The early colonists in Massachusetts Bay managed to escape religious oppression in England only to be confronted by a new brand of tyranny: a church whose leaders governed both their public and private lives. In the 17th century, the Puritan Church was fhe law, and anyone who dissented from its orders was punished without mercy.

Like the other principles enshrined in our Bill of Rights, the

separation of religion from government was not easily won. For Mary Dyer,

it was an idea worth dying for.

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EBSCO Publishing : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 2/27/2017 4:24 PM via UNIV OF UTAH - MARRIOTT LIBRARY AN: 160276 ; Carnes, Jim, Tauss, Herbert.; Us and Them? : A History of Intolerance in America Account: s9010286

m in 1635 an outlaw — a Puritanwhose religious faith was declaredillegal by the national Church of England. Rather than change her religion, she, along with many others, chose to leave her home and start a new life on the strange and distant shore of Massachusetts Bay. It was the kind of choice Mary would face again and again, and her decision each time would be the same. Her faith came first — even if it meant her death.

So much about life in the young Bay Colony was unknown and fearsome. Half of the first 700 colonists died of scurvy within the first two years. Crude heating in wooden buildings caused frequent fires. Men took their guns to church with them in case of Indian attack. Members of the colony relied on each other's labor and loyalty simply to survive. They found courage in their common faith and depended on the Church to keep that faith in focus.

The hardships of her new life only made

ary dyer left england

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Mary's faith stronger. As she sought a deeper understanding of God's plan for her, she came to believe that God spoke to every person, including herself, through the urg- ings of his or her conscience. It was this belief — that all people had free access to God's truth — that led Mary and her hus- band, William, to doubt some of their church's teachings.

The Puritan Church governed all aspects of life in the colony. Church leaders dictated what people could wear and how they should behave, both in public and inside the home. The Old Testament was the foundation of civil law. Anyone con- victed of violating one of the Ten Com- mandments was punished by hanging. Anyone who questioned the official faith was treated as a criminal. Women in Massachusetts were not even allowed to discuss a sermon, much less voice their own ideas about religion. Mary and William soon recognized in their own church and government the same intolerant spirit that had driven them out of England.

For as long as she could, Mary main- tained an uneasy silence, in keeping with church rules. And then she heard another woman speak.

The women of the Dyers' neighbor- hood — in what is now downtown Boston

— gathered regularly to share certain chores, such as weaving and soap-making and gardening. And to share their thoughts. The neighbor Mary Dyer grew closest to was Anne Hutchinson. To the astonishment of her peers, Anne openly opposed the rigid authority of the church leaders. She believed that no church had the authority to govern a society. In her view, God spoke to everyone, male and female, and gave each individual the ability to discern right from wrong. Hearing Anne say these things out loud filled Mary with both relief and excitement, as if her own mind had sudden- ly been freed from a cage.

Anne Hutchinson organized a weekly religious meeting, which Mary Dyer faith- fully attended. The swelling crowd soon included members of the clergy and the local government. Anne's eloquence and her knowledge of the Bible impressed every- one who heard her. Her popularity contin- ued to grow until John Winthrop himself set out to stop her.

A respected Puritan minister, Winthrop was elected the Colony's first governor in 1631 and eventually served 12 annual terms in the position. In 1637, after his

DOCUMENT

The cursed Sect of the Quakers

The general laws and Liberties of the Masschusets Colony

issued in 1672, inclued an

anti qyuakers provision

Where as there is a perini cious sect commonly called Quakers Whose Actions tend to undermine the

Authorityy of civil Government of also to destroy the order of the churches they have not been defreeed from ther impeturs Attemts to

undermine our peace and hastern our ruine

For the prevention thereof This court Death Order and Extract that every person of persons of the cursed Sect of the Quakers, who is not an Inhabitant of, but found with in trhis fuidiction shall come before the next magistrate who shall commit the said person or persons to close Prison there ro remain witrhout Battle until the next Count of

Assistants where thry shall have a legal trail by a spe cial jury, and being con vided to be of the sect of the Quakers shjall be sen tenced to Banishment upon pain of death

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own congregation turned to Hutchinson for spiritual guidance, Winthrop brought charges of slander against her in the general court. Many of her followers abruptly turned away from her. At the trial, she was banished from the colony. Knowing that the same thing could happen to her, Mary Dyer stepped to the front of the courtroom to take her friend's hand. For Mary, there was no choice. She had risked her

life before for the right to practice her faith, and she would do it again.

