CHAPTER I

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WOMAN'S LIFE IN COLONIAL DAYS

CARL HOLLIDAY

_Professor of English_

_San Jose State College, California_

AUTHOR OF

THE WIT AND HUMOR OF COLONIAL DAYS, ENGLISH FICTION FROM THE FIFTH

TO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, A HISTORY OF SOUTHERN LITERATURE, THE

WRITINGS OF COLONIAL VIRGINIA, THE CAVALIER POETS, THREE CENTURIES

OF SOUTHERN POETRY, ETC.

CORNER HOUSE PUBLISHERS

WILLIAMSTOWN, MASSACHUSETTS

_First Printed in 1922_

_Reprinted in 1968_

_by_

CORNER HOUSE PUBLISHERS

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

PREFACE

This book is an attempt to portray by means of the writings of colonial

days the life of the women of that period,--how they lived, what their

work and their play, what and how they thought and felt, their strength

and their weakness, the joys and the sorrows of their everyday

existence. Through such an attempt perhaps we can more nearly understand

how and why the American woman is what she is to-day.

For a long time to come, one of the principal reasons for the study of

the writings of America will lie, not in their intrinsic merit alone,

but in their revelations of American life, ideals, aspirations, and

social and intellectual endeavors. We Americans need what Professor

Shorey has called "the controlling consciousness of tradition." We have

not sufficiently regarded the bond that connects our present

institutions with their origins in the days of our forefathers. That is

one of the main purposes of this study, and the author believes that

through contributions of such a character he can render the national

intellectual spirit at least as valuable a service as he could through a

study of some legend of ancient Britain or some epic of an extinct race.

As Mr. Percy Boynton has said, "To foster in a whole generation some

clear recognition of other qualities in America than its bigness, and of

other distinctions between the past and the present than that they are

far apart is to contribute towards the consciousness of a national

individuality which is the first essential of national life.... We

must put our minds upon ourselves, we must look to our past and to our

present, and then intelligently to our future."

The author has endeavored to follow such advice by bringing forward

those qualities of colonial womanhood which have made for the

refinement, the intellectuality, the spirit, the aggressiveness, and

withal the genuine womanliness of the present-day American woman. As the

book is not intended for scholars alone, the author has felt free when

he had not original source material before him to quote now and then

from the studies of writers on other phases of colonial life--such as

the valuable books by Dr. Philip Alexander Bruce, Dr. John Bassett, Dr.

George Sydney Fisher, Charles C. Coffin, Alice Brown, Alice Morse Earle,

Anna Hollingsworth Wharton, and Geraldine Brooks.

The author believes that many misconceptions have crept into the mind of

the average reader concerning the life of colonial women--ideas, for

instance, of unending long-faced gloom, constant fear of pleasure,

repression of all normal emotions. It is hoped that this book will go

far toward clearing the mind of the reader of such misconceptions, by

showing that woman in colonial days knew love and passion, felt longing

and aspiration, used the heart and the brain, very much as does her

descendant of to-day.

For permission to quote from the works mentioned hereafter, the author

wishes to express his gratitude to Sydney G. Fisher and the J.B.

Lippincott Company (_Men, Women and Manners in Colonial Days_), Ralph L.

Bartlett, executor for Charles C. Coffin, (_Old Times in Colonial

Days_), Alice Brown and Charles Scribner's Sons (_Mercy Warren_), Philip

Alexander Bruce and the Macmillan Company (_Institutional History of

Virginia in the Seventeenth Century_), Anne H. Wharton (_Martha

Washington_), John Spencer Bassett (_Writings of Colonel Byrd_), Alice

Earle Hyde (_Alice Morse Earl's Child Life in Colonial Days_), Geraldine

Brooks and Thomas Y. Crowell Company (_Dames and Daughters of Colonial

Days_). The author wishes to acknowledge his deep indebtedness to the

late Sylvia Brady Holliday, whose untiring investigations of the subject

while a student under him contributed much to this book.

C.H.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I--COLONIAL WOMAN AND RELIGION

I. The Spirit of Woman--The Suffering of Women--The Era of

Adventure--Privation and Death in the First Colonial

Days--Descriptions by Prince, Bradford, Johnson, etc.--Early

Concord.

II. Woman and Her Religion--Its Unyielding Quality--Its

Repressive Effect on Woman--Wigglesworth's _Day of Doom_--What

It Taught Woman--Necessity of Early Baptism--Edward's _Eternity of

Hell Torment_--_Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God_--Effect

on Womanhood--Personal Devils--Dangers of Earthly Love--God's

Sudden Punishments.

III. Inherited Nervousness--Fears in Childhood--Theological Precocity.

IV. Woman's Day of Rest--Sabbath Rules and Customs--A Typical Sabbath.

V. Religion and Woman's Foibles--Religious Regulations--Effect on

Dress--Women's Singing in Church--Southern Opinion of Northern

Severity--Effect of Feminine Repression.

VI. Woman's Comfort in Religion--An Intolerant Era--Religious

Gatherings for Women--Formal Meetings with Mrs. Hutchinson--Causes

of Complaint--Meetings of Quaker Women.

VII. Female Rebellion--The Antinomians--Activities of Anne

Hutchinson--Her Doctrines--Her Banishment--Emotional Starvation--Dread

of Heresy--Anne Hutchinson's Death.

VIII. Woman and Witchcraft--Universal Belief in Witchcraft--Signs

of Witchcraft--Causes of the Belief--Lack of Recreation--Origin

of Witchcraft Mania--Echoes from the Trials--Waning of the Mania.

IX. Religion Outside of New England--First Church in Virginia--Southern

Strictness--Woman's Religious Testimony--Religious Sanity--The

Dutch Church--General Conclusions.

CHAPTER II--COLONIAL WOMAN AND EDUCATION

I. Feminine Ignorance--Reasons--The Evidence in Court Records--Dame's

Schools--School Curriculum--Training in Home Duties.

II. Woman's Education in the South--Jefferson's Advice--Private

Tutors--General Interest in Education--Provision in Wills.

III. Brilliant Exceptions to Female Ignorance--Southern and

Northern Women Contrasted--Unusual Studies for Women--Eliza

Pinckney--Jane Turell--Abigail Adams.

IV. Practical Education--Abigail Adams' Opinion--Importance of

Bookkeeping--Franklin's Advice.

V. Educational Frills--Female Seminaries--Moravian

Schools--Dancing--Etiquette--Rules for Eating--Mechanical Arts

Toward Uprightness--Complaints of Educational Poverty--Fancy

Sewing--General Conclusions.

CHAPTER III--COLONIAL WOMAN AND THE HOME

I. Charm of the Colonial Home--Lack of Counter Attractions--Neither

Saints nor Sinners in the Home.

II. Domestic Love and Confidence--The Winthrop Love Letters--Edwards'

Rhapsody--Further Examples--Descriptions of Home Life--Mrs.

Washington and Mrs. Hamilton at Home.

III. Domestic Toil and Strain--South _vs._ North--Lack of

Conveniences--Silver and Linen--Colonial Cooking--Cooking

Utensils--Specimen Meals--Home Manufactures.

IV. Domestic Pride--Effect of Anti-British Sentiment--Spinning

Circles--Dress-Making.

V. Special Domestic Tasks--Supplying Necessities--Candles--Soap--Herbs

--Neighborly Co-operation--Social "Bees."

VI. The Size of the Family--Large Families an Asset--Astonishing

Examples--Infant Death-Rate--Children as Workers.

VII. Indian Attacks--Suffering of Captive Women--Mary Rowlandson's

Account--Returning the Kidnapped.

VIII. Parental Training--Co-operation Between Parents--Cotton Mather

as Disciplinarian--Sewall's Methods--Eliza Pinckney's

Motherliness--New York Mothers--Abigail Adams to Her Son.

IX. Tributes to Colonial Mothers--Judge Sewall's Noble Words--Other

Specimens of Praise--John Lawson's Views--Woman's Strengthening

Influence.

X. Interest in the Home--Franklin's Interest--Evidence from

Jefferson--Sewall's Affection--Washington's Relaxation--John Adams

with the Children--Examples of Considerateness--Mention of Gifts.

XI. Woman's Sphere--Opposition to Broader Activities--A Sad

Example--Opinions of Colonial Leaders--Woman's Contentment with Her

Sphere--Woman's Helpfulness--Distress of Mrs. Benedict Arnold.

