‘tis slander now, but once was treason.
Anne Bradstreet died in 1672. She may have been buried next to her husband in Salem, Massachusetts, but the precise location of the grave remains a mystery. Long forgotten by history, her poetry has been rediscovered by feminists in the 20th century.
April 13, 1657
The Society of Friends – also known as the Quakers – establishes a foothold in the New World by gathering for the first time in America in East Sandwich, Massachusetts. The Quakers would go on to build meeting houses in Flushing, New York (1694), and in Newport, Rhode Island (1699). For the next 350 years, the Quakers would stand on the battlefront for social justice in America, including the fight for women’s rights.
George Fox had founded the Society of Friends in England in 1647. He and his followers believed that each man, woman, and child had a spark of divinity – an Inner Light – within. Thus, the Friends believed that no outside clerics, denominations, or doctrines were needed to guide the individual toward divinity. Quakers advocated for harmony, fairness, charity, and justice with every human being. From the outset, the Quakers marched at the forefront of the three century movement for women’s suffrage – as well as many other causes of social justice. Recognizing the Inner Light in women as well as men, the Society of Friends encouraged full participation of women, as church members, citizens, and ministers.
In 1657, eleven Quakers sailed from Bridlington, England about the tiny vessel called the Woodhouse, considered far too small to safely cross the Atlantic Ocean. Robert Fowler, a novice seaman, apparently cast off without compass or charts. Reportedly relying solely on divine guidance, the Woodhouse first landed at a creek at the west end of Long Island, near the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam. Leaving five Friends at Long Island, the little ship continued through the pass known as Hell’s Gate, arriving in Newport, Rhode Island. From there, some of the friends continued on to East Sandwich.
Many of the great champions of the women’s movement were Quakers, including Abby Foster Kelley, who became one of the first women to refuse to pay taxes on her farm, claiming “taxation without representation”. Quaker Lucretia Mott helped Elizabeth Cady Stanton plan the 1848 Women’s Rights Convention. Quaker Susan B. Anthony voted illegally in 1872 to protest her lack of enfranchisement, and the voting amendment that was finally passed in 1919 had her name on it. Alice Paul, who led the protest in front of the White House which led to the passage of the Susan B. Anthony Amendment, was also born a Quaker.
June 1, 1660
Word of her violent death soon reached King Charles II, who sent a missive to Governor Endicott, or-dering the persecution of the Society of Friends to end.
A bride in 1633 London at the age of eighteen, Mary Barrett Dyer traveled to Massachusetts Bay Colony with her husband, William Dyer seeking religious tolerance – something they never found. Dyer marched out of the colony in solidarity with Anne Hutchinson, when she was excommunicated on March 22, 1638. Mary and William Dyer were excommunicated and banished in turn. The couple followed Hutchinson to Roger Williams’ religious haven of Rhode Island, where William Dyer became an important official in the new colony. During a trip to England in 1652, Dyer met Quaker founder George Fox, who “convinced” her to became a “Child of the Light”. Soon, she would return to New England, eventually forming the nucleus of the Newport Quaker Colony. As a Quaker, Dyer believed that anyone could contact God directly through the Holy Spirit, which directly violated the authority of the Puritan ministers.
Hutchinson, a midwife, reportedly delivered Dyer’s only daughter – stillborn from birth defects. Hutchinson and Dyer buried the infant in secret to keep the incident away from prying eyes. Among the superstitious Puritans, any abnormality at birth was considered a mark of the devil. Hutchinson wished to protect Dyer from any persecution. The burial was later discovered by the Colony authorities, who used the incident to fortify their case against Dyer.
Between 1656 and 1660, Dyer returned to the Massachusetts Bay Colony to fight against the unjust laws, to be imprisoned three times. The third time – in October of 1659 – she actually stood on the gallows facing execution, but gained a last minute reprieve. Colony officials hoped Dyer would be dissuaded from returning once more, but she was not.
A statue of Mary Dyer now stands by the State House on the South Lawn at Boston Common. Inscribed are the words Dyer spoke shortly before she was executed: “My life is not accepted, neither availeth me, in comparison with the lives and liberty of the Truth and Servants of the Living God.” Thus, Mary Dyer died as the first American woman martyred in the cause of civil liberties.
June 10, 1692
The first of more than twenty individuals accused of witchcraft is hanged at Gallows Hill in Salem, Massachusetts. Bridget Bishop is executed for the “sundry acts of witchcraft” for which she pled innocent. She had been arrested on April 10 and, with the whole town apparently against her, was charged, tried, and executed within eight days.
Bishop’s greatest crime seemed to be a flamboyant lifestyle. She owned a tavern on Ipswitch Road. She reportedly wore colorful, showy clothes, and hosted late-night parties. She drank, quarreled openly with her husband, and altogether seemed to shun the accepted Puritan lifestyle for a woman. In court, she was accused of practicing witchcraft on young women, and her sister’s husband claimed “she sat up all night conversing with the Devil.” Others presented more “spectral evidence” of Bishop’s intercessions with the Devil. But of course, the only tangible evidence against Bishop was that she behaved differently. Bishop flatly denied the charges, showing no remorse or fear through her execution.
It is thought Bishop had been born sometime between 1632 and 1637. She had been married three times, the third time to lumber worker Edward Bishop. She reportedly had no children. She was a member in good standing at John Hale’s Church in Beverly, north of Salem. In fact, she reportedly had never even been to Salem.
Although Bishop’s execution caused some officials to soberly re-evaluate the witch-hunt, the delay was not enough. Governor William Phips traveled to Boston to consult with Massachusetts Bay Colony ministers to determine what should be done with the rest of the accused. Eventually, Phips would ban the submission of spectral evidence, and by October of 1692 the Salem Witch Trial’s ended. Unfortunately, the end came too late for many. Eighteen more women and men would be hung, one would be pressed to death, and several more would die in prison before the witch hunts in Salem would end.
In the male dominated Puritan Society, anything that empowered women to shed the meek and mild servitude role was perceived as a threat to the hierarchy. Certainly the controversial practice of witchcraft encouraged independence, strength, and insight in women. Reportedly, the Craft enabled women to call upon the kinds of natural forces and supernatural powers that threatened the very core of the Puritan belief system.
Westwood writes that Bridget Bishop “was independent, attractive, and aggressive. In another time, she would have been praised for these qualities; but, in 1692, she was executed.”
August 22, 1735
The sister-in-law of statesman Benjamin Franklin becomes the first female newspaper editor in the United States. Ann Smith Franklin takes over operation of the Newport Mercury upon the death of her son, James Franklin, Jr. in 1762. She would edit the paper until her death on April 16, 1763.
Ann Smith had married James Franklin Sr. in 1723, when James was operating The New-England Courant out of Boston. It