The new ideas that Anne and Mary and their friends had been spreading didn't just make Gov. Winthrop angry — they made him afraid. Amid so much physical uncertainty, Winthrop believed that a united spirit among the colonists was essential for their common survival, rie reared that a loosening of Church control would endanger not only the colony's welfare but also its charter from the King. Division and controversy were the Devil's business. When word came that Anne Hutchinson and her family had been killed by Indians on Long Island, Winthrop pro- claimed it the work of the Lord.

In Anne's absence, Mary vowed to continue the strug- gle that her friend had begun, no matter what the conse- quences. She followed her conscience in defying the law and speaking out about her own convictions. Everyone, she said, had the right to believe and practice religion as he or she saw fit. William Dyer tried to work within the government to get the laws on religion changed. In response to their efforts, a court banished Mary and William from the Bay Colony in 1638. They moved to Rhode Island and helped to found the settlement of Newport, where their six children were born.

T hanks to the leadership of Roger Williams, the colony's founder, residents of Rhode Island enjoyed a religious free-

dom that did not exist in Massachusetts. Still, even in this liberal atmosphere, Mary Dyer felt that something was missing: the voices of women. Rhode Island's independent churches were still run exclusively by men. Like her friend Anne Hutchinson, Mary viewed the sep- aration of Church and State as a principle worth dying for, and one whose benefits should encompass all people.

On a trip to England around 1650, Mary met George Fox, the founder of the Quakers. Fox shared Mary's belief that the Puritans

Women in

Massachusetts

were not even

allowed to

discuss a

sermon, much

less voice their

own ideas about

religion.

Opposite page, above.

Fear of Indian raids prompted

the Puritans to post guards

during church services.

Left, above and below.

The "scourging," or public

whipping, of Quakers was

a common practice in

Massachusetts Bay.

US and THEM • 9

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"Their Own Judgments and

In its royal charter of 1663, the Rhode Island Colony became the first govern- ment in history to guaran- tee religious freedom to overy citizen.

No person with the said colony, at any time here- other shall be any wise molested, punished, disqui- eted, or called in question, for any differences in opin- ion in matters of religion. ....All and every person and persons may, from time to time, and at all time to time, and at all times hereafter, freey and fully have and enjoy his and their own judgments and religious concernments, throughout the tract of land hereafter mentioned.

hadn't gone far enough in reforming Chris- tianity. They had rejected the rituals and other remnants of Catholicism that they saw in the Church of England, but they had left all authority in the hands of a few. Like Mary Dyer, George Fox believed that God's revelation was freely available to every indi- vidual. He made his way from town to town, encouraging men and women to preach.

Mary followed where her spiritual path was leading her. She became a Quaker and stayed away in England for seven years.

During this time, John Endecott, the new governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, was having his own trouble with people like Mary Dyer. Quakers had recent- ly begun coming over from England to spread their radical ideas. They walked into Puritan church services and denounced the preachers. They told people to listen for the voice of God inside them. To Gov. Endecott and his fellow churchmen, this was not just heresy — it was blasphemy.

The Quakers also defied the law. They didn't approve of war, so they refused to serve in the militia. It was against their belief to take oaths. On the street, Quaker men declined to tip their hats to the magis- trates and other government officials. They said they only saw fit to bare their heads when they prayed.

To the Puritan leaders, such open defi- ance of authority indicated a desire and intention to tear down the government. Gov. Endecott authorized a law requiring that all Quakers be banished from the Colony, all Quaker books burned, and any Quaker arriving from England placed in jail.

M ary Dyer hadn't heard about the law when she decided to return to America, but as her ship sailed into

Boston Harbor in 1656, she knew that life as she remembered it would never be the same. She and William still loved each other, but they had been apart a long time. The older children were grown now. And the sense of purpose that she had found on her journey was stronger than anything she'd ever felt before.

Captains of vessels sailing from England were required to put a 'Q' beside

the names of all Quakers on their passenger lists. This made it easy for authorities to arrest unwanted arrivals. (A later law set a steep fine for even transporting them.) Mary Dyer was taken to prison as soon as she stepped ashore. William didn't know his wife was back in the colonies until sev- eral months later when a messenger deliv- ered a note asking him to come and get her. William brought her back to Rhode Island.