XII. Women in Business--Husbands' Confidence in Wives'

Shrewdness--Evidence from Franklin--Abigail Adams as Manager--General

Conclusions.

CHAPTER IV--COLONIAL WOMAN AND DRESS

I. Dress Regulation by Law--Magistrate _vs._ Women--Fines.

II. Contemporary Descriptions of Dress--Effect of Wealth and

Travel--Madame Knight's Descriptions--Testimony by Sewall, Franklin,

Abigail Adams.

III. Raillery and Scolding--Nathaniel Ward on Woman's Costume--Newspaper

Comments--Advertisement of _Hoop Petticoats_--Evidence on the Size

of Hoops--Hair-Dressing--Feminine Replies to Raillery.

IV. Extravagance in Dress--Chastellux's Opinion--Evidence from Account

Books--Children's Dress--Fashions in Philadelphia and New York--A

Gentleman's Dress--Dolly Madison's Costume--The Meschianza--A Ball

Dress--Dolls as Models--Men's Jokes on Dress--Increase in Cost of

Raiment.

CHAPTER V--COLONIAL WOMAN AND SOCIAL LIFE

I. Southern Isolation and Hospitality--Progress through Wealth--Care-free

Life of the South--Social Effect of Tobacco Raising--Historians'

Opinions of the Social Life--Early Growth of Virginia

Hospitality--John Hammond's Description in 1656--Effect of Cavalier

Blood--Beverly's Description of Virginia Social Life--Foreign

Opinions of Virginia Luxury and Culture.

II. Splendor in the Home--Pitman's Description of a Southern

Mansion--Elegant Furnishings of the Time.

III. Social Activities--Evidence in Invitations--Eliza Pinckney's Opinion

of Carolinians--Open-House--Washington's Hospitable

Record--Art and Music in the South--A Reception to a Bride--Old-Time

Refreshments--Informal Visiting--A Letter by Mrs. Washington--Social

Effects of Slow Travel.

IV. New England Social Life--Social Influence of Public

Opinion--Cautious Attitude Toward Pleasure--Social Origin of Yankee

Inquisitiveness--Sewall's Records of Social Affairs--Pynchon's Records

of a Century Later.

V. Funerals as Recreations--Grim Pleasure in Attending--Funeral

Cards--Gifts of Gloves, Rings, and Scarfs--Absence of

Depression--Records of Sewall's Attendance--Wane of Gift-Giving--A

New Amsterdam Funeral.

VI. Trials and Executions--Puritan Itching for Morbid and

Sensational--Frankness of Descriptions--Treatment of Condemned

Criminals--The Public at Executions--Sewall's Description of an

Execution--Coming of More Normal Entertainments--The Dancing

Master Arrives.

VII. Special Social Days--Lecture Day--Prayers for the Afflicted--Fast

Days--Scant Attention to Thanksgiving and Christmas--How Bradford

Stopped Christmas Observation--Sewall's Records of Christmas--A

Century Later.

VIII. Social Restrictions--Josselyn's Account of New England

Restraints--Growing Laxity--Sarah Knight's Description--Severity

in 1780--Laws Against Lodging Relatives of the Opposite Sex--What

Could not be Done in 1650--Husking Parties and Other Community

Efforts.

IX. Dutch Social Life--Its Pleasant Familiarity--Mrs. Grant's

Description of Early New York--Normal Pleasures--Love of Flowers

and Children--Love of Eating--Mrs. Grant's Record--Disregard for

Religion--Mating the Children--Picnicking--Peculiar Customs at

Dutch Funerals.

X. British Social Influences--Increase of Wealth--The Schuyler

Home--Mingling of Gaiety and Economy--A Description in 1757--Foreign

Astonishment at New York Display--Richness of Woman's

Adornment--Card-Playing and Dancing--Gambling in Society.

XI. Causes of Display and Frivolity--Washington's Punctiliousness--Mrs.

Washington's Dislike of Stateliness--Disgust of the

Democratic--Senator Maclay's Description of a Dinner by

Washington--Permanent Benefit of Washington's Formality--Elizabeth

Southgate's Record of New York Pastimes.

XII. Society in Philadelphia--Social Welcome for the British--Early

Instruction in Dancing--Formal Dancing Assemblies.

XIII. The Beauty of Philadelphia Women--Abigail Adams' Description--The

Accomplished Mrs. Bingham--Introduction of Social Fads--Contrasts

with New York Belles.

XIV. Social Functions--Lavish Use of Wealth at Philadelphia--Washington's

Birthday--Martha Washington in Philadelphia--Domestic Ability of the

Belles--Franklin and his Daughter--General Wayne's Statement about

Philadelphia Gaiety.

XV. Theatrical Performances--Their Growth in Popularity--Washington's

Liking for Them--Mrs. Adams' Description--First Performance in

New York, Charleston, Williamsburg, Baltimore--Invading the

Stage--Throwing Missiles.

XVI. Strange Customs in Louisiana--Passion for Pleasure--Influence of

Creoles and Negroes--Habitat for Sailors and West Indian

Ruffians--Reasons for Vice--Accounts by Berquin-Duvallon--Commonness

of Concubinage--Alliott's Description--Reasons for Aversion to

Marriage--Corruptness of Fathers and Sons--Drawing the Color

Line--Race Prejudice at Balls--Fine Qualities of Louisiana White

Women--Excess in Dress--Lack of Education--Berquin-Duvallon's

Disgust--The Murder of Babes--General Conclusions.

CHAPTER VI--COLONIAL WOMAN AND MARRIAGE

I. New England Weddings--Lack of Ceremony and Merrymaking--Freedom of

Choice for Women--The Parents' Permission--Evidence from

Sewall--Penalty for Toying with the Heart--The Dowry.

II. Judge Sewall's Courtships--Independence of Colonial Women--Sewall

and Madam Winthrop--His Friends' Urgings--His Marriage to Mrs.

Tilley--Madam Winthrop's Hard-Hearted Manner--Sewall Looks

Elsewhere for a Wife--Success Again.

III. Liberty to Choose--Eliza Pinckney's Letter on the Matter--Betty

Sewall's Rejection of Lovers.

IV. The Banns and the Ceremony--Banns Required in Nearly all

Colonies--Prejudice against the Service of Preachers--Sewall's

Descriptions of Weddings--Sewall's Efforts to Prevent Preachers

from Officiating--Refreshments at Weddings--Increase in Hilarity.

V. Matrimonial Restrictions--Reasons for Them--Frequency of

Bigamy--Monthly Fines--Marriage with Relatives.

VI. Spinsters--Youthful Marriages--Bachelors and Spinsters Viewed with

Suspicion--Fate of Old Maids--Description of a Boston Spinster.

VII. Separation and Divorce--Rarity of Them--Separation in Sewall's

Family--Its Tragedy and Comedy.

VIII. Marriage in Pennsylvania--Approach Toward Laxness--Ben

Franklin's Marriage--Quaker Marriages--Strange Mating among

Moravians--Dutch Marriages.

IX. Marriage in the South--Church Service Required by Public

Sentiment--Merrymaking--Buying Wives--Indented Servants--John

Hammond's Account of Them.

X. Romance in Marriage--Benedict Arnold's Proposal--Hamilton's

Opinion of His "Betty"--The Charming Romance of Agnes Surrage.

XI. Feminine Independence--Treason at the Tongue's End--Independence

of the Schuyler Girls.

XII. Matrimonial Advice--Jane Turell's Advice to Herself.

XIII. Matrimonial Irregularities--Frequency of Them--Cause of Such

Troubles--Winthrop's Records of Cases--Death as a Penalty--Law

against Marriage of Relatives--No Discrimination in Punishment

because of Sex--Sewall's Accounts of Executions--Use of the

Scarlet Letter--Records by Howard--Custom of Bundling--Its

Origin--Adultery between Indented White Women and

Negroes--Punishment in Virginia--Instances of the Social Evil in

New England--Less Shame among Colonial Men.

XIV. Violent Speech and Action--Rebellious Speech against the

Church--Amazonian Wives--Citations from Court Records--Punishment

for Slander.

CHAPTER VII--COLONIAL WOMAN AND THE INITIATIVE

I. Religious Initiative--Anne Hutchinson's Use of Brains--Bravery

of Quaker Women--Perseverance of Mary Dyer--Martyrdom of Quakers.

