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On June 1, 1660, Mary Dyer was hanged for defying a law banning Quakers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. From the article:
"Mary Dyer continued to travel in New England to preach Quakerism, and was arrested in 1658 in New Haven, Connecticut. After her release, she returned to Massachusetts to visit two English Quakers, William Robinson and Marmaduke Stephenson, who had been arrested. She was also arrested and then permanently banished from the colony. She travelled to Massachusetts a third time with a group of Quakers to publicly defy the law, and was again arrested, and sentenced to death. After a short trial, two other Quakers were hanged, but because her husband was a friend of Governor John Winthrop he secured a last-minute reprieve—against her wishes, for she had refused to repent and disavow her Quaker faith.
She was forced to return to Rhode Island, from where she travelled to Long Island, New York to preach. However her conscience led her to return to Massachusetts in 1660 to defy the anti-Quaker law. Despite the pleas of her husband and family, she again refused to repent, and she was again convicted and sentenced to death on May 31. The next day Mary Dyer was hanged on Boston Common for the crime of being a Quaker in Massachusetts. She died a martyr. Her execution is described by Edward Burrough in A Declaration of the Sad and Great Persecution and Martyrdom of the People of God, called Quakers, in New-England, for the Worshipping of God (1661).
Her last words were:
“Nay, I came to keep bloodguiltiness from you, desireing you to repeal the unrighteous and unjust law made against the innocent servants of the Lord. Nay, man, I am not now to repent."
After her death a member of the General Court uttered one of those bitter scoffs which prove the truest of all epitaphs, 'She did hang as a flag for others to take example by."
"Mary Dyer continued to travel in New England to preach Quakerism, and was arrested in 1658 in New Haven, Connecticut. After her release, she returned to Massachusetts to visit two English Quakers, William Robinson and Marmaduke Stephenson, who had been arrested. She was also arrested and then permanently banished from the colony. She travelled to Massachusetts a third time with a group of Quakers to publicly defy the law, and was again arrested, and sentenced to death. After a short trial, two other Quakers were hanged, but because her husband was a friend of Governor John Winthrop he secured a last-minute reprieve—against her wishes, for she had refused to repent and disavow her Quaker faith.
She was forced to return to Rhode Island, from where she travelled to Long Island, New York to preach. However her conscience led her to return to Massachusetts in 1660 to defy the anti-Quaker law. Despite the pleas of her husband and family, she again refused to repent, and she was again convicted and sentenced to death on May 31. The next day Mary Dyer was hanged on Boston Common for the crime of being a Quaker in Massachusetts. She died a martyr. Her execution is described by Edward Burrough in A Declaration of the Sad and Great Persecution and Martyrdom of the People of God, called Quakers, in New-England, for the Worshipping of God (1661).
Her last words were:
“Nay, I came to keep bloodguiltiness from you, desireing you to repeal the unrighteous and unjust law made against the innocent servants of the Lord. Nay, man, I am not now to repent."
After her death a member of the General Court uttered one of those bitter scoffs which prove the truest of all epitaphs, 'She did hang as a flag for others to take example by."
Mary Dyer
Posted from quakersintheworld.org
American History
World History
Religion
Christianity
Death Penalty
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 3
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I am so glad we've moved past murdering people for preaching their religion. I consider her a matyr to relgious freedom.
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SPC Chris Ison
It si a shame that so many people today think that not being able to scream at the top of their lungs about god, makes them feel persecuted.
Imagine if the State of California, a blue state, or the State of New York, also a blue state, tow of the most populated and financially productive states passed a law that said baptists can not live, visit, or pass through there borders.
That is actual religious persecution. Being a public employee having to grant marriage licenses to homosexuals, when you are not screening for adulterers, is not persecution.
Imagine if the State of California, a blue state, or the State of New York, also a blue state, tow of the most populated and financially productive states passed a law that said baptists can not live, visit, or pass through there borders.
That is actual religious persecution. Being a public employee having to grant marriage licenses to homosexuals, when you are not screening for adulterers, is not persecution.
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Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen
SPC Chris Ison Elementary school in New England, if it happened there you studied it.
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SPC Chris Ison
Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen - That makes sense. I thought maybe you went to a parochial school.
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