While Mary stayed in Newport with her family, the situation in Boston kept get- ting worse. As the Quakers became more defiant, Gov. Endecott instituted harsher laws. Now any man who declared himself a

•iMMiiiM

Witch Hunting

P uritan intolerance reached a frenzied

extreme in 1692. In May of that

year, the daughters of a Puritan min-

ister in Salem Village, Mass., began

behaving in wild and unpredictable ways.

One of them tried to burn herself in the

fireplace. Rev. Samuel Parris soon learned

that his household slave, a West Indian

woman named Tituba, had been telling the

girls stories of voodoo and witchcraft from

her native islands.

First the Parris sisters claimed that they

were possessed by the Devil themselves.

Then they accused Tituba and three other

Salem Village women of witchcraft. The

charges caused a sensation, and within a

few months a kind of "witch fever" had

spread across eastern Massachusetts.

Civil authorities, with the support of

Puritan ministers, appointed three judges to

a special court for trying the accused

witches. Witnesses were permitted to offer

"spectral evidence," or descriptions of foul

deeds they had seen performed by spirits.

The list of suspects at one point included

the wife of Gov. William Phips. As a result

of the witch trials, 13 women and six men

were hanged. One man was sentenced to

death by "pressing" with heavy weights.

Three women died in jail, along with an

Consciences"

Document

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Quaker would have an ear cut off. If he

refused either to leave the colony or to aban-

don Quakerism, he lost the other ear. Women

received whippings for their first two offenses.

The crime of blasphemy could get a person's

forehead branded with the letter 'B.' Puritan

officials pierced the tongues of some Quakers

with hot irons to prevent them from speaking

out any more.

N ot even these extreme measures seemed to work. Quakers from the other

colonies kept coming to support their

brethren. Mary Dyer walked all the way up

from Newport to visit kindred spirits in jail.

unnamed infant belonging to one of the women who was executed.

The suffering brought on by ihe witch hysteria eventually turned public opinion against the trials. Families of the victims called for the colonial legislature to restore their loved one's reputations and to with- draw the orders that had denied their civii

rights. Such a bill, also authorizing damage pay- ments, was passed in 1711.

The Satem witch trials demonstrated that in an environment

of widespread suspicion and intolerance, it only takes a spark to cause a wildfire.

Tne memory of that episode is evident today in

the phrase "witch hunt/ which has come to mean any investigation that plays on a community's fear of unpopular ideas.

The most famous modem "witch hunt: was me crusade launched by U.S. Sen, Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin in 1950 to rid the government of individuals he con-

sidered to be traitors. McCarthy offered no evidence for his claim that he had identi- fied 205 communists in the State Department. But the prominence of his own office caused many Americans to believe him.

McCarthy's unfounded accusations of treason ruined hundreds of earners and

made him, tor a time, one of the most powerful figures in gov- ernment. None of the charges was ever proved,

His targets also included any individuals in

civil service sus- pected of being homosexuals.

In 1954,

after McCarthy was unable to qet one of his

assistants excused from the draft, he retali- ated by "investigating" the military. Television broadcasts of the Army- McCarthy hearings exposed the Senator's cruel and unethical tactics to the public. Later mat year, the Senate formally con- demned McCarthy's conduct.

Above. The first time

Mary Dyer was led to the

gallows, she saw her two

companions hanged.

Left. Puritan authorities

arrest an old woman on

charges of witchcraft.

US and THEM • 11

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Below. Many

Quakers departed

trie Massachusetts

Bay Colony to seek

religious freedom.

Gov. Endecott saw no way around it: He announced that any Quaker entering Massachusetts Bay Colony would be put to death.

On her third venture to Boston, in 1659, Mary Dyer and two friends, Marmaduke Stephenson and William Robinson, were arrested and tried for their religious beliefs. They were given two da-3-3ys to leave the com- monwealth, or else face the gallows. Mary went to Newport for a short time but returned and was seized.

Mary's son William traveled to Boston and convinced Gov. Endecott to withdraw her death sentence. Mary had already climbed the steps to the gallows when young William appeared on horseback. "Reprieve! Reprieve!" he shouted.

Although the Governor had granted Mary amnesty, she was ordered to stand with the rope around her neck, her feet and hands still tied, while her two companions were executed.