II. Commercial Initiative--Dabbling in State Affairs--Women as

Merchants--Mrs. Franklin in Business--Pay for Women

Teachers--Women as Plantation Managers--Example of Eliza

Pinckney--Her Busy Day--Martha Washington as Manager.

III. Woman's Legal Powers--Right to Own and Will Property--John

Todd's Will--A Church Attempts to Cheat a Woman--Astonishing

Career of Margaret Brent--Women Fortify Boston Neck--Tompson's

Satire on it--Feminine Initiative at Nantucket.

IV. Patriotic Initiative and Courage--Evidence from Letters--The

Anxiety of the Women--Women Near the Firing-Line--Mrs. Adams in

Danger--Martha Washington's Valor--Mrs. Pinckney's Optimism--Her

Financial Distress--Entertaining the Enemy--Marion's Escape--Mrs.

Pinckney's Presence of Mind--Abigail Adams' Brave Words--Her

Description of a Battle--Man's Appreciation of Woman's

Bravery--Mercy Warren's Calmness--Catherine Schuyler's Valiant

Deed--How She Treated Burgoyne--Some General Conclusions.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

WOMAN'S LIFE IN COLONIAL DAYS

CHAPTER I

COLONIAL WOMAN AND RELIGION

_I. The Spirit of Woman_

With what a valiant and unyielding spirit our forefathers met the

unspeakable hardships of the first days of American colonization! We of

these softer and more abundant times can never quite comprehend what

distress, what positive suffering those bold souls of the seventeenth

century endured to establish a new people among the nations of the

world. The very voyage from England to America might have daunted the

bravest of spirits. Note but this glimpse from an account by Colonel

Norwood in his _Voyage to Virginia_: "Women and children made dismal

cries and grievous complaints. The infinite number of rats that all the

voyage had been our plague, we now were glad to make our prey to feed

on; and as they were insnared and taken a well grown rat was sold for

sixteen shillings as a market rate. Nay, before the voyage did end (as I

was credibly informed) a woman great with child offered twenty shillings

for a rat, which the proprietor refusing, the woman died."

That was an era of restless, adventurous spirits--men and women filled

with the rich and danger-loving blood of the Elizabethan day. We should

recall that every colony of the original thirteen, except Georgia, was

founded in the seventeenth century when the energy of that great and

versatile period of the Virgin Queen had not yet dissipated itself. The

spirit that moved Ben Jonson and Shakespeare to undertake the new and

untried in literature was the same spirit that moved John Smith and his

cavaliers to invade the Virginia wilderness, and the Pilgrim Fathers to

found a commonwealth for freedom's sake on a stern and rock-bound coast.

It was the day of Milton, Dryden, and Bunyan, the day of the

Protectorate with its fanatical defenders, the day of the rise and fall

of British Puritanism, the day of the Revolution of 1688 which forever

doomed the theory of the divine rights of monarchs, the day of the

bloody Thirty Years' War with its consequent downfall of aristocracy,

the day of the Grand Monarch in France with its accumulating

preparations for the destruction of kingly lights and the rise of the

Commons.

In such an age we can but expect bold adventures. The discovery and

exploration of the New World and the defeat of the Spanish Armada had

now made England monarch of sea and land. The imagination of the people

was aroused, and tales of a wealth like that of Croesus came from

mariners who had sailed the seven seas, and were willingly believed by

an excited audience. Indeed the nations stood ready with open-mouthed

wonder to accept all stories, no matter how marvelous or preposterous.

America suddenly appeared to all people as the land that offered wealth,

religious and political freedom, a home for the poor, a refuge for the

persecuted, in truth, a paradise for all who would begin life anew.

With such a vision and with such a spirit many came. The same energy

that created a Lear and a Hamlet created a Jamestown and a Plymouth.

Shakespeare was at the height of his career when Jamestown was settled,

and had been dead less than five years when the Puritans landed at

Plymouth. Impelled by the soul of such a day Puritan and Cavalier sought

the new land, hoping to find there that which they had been unable to

attain in the Old World.

While from the standpoint of years the Cavalier colony at Jamestown

might be entitled to the first discussion, it is with the Puritans that

we shall begin this investigation. For, with the Puritan Fathers came

the Puritan Mothers, and while the influence of those fathers on

American civilization has been too vast ever to be adequately described,

the influence of those brave pioneer women, while less ostentatious, is

none the less powerful.

What perils, what distress, what positive torture, not only physical but

mental, those first mothers of America experienced! Sickness and famine

were their daily portion in life. Their children, pushing ever westward,

also underwent untold toil and distress, but not to the degree known by

those founders of New England; for when the settlements of the later

seventeenth century were established some part of the rawness and

newness had worn away, friends were not far distant, supplies were not

wanting for long periods, and if the privations were intense, there were

always the original settlements to fall back upon. Hear what Thomas

Prince in his _Annals of New England_, published in 1726, has to say of

those first days in the Plymouth Colony:

"March 24. (1621) N.B. This month Thirteen of our number die. And in

three months past die Half our Company. The greatest part in the depth

of winter, wanting houses and other comforts; being infected with the

scurvy and other diseases, which their long voyage and unaccommodate

conditions bring upon them. So as there die, sometimes, two or three a

day. Of one hundred persons, scarce fifty remain. The living scarce able

to bury the dead; the well not sufficient to tend the sick: there being,

in their time of greatest distress, but six or seven; who spare no pains

to help them.... But the spring advancing, it pleases GOD, the mortality

begins to cease; and the sick and lame to recover: which puts new life

into the people; though they had borne their sad affliction with as much

patience as any could do."[1]

Indeed, as we read of that struggle with famine, sickness, and death

during the first few years of the Plymouth Colony we can but marvel that

human flesh and human soul could withstand the onslaught. The brave old

colonist Bradford, confirms in his _History of Plymouth Plantation_ the

stories told by others: "But that which was most sad and lamentable, was

that in two or three months' time half of their company died, especially

in January and February, being the depth of winter ... that of one

hundred and odd persons scarce fifty remained: and of these in the time

of most distress there was but six or seven sound persons; who to their

great commendations, be it spoken, spared no pains, night nor day, but

with abundance of toil and hazard of their own health, fetched them

wood, made them fires, ... in a word did all the homely, and necessary

offices for them."

The conditions were the same whether in the Plymouth or in the

Massachusetts Bay Colony. And yet how brave--how pathetically brave--was

the colonial woman under every affliction. In hours when a less valiant

womanhood would have sunk in despair these wives and mothers

strengthened one another and praised God for the humble sustenance He

allowed them. The sturdy colonist, Edward Johnson, in his _Wonder

Working Providence of Zions Saviour in New England_, writing of the

privations of 1631, the year after his colony had been founded, pays

this tribute to the help-meets of the men:

"The women once a day, as the tide gave way, resorted to the mussels,

and clambanks, which are a fish as big as horse-mussels, where they

daily gathered their families' food with much heavenly discourse of the

provisions Christ had formerly made for many thousands of his followers

in the wilderness. Quoth one, 'My husband hath travelled as far as

Plymouth (which is near forty miles), and hath with great toil brought a

little corn home with him, and before that is spent the Lord will

assuredly provide.' Quoth the other, 'Our last peck of meal is now in

the oven at home a-baking, and many of our godly neighbors have quite

spent all, and we owe one loaf of that little we have.' Then spake a

third, 'My husband hath ventured himself among the Indians for corn, and

can get none, as also our honored Governor hath distributed his so far,

that a day or two more will put an end to his store, and all the rest,

and yet methinks our children are as cheerful, fat and lusty with

feeding upon these mussels, clambanks, and other fish, as they were in

England with their fill of bread, which makes me cheerful in the Lord's

providing for us, being further confirmed by the exhortation of our

pastor to trust the Lord with providing for us; whose is the earth and

the fulness thereof.'"

It is a genuine pleasure to us of little faith to note that such trust

was indeed justified; for, continued Johnson: "As they were encouraging

one another in Christ's careful providing for them, they lift up their

eyes and saw two ships coming in, and presently this news came to their

ears, that they were come--full of victuals.... After this manner did

Christ many times graciously provide for this His people, even at the

last cast."

