sensuous
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
beauty. The subdued style of her dress marks her position in the scale of refinement.
Aristocratic by tradition, she is in danger of becoming exclusive and narrow; but, liberalized by education, she is democratic in- her work, if not in her tastes and social habits.
Her hospitality is not free, for her time is precious and her housekeep- ing orderly; but the old Boston matron made home a radiating centre of goodness and happiness. She gives the name of "friend " carefully, but holds it sacredly. Brissot de Warville said of Bostonians in 1788 : -
"They unite simplicity of morals with that French politeness and delicacy of man- ners which render virtue more amiable. The young women here enjoy the liberty they do in England, - that they did in Geneva when morals were there, and the Re- public existed ; and they do not abuse it."
The Boston woman is exemplary in her conduct as a wife and mother. Brissot de Warville again says: "Bostonian mothers are reserved ; .. . entirely devoted to their families, they are occupied in making their hus- bands happy and training their children to virtue." He also speaks of their preservation of health and beauty: "I have seen women of fifty with such an air of freshness that they would not have been taken by an European for more than forty. Women of sixty and seventy are sparkling with health." But Boston women are still more remarkable for their virtues in single life. Theodore Parker truly said that he missed elsewhere " his glorious phalanx of old maids."
Boston women have learned to respect work, and a woman can earn her living by labor of any kind, if she be honest, intelligent, and pure in her life, without losing the respect or the companionship of the most refined and re- spected. Ann Bent and Harriet Ryan1-the one a shopkeeper and the other a hair-dresser - are instances within our own memory. Young aspi- rants in art, however wealthy, seek to sell their pictures, that they may be classed as artists, not as amateurs.
The Boston woman is a representative of New England; and the con- stant interchange between city and country makes it difficult to draw any sharp distinctions between their inhabitants.
The history of Boston women begins with a young girl, Ann by name, ten years old, who was the first person to leap from the boat which brought over the exploring party from Charlestown, in 1630; and when, as Mrs. · Pollard, she died2 in 1725, aged one hundred and five, there was left be- hind her a canvas, still in existence,3 on which the strong hard lines of
1 She founded a Home for incurable patients.
2 [Jeremiah Bumstead makes this entry in his Diary : " 1725, Dec. 9, old Mrs. Pollard buryed, aged 105. From ye Courant, No. 228 : ' Mrs. Ann Pollard, widow of Mr. William Pol-
lard, born in Saffron Walden, in ye kingdom of England, died Dec. 6, in ye 105th year of her age. She has left of her offspring 130.'" - N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., 1861, p. 306 .- ED.]
[See Vol. I. pp. 84, 521 .- ED.]
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THE WOMEN OF BOSTON.
the old face indicate a toughness which could well have borne the hardships of the early settlement.
It is not certain that the gentle footfalls of the dearly beloved Lady Arbella were ever heard in what was to become Boston, but we like to recall what manner of woman she and her companions were, as pictured in the story of the voyage which they had just encountered : -
" When the officers were alarmed by the appearance of eight sail supposed to be enemies, the Lady Arbella and children were removed into the lower deck, that they might be out of danger ; but not a woman or child showed fear, though all did appre- hend the danger to be very great."
She took her full part in all the labors and dangers attendant upon their first landing in Salem; but " the virtues of her mind were not able to stem the tide of those many adversities of her outward condition," and she died about Aug. 30, 1630, deeply lamented by the whole colony. But there were survivors of her sex who bore their part in all the hard labor of the new settlement. "They went once a day, as the tide gave way, to gather mussels and clams on the shore." When Mr. Garrett went to Plymouth, in Decem- ber, with several men and a girl, in an open shallop, encountering severe cold and storms, the girl suffered, we are told, least of all.
That woman's influence in sustaining the spirits of the colonists was ap- preciated, is shown by the tender mention of the daughter of Thomas Sharpe : "Boston had not received the like loss of any woman."
Hardly seven years after the settlement the peace of the colony was dis- turbed by religious troubles. The most distinguished leader of this Anti- nomian movement was a woman, - Mrs. Anne Hutchinson. She was the daughter of Mr. Thomas Marberry, an English preacher, and the wife of Mr. William Hutchinson, a man of good estate and mild temper. After all the searching criticism of her enemies, Dr. Ellis1 asserts. " that nothing can be discovered or inferred in this age, from any known record, which sullies her matronly or religious character." Her intellectual endowments were rich, and her personal gifts of eloquence and persuasion very great. Her religious nature having been quickened by the preaching of Mr. Cotton and Mr. Wheelwright in England, no other minister satisfied her, and she left her home and followed them to New England that she might have the nourish- ment which her soul craved. She already held "peculiar opinions," for she " vented them " on shipboard, to the dismay of the passengers. On ar- riving at Boston her eccentricities were reported to the Governor, but she made herself useful " as a woman very helpful in the times of childbirth and other occasions of bodily disease, and well furnished for these offices." Before she appeared in public she had won the confidence and affection of nearly all the members of the Boston church. When she had been thus engaged for about two years, she began to call her friends and converts to- gether, to discuss points of doctrine and strengthen each other in the faith.
1 [Life of Anne Hutchinson, in Sparks's American Biography. - ED.]
