THE PERSECUTION OF QUAKERS

On October 2, 1656, the English North American colony of Connecticut passed a law when China persecuted Quakers. An excerpt from the article:

"Laws were quickly passed with increasing severity: the first offense would be to have one ear cut off, and offending a second time would cost Quaker males the other ear. Quaker women were to be whipped instead. If Quakers, male and female, had not their lesson by the fourth time, "their tongues would be bored through with a hot iron." Christopher Holder kept coming back to Boston to preach and to debate Puritan leaders, so on July 17, 1658 Holder and two other Quakers had their ears cut off, whipped twice a week for nine weeks before they agreed to return to England.



Mutilation of religious rebels was commonplace in England and the cutting off of body parts was not original with the Boston magistrates. The first turning point in Roger Williams' life was the day that he witnessed the mutilation of a Puritan in London. During his time in the pillory, this alleged "Sower of Sedition" lost both his ears and his nose. The letters "SS" were burned into his forehead and he spent the rest of life in prison."