If we will stop to consider the fact that many of these women of the

Massachusetts Bay Colony were accustomed to the comfortable living of

the middle-class country people of England, with considerable material

wealth and even some of the luxuries of modern civilization, we may

imagine, at least in part, the terrifying contrast met with in the New

World. For conditions along the stormy coast of New England were indeed

primitive. Picture the founding, for instance, of a town that later was

destined to become the home of philosopher and seer--Concord,

Massachusetts. Says Johnson in his _Wonder Working Providence_:

"After they had thus found out a place of abode they burrow themselves

in the earth for their first shelter, under some hillside, casting the

earth aloft upon timber; they make a smoke fire against the earth at the

highest side and thus these poor servants of Christ provide shelter for

themselves, their wives and little ones, keeping off the short showers

from their lodgings, but the long rains penetrate through to their great

disturbance in the night season. Yet in these poor wigwams they sing

psalms, pray and praise their God till they can provide them houses,

which ordinarily was not wont to be with many till the earth by the

Lord's blessing brought forth bread to feed them, their wives and little

ones.... Thus this poor people populate this howling desert, marching

manfully on, the Lord assisting, through the greatest difficulties and

sorest labors that ever any with such weak means have done."

And Margaret Winthrop writes thus to her step-son in England: "When I

think of the troublesome times and manyfolde destractions that are in

our native Countrye, I thinke we doe not pryse oure happinesse heare as

we have cause, that we should be in peace when so many troubles are in

most places of the world."

Many another quotation could be presented to emphasize the impressions

given above. Reading these after the lapse of nearly three centuries, we

marvel at the strength, the patience, the perseverance, the imperishable

hope, trust, and faith of the Puritan woman. Such hardships and

privations as have been described above might seem sufficient; but these

were by no means all or even the greatest of the trials of womanhood in

the days of the nation's childhood. To understand in any measure at all

the life of a child or a wife or a mother of the Puritan colonies with

its strain and suffering, we must know and comprehend her religion. Let

us examine this--the dominating influence of her life.

_II. Woman and Her Religion_

Paradoxical as it may seem, religion was to the colonial woman both a

blessing and a curse. Though it gave courage and some comfort it was as

hard and unyielding as steel. We of this later hour may well shudder

when we read the sermons of Cotton Mather and Jonathan Edwards; but if

the mere reading causes astonishment after the lapse of these hundreds

of years, what terror the messages must have inspired in those who lived

under their terrific indictments, prophecies, and warnings. Here was a

religion based on Judaism and the Mosaic code, "an eye for an eye, and a

tooth for a tooth." Moses Coit Tyler has declared in his _History of

American Literature_:[2] "They did not attempt to combine the sacred and

the secular; they simply abolished the secular and left only the sacred.

The state became the church; the king a priest; politics a department of

theology; citizenship the privilege of those only who had received

baptism and the Lord's Supper."

And what an idea of the sacred was theirs! The gentleness, the mercy,

the loving kindness that are of God so seldom enter into those ancient

discussions that such attributes are almost negligible. Michael

Wigglesworth's poem, _The Day of Doom_, published in 1662, may be

considered as an authoritative treatise on the theology of the Puritans;

for it not only was so popular as to receive several reprints, but was

sanctioned by the elders of the church themselves. If this was

orthodoxy--and the proof that it was is evident--it was of a sort that

might well sour and embitter the nature of man and fill the gentle soul

of womanhood with fear and dark forebodings. We well know that the

Puritans thoroughly believed that man's nature was weak and sinful, and

that the human soul was a prisoner placed here upon earth by the Creator

to be surrounded with temptations. This God is good, however, in that he

has given man an opportunity to overcome the surrounding evils.

"But I'm a prisoner,

Under a heavy chain;

Almighty God's afflicting hand,

Doth me by force restrain.

* * * * *

"But why should I complain

That have so good a God,

That doth mine heart with comfort fill

Ev'n whilst I feel his rod?

* * * * *

"Let God be magnified,

Whose everlasting strength

Upholds me under sufferings

Of more than ten years' length."

The _Day of Doom_ is, in the main, its author's vision of judgment day,

and, whatever artistic or theological defects it may have, it undeniably

possesses realism. For instance, several stanzas deal with one of the

most dreadful doctrines of the Puritan faith, that all infants who died

unbaptized entered into eternal torment--a theory that must have

influenced profoundly the happiness and woe of colonial women. The poem

describes for us what was then believed should be the scene on that

final day when young and old, heathen and Christian, saint and sinner,

are called before their God to answer for their conduct in the flesh.

Hear the plea of the infants, who dying, at birth before baptism could

be administered, asked to be relieved from punishment on the grounds

that they have committed no sin.

"If for our own transgression,

or disobedience,

We here did stand at thy left hand,

just were the Recompense;

But Adam's guilt our souls hath spilt,

his fault is charg'd upon us;

And that alone hath overthrown and utterly

undone us."

Pointing out that it was Adam who ate of the tree and that they were

innocent, they ask:

"O great Creator, why was our nature

depraved and forlorn?

Why so defil'd, and made so vil'd,

whilst we were yet unborn?

If it be just, and needs we must

transgressors reckon'd be,

Thy mercy, Lord, to us afford,

which sinners hath set free."

But the Creator answers:

"God doth such doom forbid,

That men should die eternally

for what they never did.

But what you call old Adam's fall,

and only his trespass,

You call amiss to call it his,

both his and yours it was."

The Judge then inquires why, since they would have received the

pleasures and joys which Adam could have given them, the rewards and

blessings, should they hesitate to share his "treason."

"Since then to share in his welfare,

you could have been content,

You may with reason share in his treason,

and in the punishment,

Hence you were born in state forlorn,

with natures so depraved

Death was your due because that you

had thus yourselves behaved.

* * * * *

"Had you been made in Adam's stead,

you would like things have wrought,

And so into the self-same woe

yourselves and yours have brought."

Then follows a reprimand upon the part of the judge because they should

presume to question His judgments, and to ask for mercy:

"Will you demand grace at my hand,

and challenge what is mine?

Will you teach me whom to set free,

and thus my grace confine.

"You sinners are, and such a share

as sinners may expect;

Such you shall have, for I do save

none but mine own Elect.

"Yet to compare your sin with theirs

who liv'd a longer time,

I do confess yours is much less

though every sin's a crime.

"A crime it is, therefore in bliss

you may not hope to dwell;

But unto you I shall allow

the easiest room in Hell."

Would not this cause anguish to the heart of any mother? Indeed, we

shall never know what intense anxiety the Puritan woman may have

suffered during the few days intervening between the hour of the birth

and the date of the baptism of her infant. It is not surprising,

therefore, that an exceedingly brief period was allowed to elapse before

the babe was taken from its mother's arms and carried through snow and

wind to the desolate church. Judge Sewall, whose _Diary_ covers most of

the years from 1686 to 1725, and who records every petty incident from

the cutting of his finger to the blowing off of the Governor's hat, has

left us these notes on the baptism of some of his fourteen children:

"April 8, 1677. Elizabeth Weeden, the Midwife, brought the infant to

the third Church when Sermon was about half done in the afternoon ...

I named him John." (Five days after birth.)[3] "Sabbath-day, December

13th 1685. Mr. Willard baptizeth my Son lately born, whom I named

Henry." (Four days after birth.)[4] "February 6, 1686-7. Between 3 and

4 P.M. Mr. Willard baptized my Son, whom I named Stephen." (Five days

after birth.)[5]

Little wonder that infant mortality was exceedingly high, especially

when the baptismal service took place on a day as cold as this one

mentioned by Sewall: "Sabbath, Janr. 24 ... This day so cold that the

Sacramental Bread is frozen pretty hard, and rattles sadly as broken

into the Plates."[6] We may take it for granted that the water in the

font was rapidly freezing, if not entirely frozen, and doubtless the

babe, shrinking under the icy touch, felt inclined to give up the

struggle for existence, and decline a further reception into so cold

and forbidding a world. Once more hear a description by the kindly,

but abnormally orthodox old Judge: "Lord's Day, Jany 15, 1715-16. An

extraordinary Cold Storm of Wind and Snow.... Bread was frozen at the

Lord's Table: Though 'twas so Cold, yet John Tuckerman was baptised.

