Thursday, October 27, 2005

October 27, 1659 -Let this be a lesson...

William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson, two Quakers who came to the colonies to escape religious persecution, are executed in colonial Massachusetts. It seems they ran afoul of the law prohibiting Quakers from entering the colony under penalty of death. Because why would the Puritan colonists who came here to experience religious freedom themselves extend it to anyone else?

Do you suppose the problem could have been the Quakers' rejection of centralized authority, their commitment to sexual equality, or their opposition of slavery? Naahhh.... probably not.

Sigh... we've always done a disappointing job of living up to our ideals, I suppose.

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