1630s: Mary Barrett Dyer sides with preacher Anne Hutchinson who taught that the Holy Spirit resides within the justified individual. She, along with her husband and the Hutchinsons, is banished from the Massachusetts Colony. They settled in Rhode Island.
1652: During a trip to England, Mrs. Dyer becomes a Quaker, a follower of George Fox whose teachings were similar to Anne Hutchinson's.
1657: Mary Dyer returns to Boston. She is imprisoned for her Quaker beliefs. She was released when her husband promised to keep her quiet.1
1658: Law passed making Quaker affiliation punishable by death.
1659: Mary Dyer visits two Quaker friends in jail, is herself jailed. They are released, but assured that they would be executed if they returned. A month later, Mary was back in Boston to "look the bloody laws in the face."2 She was again thrown in jail. She and others were led to the hanging site, where she watched two Friends hanged, but Governor stayed her execution. She returned to Rhode Island under duress. But persistence prevailed. She was determined to stand against the "wicked law."
1660: June 1. Boston Common. Mary Dyer is hanged.
"The faith of Mary Dyer inspired a new tolerance, which was enshrined in Massachusetts Constitution, which later became the model for the U.S. Constitution's Bill of Rights."3
Mary Dyer c.1611 - 1660 RIP
1You might imagine how difficult it was for me to avoid straying down this road; but I'm trying to be serious here.
2Smitty's Genealogy, Quaker, and Civil War Pages
3The Official Website of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Sources:
Smitty's Genealogy, Quaker, and Civil War Pages
The Official Website of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
7 comments:
Very interesting. Our son told us this week about students on his campus being called in for questioning because of a religious meeting they've been attending. One student told an American professor that if he is jailed he will work to convert the other prisoners, and if he dies he knows he will go to heaven. I hope we appreciate our freedoms and that our descents will also have them.
Some of those "old" gals (as in long ago) were really something! I bet her husband knew he was making an empty promise.
Do you know Susannah White?
Her husband was gonna keep her quiet?? Really???! Sigh.
Vee, I fear we too much take for granted our religious liberties. But long may they survive!
Shark, do you mean Susannah White whose son Peregrine White was born aboard the Mayflower, the Susannah White who later married Colony Governor Edward Winslow? Or do you mean Susannah White, film director, who did Jane Eyre and a bunch of other stuff? Nevermind. I don't know either of them. Isn't the 'net wonderful?
Lin, yeah; and hence my footnote!
Came back today to see your comments and saw that I put "decents" rather than "descendants". Think I need to sleep later :)
Isn't it crazy how this stuff is still going on? It's like Cain and Abel all over again-- keep the other person silenced. Sheesh. Very sad. Although, the secularists have got all the other religions of the world beat. How many millions did Stalin eliminate? And for what???
Sad, very sad. I wait for the city that has foundations...
Vee, ha, ha. I can't tell you how many times I've discovered the typo or the glitch after I hit "publish."
Rebecca, along with Abraham, we look for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Until then, I suspect things will go along much as they always have.
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