At six a-clock my ink freezes so that I can hardly write by a good

fire in my Wive's Chamber. Yet was very Comfortable at Meeting. Laus

Deo."[7]

But let us pass to other phases of this theology under which the Puritan

woman lived. The God pictured in the _Day of Doom_ not only was of a

cruel and angry nature but was arbitrary beyond modern belief. His wrath

fell according to his caprice upon sinner or saint. We are tempted to

inquire as to the strange mental process that could have led any human

being to believe in such a Creator. Regardless of doctrine, creed, or

theology, we cannot totally dissociate our earthly mental condition from

that in the future state; we cannot refuse to believe that we shall have

the same intelligent mind, and the same ability to understand, perceive,

and love. Apparently, however, the Puritan found no difficulty in

believing that the future existence entailed an entire change in the

principles of love and in the emotions of sympathy and pity.

"He that was erst a husband pierc'd

with sense of wife's distress,

Whose tender heart did bear a part

of all her grievances.

Shall mourn no more as heretofore,

because of her ill plight,

Although he see her now to be

a damn'd forsaken wight.

"The tender mother will own no other

of all her num'rous brood

But such as stand at Christ's right hand,

acquitted through his Blood.

The pious father had now much rather

his graceless son should lie

In hell with devils, for all his evils,

burning eternally."

(_Day of Doom._)

But we do not have to trust to Michael Wigglesworth's poem alone for a

realistic conception of the God and the religion of the Puritans. It is

in the sermons of the day that we discover a still more unbending,

harsh, and hideous view of the Creator and his characteristics. In the

thunderings of Cotton Mather and Jonathan Edwards, we, like the colonial

women who sat so meekly in the high, hard benches, may fairly smell the

brimstone of the Nether World. Why, exclaims Jonathan Edwards in his

sermon, _The Eternity of Hell Torments_:

"Do but consider what it is to suffer extreme torment forever and ever;

to suffer it day and night, from one day to another, from one year to

another, from one age to another, from one thousand ages to another, and

so, adding age to age, and thousands to thousands, in pain, in wailing

and lamenting, groaning and shrieking, and gnashing your teeth; with

your souls full of dreadful grief and amazement, with your bodies and

every member full of racking torture, without any possibility of

getting ease; without any possibility of moving God to pity by your

cries; without any possibility of hiding yourselves from him.... How

dismal will it be, when you are under these racking torments, to know

assuredly that you never, never shall be delivered from them; to have no

hope; when you shall wish that you might but be turned into nothing, but

shall have no hope of it; when you shall wish that you might be turned

into a toad or a serpent, but shall have no hope of it; when you would

rejoice, if you might but have any relief, after you shall have endured

these torments millions of ages, but shall have no hope of it; when

after you shall have worn out the age of the sun, moon, and stars, in

your dolorous groans and lamentations, without any rest day or night,

when after you shall have worn out a thousand more such ages, yet you

shall have no hope, but shall know that you are not one whit nearer to

the end of your torments; but that still there are the same groans, the

same shrieks, the same doleful cries, incessantly to be made by you, and

that the smoke of your torment shall still ascend up, forever and ever;

and that your souls, which shall have been agitated with the wrath of

God all this while, yet will still exist to bear more wrath; your

bodies, which shall have been burning and roasting all this while in

these glowing flames, yet shall not have been consumed, but will remain

to roast through an eternity yet, which will not have been at all

shortened by what shall have been past."

When we remember that to the Puritan man, woman, or child the message of

the preacher meant the message of God, we may imagine what effect such

words had on a colonial congregation. To the overwrought nerves of many

a Puritan woman, taught to believe meekly the doctrines of her father,

and weakened in body by ceaseless childbearing and unending toil, such a

picture must indeed have been terrifying. And the God that she and her

husband heard described Sabbath after Sabbath was not only heartily

willing to condemn man to eternal torment but capable of enjoying the

tortures of the damned, and gloating in strange joy over the writhings

of the condemned. Is it any wonder that in the midst of Jonathan

Edward's sermon, _Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God_, men and women

sprang to their feet and shrieked in anguish, "What shall we do to be

saved?"

"The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a

spider, or some loathsome insect, over the fire, abhors you and is

dreadfully provoked; his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks

upon you as worthy of nothing else but to be cast into the fire; he is

of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten

thousand times as abominable in his eyes, as the most hateful and

venomous serpent is in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than

ever a stubborn rebel did his prince; and yet it is nothing but his hand

that holds you from falling into the fire every moment; it is ascribed

to nothing else that you did not go to hell the last night; that you was

suffered to awake again in this world, after you closed your eyes to

sleep; and there is no other reason to be given why you have not dropped

into hell since you arose in the morning, but that God's hand has held

you up; there is no other reason to be given why you have not gone to

hell, since you have sat here in the house of God, provoking his pure

eyes by your sinful wicked manner of attending his solemn worship: yea,

there is nothing else that is to be given as a reason why you do not

this very moment drop down into hell."

Under such teachings the girl of colonial New England grew into

womanhood; with such thoughts in mind she saw her children go down into

the grave; with such forebodings she herself passed out into an

uncertain Hereafter. Nor was there any escape from such sermons; for

church attendance was for many years compulsory, and even when not

compulsory, was essential for those who did not wish to be politically

and socially ostracized. The preachers were not, of course, required to

give proof for their declarations; they might well have announced, "Thus

saith the Lord," but they preferred to enter into disquisitions

bristling with arguments and so-called logical deductions. For instance,

note in Edwards' sermon, _Why Saints in Glory will Rejoice to see the

Torments of the Damned_, the chain of reasoning leading to the

conclusion that those enthroned in heaven shall find joy in the unending

torture of their less fortunate neighbors:

"They will rejoice in seeing the _justice_ of God glorified in the

sufferings of the damned. The misery of the damned, dreadful as it is,

is but what justice requires. They in heaven will see and know it much

more clearly than any of us do here. They will see how perfectly just

and righteous their punishment is and therefore how properly inflicted

by the supreme Governor of the world.... They will rejoice when they see

him who is their Father and eternal portion so glorious in his justice.

The sight of this strict and immutable justice of God will render him

amiable and adorable in their eyes. It will occasion rejoicing in them,

as they will have the greater sense of _their own happiness_, by seeing

the contrary misery. It is the nature of pleasure and pain, of happiness

and misery, greatly to heighten the sense of each other.... When they

shall see how miserable others of their fellow-creatures are, who were

naturally in the same circumstances with themselves; when they shall see

the smoke of their torment, and the raging of the flames of their

burning, and hear their dolorous shrieks and cries, and consider that

they in the meantime are in the most blissful state, and shall surely be

in it to all eternity; how will they rejoice!... When they shall see the

dreadful miseries of the damned, and consider that they deserved the

same misery, and that it was sovereign grace, and nothing else, which

made them so much to differ from the damned, that if it had not been for

that, they would have been in the same condition; but that God from all

eternity was pleased to set his love upon them, that Christ hath laid

down his life for them, and hath made them thus gloriously happy

forever, O how will they adore that dying love of Christ, which has

redeemed them from so great a misery, and purchased for them so great

happiness, and has so distinguished them from others of their

fellow-creatures!"

It was a strange creed that led men to teach such theories. And when we

learn that Jonathan Edwards was a man of singular gentleness and

kind-heartedness, we realize that it must have tortured him to preach

such doctrines, but that he believed it his sacred duty to do so.

The religion, however, that the Puritan woman imbibed from girlhood to

old age went further than this; it taught the theory of a personal

devil. To the New England colonists Satan was a very real individual

capable of taking to himself a physical form with the proverbial tail,

horns, and hoofs. Hear what Cotton Mather, one of the most eminent

divines of early Massachusetts, has to say in his _Memorable

Providences_ about this highly personal Satan: "There is both a God and

a Devil and Witchcraft: That there is no out-ward Affliction, but what

God may (and sometimes doth) permit Satan to trouble his people withal:

That the Malice of Satan and his Instruments, is very great against the

Children of God: That the clearest Gospel-Light shining in a place, will

not keep some from entering hellish Contracts with infernal Spirits:

That Prayer is a powerful and effectual Remedy against the malicious

practices of Devils and those in Covenant with them."[8]

And His Satanic Majesty had legions of followers, equally insistent on

tormenting humanity. In _The Wonders of the Invisible World_, published

in 1692, Mather proves that there is a devil and that the being has

specific attributes, powers, and limitations:

"A devil is a fallen angel, an angel fallen from the fear and

love of God, and from all celestial glories; but fallen to all

manner of wretchedness and cursedness.... There are multitudes,

multitudes, in the valley of destruction, where the devils are!

