Horrifying Ways by which America’s Puritans Persecuted the Quake -

Puritans after fleeing from England and landing on the land of America in search of religious freedom started the persecution of the Quakers that they once escaped. Few of the horrifying ways by which Puritans persecuted Quakers in America are as follows.

First Quakers in America Were Stripped, Beaten, and Starved

First Quakers to set foot on American soil back in 1656 were named Mary Fisher and Ann Austin who came as missionaries from England.

As soon as setting foot n New World they were arrested by authorities fro charges of spreading blasphemous opinions and were sentenced for public striping, beating and later imprisonment. They stripped them on basis of being witches and to find the additional Witch Teat several women and according to Austin one man did the strip search on them. Upon not finding an excuse to kill, they were thrown in imprisonment with starvation until a man named Uppsall bribed the guards and sneaked them food. Five weeks later they were shipped by locals to Barbados.

Puritans Fined Anyone Who Brought a Quaker to America

A law was introduced in New England that it was a crime to bring any Quaker to colony and the ones who did were fined 100 pounds and Quakers were to be whipped 20 times while being naked. They were sent to their homelands after doing hard labors for years.

Women Were Stripped Naked and Beaten

Women Quakers suffered the most humiliating fate as they were parade through town stripped naked from waist down while being whipped. One brutal case happened o tree women named; Ann Coleman, Mary Tompkins and Alice Ambrose were stripped naked and tied to a cart in dead of winter. They were paraded through streets while a man continuously whipped their backs.

Dead Quakers’ Bodies Were Desecrated and Humiliated

A Quaker named Mary Dryer suffered the cruelest fate. She had a still born bay which she buried due to fear of the Puritans. When governor found out he diced to humiliate before killing her. The baby was pulled from grave and was shown to public as monster child. Dryer herself was left hanging on gallows for days. Dryer was buried without a ceremony.

People Who Spoke Out In Their Defense Were Arrested

A man named Edward Hart in addition to few other people drafted a letter to protest against the cruelty against Quakers in New Netherlands. Governor of the New Netherlands was not sympathetic to their cause and he arrested the men who signed the letter. Almost all of the protestors reneged on their words except Edward Hart and he was imprisoned for this and later banished from colony.

Two Quaker Children Were Almost Sold Into Slavery

In 1659, the government of Salem pulled forcibly two children from their parents who turned to Quaker faith. The names of children were Daniel and Provided Southwick who were shipped to Barbados where they were sold in slavery.