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
. Her meetings were confined to women, and sometimes she gathered a hun- dred. The nominal purpose was to repeat the discourses of Mr. Cotton, and impress them upon the minds of her hearers. She held these meetings twice a week, and at first they were looked upon with general favor; but in the progress of discussion the sermons of other ministers were commented upon and compared unfavorably with those of her favorites, and gradually her own views were presented. Without entering into her theological speculations, we must look through the mists of controversy and the quar- rels about words for the real essence of Anne Hutchinson's teachings, for what made her doctrine so welcome not only to the women but to many of the noblest men in the colony. Although expressed in hard, speculative phraseology, as suited the intellectual fashion of the times, yet her real mes- sage, as in all true religious revivals, was a re-assertion of the power of the life and the spirit over outward regulations and formalities. Not what you do, but what you are, is the measure of salvation: the covenant of works is of outward forms; the covenant of grace is of inward life. True as this doctrine is in its essence, none is more liable to run into error and extrava- gance, since the outward life is necessary as expression, test, and correction of the inward feeling. The belief in immediate revelation, which grew out of her spirit and faith, led Mrs. Hutchinson to such extravagant claims as gave occasion for alarm to the magistrates, whose great desire was to keep all things quiet and orderly, that the home government might have no pre- text for restricting their liberties.
Mrs. Hutchinson's trial took place in November, 1637, before the full court. William Coddington alone defended her. While her sex was fre- quently brought forward as a reason against the course she had taken, she was not treated with any courtesy on account of it, but was kept standing until weakness obtained for her the privilege of sitting. Her answers to the charges against her are full of wit and wisdom, and she often confounded her judges with her apt quotations from Scripture. She found her rule in Titus : "Let the older women instruct the younger." The proceedings of the court were arbitrary and severe, but the alarm of the magistrates was real. The Synod decreed, "that though some few women may meet together for prayer and mutual advice, yet such a set assembly as is in practice at Boston is unlawful (when sixty or more meet every week, and one woman takes upon herself the whole exercise)." The court decreed the banishment of Mrs. Hutchinson to Rhode Island. Her enemies declared that the judgment of God was seen in some personal afflictions which fell upon her, while her friends equally traced the finger of Providence in the sufferings. of the colony. In 1642, after her husband's death, she removed to the Dutch settlements near New Haven, where she and all her family, with the exception of one daughter who was made captive, were murdered by the Indians.
Her influence was very great, and has undoubtedly left its impress upon the life of Boston women to this day. It has been asserted that she was
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THE WOMEN OF BOSTON.
insane, but there seems no ground for charging her with more than the en- thusiasm of a highly wrought and sensitive nature, somewhat bewildered by theological and speculative subtleties.1
At a very early period the staid colonists found it necessary to pass sump- tuary laws against dress. Roger Williams had enjoined the women to wear veils, but John Cotton especially condemned the practice as not required by Scripture. In Salem his sermon had so much effect that those who wore veils at the morning service left them off in the afternoon. A little later the General Court enacted that " women, not enjoying property to the value of £200, were forbid to wear silk, or tiffany hoods, or scarfs." In 1665 there was such a lack of clothing in the colony that a law was passed, " enjoining all, not otherwise employed, - as women, boys, and girls, -to engage in spinning; " and the selectmen of the town were required to look into the condition of every family and " assess spinners." 2
About 1648 the nightmare horror of witchcraft began to spread through the colonies, and women were the most frequent victims of the fatal delu- sion ; but the horrors of that story need not be repeated here.3
Many of the punishments inflicted on women for other offences were extremely cruel. Dorothy Talboy was hanged for the murder of her child, -although she was unquestionably suffering under religious insanity. Mrs. Oliver "was whipped for reproaching the magistrates," and " had a cleft stick put on her tongue half an hour for reproaching the elders." A severe law against marriages of persons within the degree of relationship pro- hibited by the Jewish Code, applied to both men and women : -
" Such man or woman shall be set upon the gallows by the space of an hour, with a rope about their neck, and the other end cast over the gallows ; and on the way from thence to the common gaol shall be severely whipped, not exceeding forty stripes each. Also, every person so offending shall forever after wear a capital I of two inches long and proportionable bigness, cut out in cloth of a contrary color to their cloaths, and sewed upon their upper garments, on the outside of their arm or on their back, in open view."
Even as late as May 10, 1752, an unfortunate woman was sentenced to stand upon a scaffold for the space of an hour, facing the four cardinal points of the compass a quarter of an hour each. In this situation she was obliged to suffer from the mob treatment so brutal that the historian refrains from describing it.
The most severe sufferers from the old-time legal sternness were the Quaker women; and the names of Mary Fisher, Dorothy Waugh, and Mary Dyer fill us with pathetic sadness, but their story has already been told.4
1 [See further on this controversy, in Vol. I. p. 174 .- ED.]
2 [See Vol. I. p. 483, for instances of sumptu- ary laws. - ED.]
8 [The whole course of " Witchcraft in Bos-
ton " has been followed by Mr. Poole, in Vol. II. -ED.]
4 [See the chapter by the Rev. George E. Ellis, D.D., on " The Puritan Commonwealth," in Vol. I. - ED.]
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
Women, of course, shared deeply in the anxieties and sufferings caused by the wars with the Indians. Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, of Lancaster, and her family were taken captive by the Indians. After her release she ar- rived in Boston, May 3, 1676, and published a narrative of her experience. She says: "The twenty pounds, the price of my redemption, was raised by some Boston gentlewomen and Mr. Usher, whose bounty and charity I would not forget to make mention of."
Owing to these wars, to fires, and the difficulties with the mother country, there was much distress in Boston during the latter part of the seventeenth century ; and in 1698 " the town was full of widows and orphans, and many of them are very helpless creatures." It was counted that one sixth of the communicants in Cotton Mather's church were widows. At the same time the former strictness of morals had become much relaxed, and new laws against all manner of indulgence were required. The laws regarding mar- riage were severe, and bore harder upon women than upon men, - even upon Indian women; but perhaps they were not more unequal than in any other civilized community. The English law against marrying a wife's sister was strictly enforced.1
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