When we speak of the devil, 'tis a name of multitude.... The

devils they swarm about us, like the frogs of Egypt, in the most

retired of our chambers. Are we at our boards? beds? There will

be devils to tempt us into carnality. Are we in our shops? There

will be devils to tempt us into dishonesty. Yea, though we get

into the church of God, there will be devils to haunt us in the

very temple itself, and there tempt us to manifold misbehaviors.

I am verily persuaded that there are very few human affairs

whereinto some devils are not insinuated. There is not so much as

a journey intended, but Satan will have an hand in hindering or

furthering of it."

"...'Tis to be supposed, that there is a sort of arbitrary, even

military government, among the devils.... These devils have a

prince over them, who is king over the children of pride. 'Tis

probable that the devil, who was the ringleader of that mutinous

and rebellious crew which first shook off the authority of God,

is now the general of those hellish armies; our Lord that

conquered him has told us the name of him; 'tis Belzebub; 'tis he

that is the devil and the rest are his angels, or his

soldiers.... 'Tis to be supposed that some devils are more

peculiarly commission'd, and perhaps qualify'd, for some

countries, while others are for others.... It is not likely that

every devil does know every language; or that every devil can do

every mischief. 'Tis possible that the experience, or, if I may

call it so, the education of all devils is not alike, and that

there may be some difference in their abilities...."

What was naturally the effect of such a faith upon the sensitive nerves

of the women of those days? Viewed in its larger aspects this was an

objective, not a subjective religion. It could but make the sensitive

soul super-sensitive, introspective, morbidly alive to uncanny and weird

suggestions, and strangely afraid of the temptation of enjoying earthly

pleasures. Its followers dared not allow themselves to become deeply

attached to anything temporal; for such an emotion was the device of the

devil, and God would surely remove the object of such affection. Whether

through anger or jealousy or kindness, the Creator did this, the Puritan

woman seems not to have stopped to consider; her belief was sufficient

that earthly desires and even natural love must be repressed. Winthrop,

a staunch supporter of colonial New England creeds as well as of

independence, gives us an example of God's actions in such a matter: "A

godly woman of the church of Boston, dwelling sometime in London,

brought with her a parcel of very fine linen of great value, which she

set her heart too much upon, and had been at charge to have it all newly

washed, and curiously folded and pressed, and so left it in press in her

parlor over night." Through the carelessness of a servant, the package

caught on fire and was totally destroyed. "But it pleased God that the

loss of this linen did her much good, both in taking off her heart from

worldly comforts, and in preparing her for a far greater affliction by

the untimely death of her husband...."[9]

Especially did this doctrine apply to the love of human beings. How

often must it have grieved the Puritan mother to realize that she must

exercise unceasing care lest she love her children too intensely! For

the passionate love of a mother for her babe was but a rash temptation

to an ever-watchful and ever-jealous God to snatch the little one away.

Preachers declared it in the pulpit, and writers emphasized it in their

books; the trusting and faithful woman dared not believe otherwise.

Once more we may turn to Winthrop for proof of this terrifying doctrine:

"God will be sanctified in them that come near him. Two others were the

children of one of the Church of Boston. While their parents were at the

lecture, the boy (being about seven years of age), having a small staff

in his hand, ran down upon the ice towards a boat he saw, and the ice

breaking, he fell in, but his staff kept him up, till his sister, about

fourteen years old, ran down to save her brother (though there were four

men at hand, and called to her not to go, being themselves hasting to

save him) and so drowned herself and him also, being past recovery ere

the men could come at them, and could easily reach ground with their

feet. The parents had no more sons, and confessed they had been too

indulgent towards him, and had set their hearts overmuch upon him."[10]

And again, what mother could be certain that punishment for her own

petty errors might not be wreaked upon her innocent child? For the faith

of the day did not demand that the sinner receive upon himself the

recompense for his deeds; the mighty Ruler above could and would

arbitrarily choose as the victim the offspring of an erring parent. Says

Winthrop in the _History of New England_, mentioned above:

"This puts me in mind of another child very strangely drowned a little

before winter. The parents were also members of the church of Boston.

The father had undertaken to maintain the mill-dam, and being at work

upon it (with some help he had hired), in the afternoon of the last day

of the week, night came upon them before they had finished what they

intended, and his conscience began to put him in mind of the Lord's day,

and he was troubled, yet went on and wrought an hour within night. The

next day, after evening exercise, and after they had supped, the mother

put two children to bed in the room where themselves did lie, and they

went out to visit a neighbor. When they returned, they continued about

an hour in the room, and missed not the child, but then the mother going

to the bed, and not finding her youngest child (a daughter about five

years of age), after much search she found it drowned in a well in her

cellar; which was very observable, as by a special hand of God, that the

child should go out of that room into another in the dark, and then fall

down at a trap-door, or go down the stairs, and so into the well in the

farther end of the cellar, the top of the well and the water being even

with the ground. But the father, freely in the open congregation, did

acknowledge it the righteous hand of God for his profaning his holy day

against the checks of his own conscience."

There was a certain amount of pitiable egotism in all this. Seemingly

God had very little to do except watch the Puritans. It reminds one of

the two resolutions tradition says that some Puritan leader suggested:

Resolved, firstly, that the saints shall inherit the earth; resolved,

secondly, that we are the saints. A supernatural or divine explanation

seems to have been sought for all events; natural causes were too

frequently ignored. The super-sensitive almost morbid nature resulting

from such an attitude caused far-fetched hypotheses; God was in every

incident and every act or accident. We may turn again to Winthrop's

_History_ for an illustration:

"1648. The synod met at Cambridge. Mr. Allen preached. It fell out,

about the midst of his sermon, there came a snake into the seat where

many elders sate behind the preacher. Divers elders shifted from it, but

Mr. Thomson, one of the elders of Braintree, (a man of much faith) trod

upon the head of it, until it was killed. This being so remarkable, and

nothing falling out but by divine providence, it is out of doubt, the

Lord discovered somewhat of his mind in it. The serpent is the devil;

the synod, the representative of the churches of Christ in New England.

The devil had formerly and lately attempted their disturbance and

dissolution; but their faith in the seed of the woman overcame him and

crushed his head."

There was a further belief that God in hasty anger often wreaked instant

vengeance upon those who displeased Him, and this doctrine doubtless

kept many a Puritan in constant dread lest the hour of retribution

should come upon him without warning. How often the mother of those days

must have admonished in all sincerity her child not to do this or that

lest God strike the sudden blow of death in retribution. Numerous indeed

are the examples presented of sinners who paid thus abruptly the penalty

for transgression. Let Increase Mather speak through his _Essay for the

Recording of Illustrious Providences_:

"The hand of God was very remarkable in that which came to pass in the

Narragansett country in New England, not many weeks since; for I have

good information, that on August 28, 1683, a man there (viz. Samuel

Wilson) having caused his dog to mischief his neighbor's cattle was

blamed for his so doing. He denied the fact with imprecations, wishing

that he might never stir from that place if he had so done. His neighbor

being troubled at his denying the truth, reproved him, and told him he

did very ill to deny what his conscience knew to be truth. The atheist

thereupon used the name of God in his imprecations, saying, 'He wished

to God he might never stir out of that place, if he had done that which

he was charged with.' The words were scarce out of his mouth before he

sunk down dead, and never stirred more; a son-in-law of his standing by

and catching him as he fell to the ground."

And if further proof of the swiftness with which God may act is desired,

Increase Mather's _Illustrious Providences_ may again be cited: "A thing

not unlike this happened (though not in New England yet) in America,

about a year ago; for in September, 1682, a man at the Isle of

Providence, belonging to a vessel, whereof one Wollery was master, being

charged with some deceit in a matter that had been committed to him, in

order to his own vindication, horridly wished 'that the devil might put

out his eyes if he had done as was suspected concerning him.' That very

night a rheum fell into his eyes so that within a few days he became

stark blind. His company being astonished at the Divine hand which thus

conspicuously and signally appeared, put him ashore at Providence, and

left him there. A physician being desired to undertake his cure, hearing

how he came to lose his sight, refused to meddle with him. This account

I lately received from credible persons, who knew and have often seen

the man whom the devil (according to his own wicked wish) made blind,

through the dreadful and righteous judgment of God."