The fire of her convictions now burned

even stronger in Mary's mind. She lived in the freedom and comfort of Rhode Island for a year but was not content. She decided to return to Boston, prepared to accept the conse- quences. She was promptly arrested and jailed.

Gov. Endecott came to visit Mary in prison. He tried to talk her into giving up her religion. Instead, she wrote letters to govern- ment officials insisting that they were the ones who ought to change.

M ary's hanging was scheduled for June 1, 1660, on Boston Common. This village

green was a mile's walk from the prison. Fearing that Mary would preach to the crowds along the way, the Governor stationed all his troops — about 200 men — on horse- back up and down the street. He ordered the militia drummers to drown out anyone who tried to speak.

The crowds broke through. People had come from all over the district to witness the spectacle. "Don't go!" they called out. "Go

ap pl ic ab le c op yr ig ht l aw .

back to Rhode Island. Go back and live!" The

drums got louder.

Mary's guards escorted her across the

Common to an elm tree next to Frog Pond.

Standing there was Pastor Wilson, who had

baptized her first child many years earlier. He

begged her to save herself, to give up the ideas

that had brought her to death's door.

She calmly refused, adding that she looked

forward to life beyond the grave.

She climbed the ladder. Pastor Wilson

loaned the hangman his handkerchief to cover

her face. Mary Dyer did not protest her fate.

She remained silent as the ladder was pulled

out from under her.

The crowd stood a long time without

stirring.

"She hangs like a flag," someone said.

After he had removed the ladder, Edward

Wanton, the hangman, walked over and vom-

ited into Frog Pond. He went home and told

his mother he had quit his job.

"I have met the most beautiful woman in

the world," he said, "And now I'm going to

become a Quaker."

A T I S S U E

No Place to Pray

M any people have come to America seeking religious

freedom. The Puritans did so, then promptly placed restrictions on religious practice in their own colony. Quaker Mary Dyer and others objected and paid with their lives. Eventually, as our nation of immigrants became more diverse, dozens of faiths found their place in the American patchwork.

Even though the Bill of Rights guaranteed free- dom of religion, a number

of groups have suffered persecution for their beliefs. Many Native ' Americans, for example, were forced to abandon their traditional religions, and only recently have some tribes won the right to follow the old ways. The religion commonly known as Mormonism

originated in the United States, but its followers faced violence and exile

before they found a home where they could live in peace.

Jews, Catholics,

Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, evangelical Christians — almost every religious group has experienced some form of intolerance. And yet, systematic perse- cution of religious groups in American history is rel-

atively rare. One group who became victims of organized intolerance were the Hutterites.

In the 1870s, a group of German Christians known as Hutterites began immi- grating into the northern Great Plains. For more than 300 years, the Hutterites had endured intolerance in Europe. Now they hoped to estab- lish their agricultural

"colonies" on the open prairie and live in peace.

Neighboring farmers quickly became suspicious of the newcomers. At that time, it was not so unusual that the Hutterites spoke

German or wore plain clothes. But the fact that they lived communally — rejecting the idea of pri-

vate property — was another matter. And so was their disregard for the outside world.

That world erupted in war in 1914, and the U.S. entered the conflict three years later. The Hutterites numbered nearly 2,000, spread among 17 colonies in South Dakota and two in Montana. As pacifists, the Hutterites had no use for the Liberty Bonds their neighbors were buying to support the U.S. Army. As these same neighbors sent sons off to fight the German Kaiser's troops, the Hutterites refused.

In the name of patrio- tism, formers vandalized Hutterite buildings and raided the colonies' herds. Ordinances were passed to limit the use of German

on the telephone and in schools and other assem- blies. Some young

Hutterite men were arrest- ed for evading the draft. A court sentenced three brothers in the Hofer fami-

ly to 20 years in the feder- al prison at Alcatraz, in San Francisco Bay. They were later moved to Fort Leavenworth, Kan. John and Michael Hofer died there as a result of physi- cal abuse. Before sending the bodies back to South Dakota for burial, prison officials dressed one of the brothers in a military uniform.

South Dakota con- ducted an investigation of the Hutterites during this period. The State Council of Defence called the Hutterite communal orga- nization "un-American" and recommended dissolv- ing the colonies. Courts declared that the colonies were not religious bodies but corporations operating for economic gain. The application of corporate

property laws forced most of the Hutterites to leave for Canada.

US and THEM • 13

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