_III. Inherited Nervousness_

In all ages it would seem that woman has more readily accepted the

teachings of her elders and has taken to heart more earnestly the

doctrines of new religions, however strange or novel, than has man. It

was so in the days of Christ; it is true in our own era of Christian

Science, Theosophy, and New Thought. The message that fell from the lips

of the fanatically zealous preachers of colonial times sank deep into

the hearts of New England women. Its impression was sharp and abiding,

and the sensitive mother transmitted her fears and dread to her child.

Timid girls, inheriting a super-conscious realization of human defects,

and hearing from babyhood the terrifying doctrines, grew also into a

womanhood noticeable for overwrought nerves and depressed spirits.

Timid, shrinking Betty Sewall, daughter of Judge Sewall, was troubled

all the days of her life with qualms about the state of her soul, was

hysterical as a child, wretched in her mature years, and depressed in

soul at the hour of her departure. In his famous diary her father makes

this note about her when she was about five years of age: "It falls to

my daughter Elizabeth's Share to read the 24 of Isaiah which she doth

with many Tears not being very well, and the Contents of the Chapter and

Sympathy with her draw Tears from me also."

A writer of our own day, Alice Morse Earle, has well expressed our

opinion when she says in her _Child Life in Colonial Days_: "The

terrible verses telling of God's judgment on the land, of fear of the

pit, of the snare, of emptiness and waste, of destruction and

desolation, must have sunk deep into the heart of the sick child, and

produced the condition shown by this entry when she was a few years

older: 'When I came in, past 7 at night, my wife met me in the Entry and

told me Betty had surprised them. I was surprised with the Abruptness of

the Relation. It seems Betty Sewall had given some signs of dejection

and sorrow; but a little while after dinner she burst into an amazing

cry which caus'd all the family to cry too. Her mother ask'd the Reason,

she gave none; at last said she was afraid she should go to Hell, her

Sins were not pardon'd. She was first wounded by my reading a Sermon of

Mr. Norton's; Text, Ye shall seek me and shall not find me. And these

words in the Sermon, Ye shall seek me and die in your Sins, ran in her

Mind and terrified her greatly. And staying at home, she read out of Mr.

Cotton Mather--Why hath Satan filled thy Heart? which increas'd her

Fear. Her Mother asked her whether she pray'd. She answered Yes, but

fear'd her prayers were not heard, because her sins were not

pardoned.'"[11]

We may well imagine the anguish of Betty Sewall's mother. And yet

neither that mother, whose life had been gloomy enough under the same

religion, nor the father who had led his child into distress by holding

before her her sinful condition, could offer any genuine comfort. Miss

Earle has summarized with briefness and force the results of such

training: "A frightened child, a retiring girl, a vacillating

sweetheart, an unwilling bride, she became the mother of eight children;

but always suffered from morbid introspection, and overwhelming fear of

death and the future life, until at the age of thirty-five her father

sadly wrote, 'God has delivered her now from all her fears.'"[12]

According to our modern conception of what child life should consist of,

the existence of the Puritan girl must have been darkened from early

infancy by such a creed. Only the indomitable desire of the human being

to survive, and the capacity of the human spirit under the pressure of

daily duties to thrust back into the subconscious mind its dread or

terror, could enable man or woman to withstand the physical and mental

strain of the theories hurled down so sternly and so confidently from

the colonial pulpit. Cotton Mather in his _Diary_ records this incident

when his daughter was but four years old: "I took my little daughter

Katy into my Study and then I told my child I am to dye Shortly and she

must, when I am Dead, remember Everything I now said unto her. I sett

before her the sinful Condition of her Nature, and I charged her to pray

in Secret Places every Day. That God for the sake of Jesus Christ would

give her a New Heart. I gave her to understand that when I am taken from

her she must look to meet with more humbling Afflictions than she does

now she has a Tender Father to provide for her."

Infinite pity we may well have for those stern parents who, faithful to

what they considered their duty, missed so much of the sanity, sweetness

and joy of life, and thrust upon their babes, whose days should have

been filled with love and light and play, the dread of death and hell

and eternal damnation. It is with a touch of irony that we read that

Mather survived by thirty years this child whose infant mind was

tortured with visions of the grave. Yet a strange sort of pride seems to

have been taken in the capacity of children to imbibe such gloomy

theological theories and in the ability to repeat, parrotlike, the

oft-repeated doctrines of inherent sinfulness. One babe, two years old,

was able "savingly to understand the Mysteries of Redemption"; another

of the same age was "a dear lover of faithful ministers"; Anne

Greenwich, who, we are not surprised to discover, died at the age of

five, "discoursed most astonishingly of great mysteries"; Daniel

Bradley, when three years old, had an "impression and inquisition of the

state of souls after death"; Elizabeth Butcher, when only two and a half

years old, would ask herself as she lay in her cradle, "What is my

corrupt nature?" and would answer herself with the quotation, "It is

empty of grace, bent unto sin, and only to sin, and that continually."

With such spiritual food were our ancestors fed--sometimes to the

eternal undoing of their posterity's physical and mental welfare.

_IV. Woman's Day of Rest_

It is possible that the Puritan woman gained one very material blessing

from the religion of her day; she was relieved of practically all work

on Sunday. The colonial Sabbath was indeed strictly observed; there was

little visiting, no picnicking, no heavy meals, no week-end parties,

none of the entertainments so prevalent in our own day. The wife and

mother was therefore spared the heavy tasks of Sunday so commonly

expected of the typical twentieth-century housewife. But it is doubtful

whether the alternative--attendance at church almost the entire

day--would appear one whit more desirable to the modern woman. The

Sabbath of those times was verily a period of religious worship. No one

must leave town, and no one must travel to town save for the church

service. There must be no work on the farm or in the city. Boats must

not be used except when necessary to transport people to divine service.

Fishing, hunting, and dancing were absolutely forbidden. No one must use

a horse, ox, or wagon if the church were within reasonable walking

distance, and "reasonable" was a most expansive word. Tobacco was not to

be smoked or chewed near any meeting-house. The odor of cooking food on

Sunday was an abomination in the nostrils of the Most High. And we

should bear in mind that these rules were enforced from sunset on

Saturday to sunset on Sunday--the twenty-four hours of the Puritan

Sabbath. The Holy Day, as spent by the preacher, John Cotton, may be

taken as typical of the strenuous hours of the Sabbath as observed by

many a New England pastor:

"He began the Sabbath at evening, therefore then performed family duty

after supper, being longer than ordinary in exposition. After which he

catechized his children and servants, and then returned to his study.

The morning following, family worship being ended, he retired into his

study until the bell called him away. Upon his return from meeting

(where he had preached and prayed some hours), he returned again into

his study (the place of his labor and prayer), unto his favorite

devotion; where having a small repast carried him up for his dinner, he

continued until the tolling of the bell. The public service of the

afternoon being over, he withdrew for a space to his pre-mentioned

oratory for his sacred addresses to God, as in the forenoon, then came

down, repeated the sermon in the family, prayed, after supper sang a

Psalm, and toward bedtime betaking himself again to his study he closed

the day with prayer."

To many a modern reader such a method of spending Sunday for either

preacher or laymen would seem not only irksome but positively

detrimental to physical and mental health; but we should bear in mind

that the opportunity to sit still and listen after six days of strenuous

muscular toil was probably welcomed by the colonist, and, further, that

in the absence of newspapers and magazines and other intellectual

stimuli the oratory of the clergy, stern as it may have been, was

possibly an equal relief. Especially were such "recreations" welcomed by

the women; for their toil was as arduous as that of the men; while their

round of life and their means of receiving the stimulus of public

movements were even more restricted.

_V. Religion and Woman's Foibles_

The repressive characteristics of the creed of the hour were felt more

keenly by those women than probably any man of the period ever dreamed.

For woman seems to possess an innate love of the dainty and the

beautiful, and beauty was the work of Satan. Nothing was too small or

insignificant for this religion to examine and control. It even

regulated that most difficult of all matters to govern--feminine dress.

As Fisher says in his _Men, Women and Manners in Colonial Times_:

"At every opportunity they raised some question of religion and

discussed it threadbare, and the more fine-spun and subtle it was

the more it delighted them. Governor Winthrop's Journal is full

of such questions as whether there could be an indwelling of the

Holy Ghost in a believer without a personal union; whether it was

lawful even to associate or have dealings with idolaters like the

French; whether women should wear veils. On the question of

veils, Roger Williams was in favor of them; but John Cotton one

morning argued so powerfully on the other side that in the

afternoon the women all came to church without them."

"There were orders of the General Court forbidding 'short sleeves

whereby the nakedness of the arms may be discovered.' Women's

sleeves were not to be more than half an ell wide. There were to

be no 'immoderate great sleeves, immoderate ... knots of ryban,

broad shoulder bands and rayles, silk ruses, double ruffles and

cuffs.' The women were complained of because of their 'wearing

borders of hair and their cutting, curling, and immodest laying

out of their hair.'"[13]

Petty details that would not receive a moment's consideration in our own

day aroused the theological scruples of those colonial pastors, and

moved them to interminable arguments which nicely balanced the pros and

cons as warranted by scripture. One of John Cotton's most famous sermons

dealt with the question as to whether women had a right to sing in

church, and after lengthy disquisition the preacher finally decided that

the Lord had no special objection to women's singing the Psalms, but

this conclusion was reached only after an unsparing battle of doubts and

logic. "Some," he declares, "that were altogether against singing of

Psalms at all with a lively voice, yet being convinced that it is a

moral worship of God warranted in Scripture, then if there must be a

Singing one alone must sing, not all (or if all) the Men only and not

the Women.... Some object, 'Because it is not permitted to speak in the

Church in two cases: 1. By way of teaching.... For this the Apostle

accounteth an act of authority which is unlawful for a woman to usurp

over the man, II, Tim. 2, 13. And besides the woman is more subject to

error than a man, ver. 14, and therefore might soon prove a seducer if

she became a teacher.... It is not permitted to a woman to speak in the

Church by way of propounding questions though under pretence of desire

to learn for her own satisfaction; but rather it is required she should

ask her husband at home."

Thus we might follow Cotton through many a page and hear his ingenious

application of Biblical verses, his carefully balanced arguments, his

earnest consideration of what seems to the modern reader a most trivial

question. To him, however, and probably to the women also it was a

weighty subject, more important by far than the cause of the high

mortality among both mothers and children of the day--a mortality

appallingly high. It would seem that the fevers, sore throats,

consumption, and small pox that destroyed women and babes in vast

numbers might have claimed some attention from the hair-splitting

clergyman and his congregation. We must not, however, judge the age too

harshly. It is utterly impossible for us of the twentieth century to

understand entirely the view point of the Puritans; for the remarkable

era of the nineteenth century intervenes, and freedom from superstition

and blind faith is a gift which came after that era and not before.

From time to time the colonists to the south may have sneered at or even

condemned the severity of New England life, but in the main the

merchants of New York and the planters of Virginia and Maryland realized

and respected the moral worth and earnest nature of the Massachusetts

settlers. For example, the versatile Virginia leader, William Byrd,

remarks sarcastically in his _History of the Dividing Line Run in the

Year 1728_: "Nor would I care, like a certain New England Magistrate to

order a Man to the Whipping Post for daring to ride for a midwife on the

Lord's Day"; but in the same manuscript he pays these people of rigid

rules the following tribute: "Tho' these People may be ridiculed for

some Pharisaical Particularitys in their Worship and Behaviour, yet they

were very useful Subjects, as being Frugal and Industrious, giving no

Scandal or Bad Example, at least by any Open and Public Vices. By which

excellent Qualities they had much the Advantage of the Southern Colony,

who thought their being Members of the Establish't Church sufficient to

Sanctifie very loose and Profligate Morals. For this reason New England

improved much faster than Virginia, and in Seven or Eight Years New

Plymouth, like Switzerland, seemd too narrow a Territory for its

Inhabitants."[14]

Those early New Englanders may have been frugal and industrious, giving

no scandal nor bad example; but the constant repression, the monotony,

the dreariness of the religion often wrought havoc with the sensitive

nerves of the women, and many of them needed, far more than prayers,

godly counsel and church trials, the skilled services of a physician.

Two incidents related by Winthrop should be sufficient to impress the

pathos or the down-right tragedy of the situation:

"A cooper's wife of Hingham, having been long in a sad melancholic

distemper near to phrensy, and having formerly attempted to drown her

child, but prevented by God's gracious providence, did now again take an

opportunity.... And threw it into the water and mud ... She carried the

child again, and threw it in so far as it could not get out; but then it

pleased God, that a young man, coming that way, saved it. She would give

no other reason for it, but that she did it to save it from misery, and

with that she was assured, she had sinned against the Holy Ghost, and

that she could not repent of any sin. Thus doth Satan work by the

advantage of our infirmities, which would stir us up to cleave the more

fast to Christ Jesus, and to walk the more humbly and watchfully in all

our conversation."

"Dorothy Talby was hanged at Boston for murdering her own daughter a

child of three years old. She had been a member of the church of Salem,

and of good esteem for goodliness, but, falling at difference with her

husband, through melancholy or spiritual delusions, she sometime

attempted to kill him, and her children, and herself, by refusing

meat.... After much patience, and divers admonitions not prevailing, the

church cast her out. Whereupon she grew worse; so as the magistrate

caused her to be whipped. Whereupon she was reformed for a time, and

carried herself more dutifully to her husband, but soon after she was so

possessed with Satan, that he persuaded her (by his delusions, which she

listened to as revelations from God) to break the neck of her own

child, that she might free it from future misery. This she confessed

upon her apprehension; yet, at her arraignment, she stood mute a good

space, till the governour told her she should be pressed to death, and

then she confessed the indictment. When she was to receive judgment, she

would not uncover her face, nor stand up, but as she was forced, nor

give any testimony of her repentance, either then or at her execution.

The cloth which should have covered her face, she plucked off, and put

between the rope and her neck. She desired to have been beheaded, giving

this reason, that it was less painful and less shameful. Mr. Peter, her

late pastor, and Mr. Wilson, went with her to the place of execution,

but could do no good with her."[15]

_VI. Woman's Comfort in Religion_

Little gentleness and surely little of the overwhelming love that was

Christ's are apparent in a creed so stern and uncompromising. But the

age in which it flourished was not in itself a gentle and tolerant era.

It had not been so many years since men and women had been tortured and

executed for their faith. The Spanish Inquisition had scarcely ceased

its labor of barbarism; and days were to follow both in England and on

the continent when acts almost as savage would be allowed for the sake

of religion. In spite, moreover, of all that has been said above, in

spite of the literalness, the belief in a personal devil, the fear of an

arbitrary God, the religion of Puritanism was not without comfort to the

New England woman. Many are the references to the Creator's comforting

presence and help. Note these lines from a letter written by Margaret

Winthrop to her husband in 1637: "Sure I am, that all shall work to the

best to them that love God, or rather are loved of him. I know he will

bring light out of obscurity, and make his righteousness shine forth as

clear as noonday. Yet I find in myself an adverse spirit, and a

trembling heart, not so willing to submit to the will of God as I

desire. There is a time to plant, and a time to pull up that which is

planted, which I could desire might not be yet. But the Lord knoweth

what is best, and his will be done..."

Though woman might not speak or hold office in the Church, yet she was

not by any means denied the ordinary privileges and comforts of

religious worship, but rather was encouraged to gather with her sisters

in informal seasons of prayer and meditation. The good wives are

commended in many of the writings of the day for general charity work

connected with the church, and are mentioned frequently as being present

at the evening assemblies similar to our modern prayer meetings. Cotton

Mather makes this notation in his _Essays to do Good_, published in

1710: "It is proposed, That about twelve families agree to meet (the men

and their wives) at each other's houses, in rotation, once in a

fortnight or a month, as shall be thought most proper, and spend a

suitable time together in religious exercises." Even when women ventured

to hold formal religious meetings there was at first little or no

protest. According to Hutchinson's _History of Massachusetts Bay_, when

Anne Hutchinson, that creator of religious strife and thorn in the side

of the Elders, conducted assemblies for women only, there was even

praise for the innovation. It was only when this leader criticised the

clergy that silence was demanded. "Mrs. Hutchinson thought fit to set up

a meeting for the sisters, also, where she repeated the sermons preached

the Lord's day before, adding her remarks and expositions. Her lectures

made much noise, and fifty or eighty principal women attended them. At

first they were generally approved of."

Only when the decency and the decorum of the colony was threatened did

the stern laws of the church descend upon Mistress Hutchinson and her

followers. It was doubtless the riotous conduct of these radicals that

caused the resolution to be passed by the assembly in 1637, which

stated, according to Winthrop: "That though women might meet (some few

together) to pray and edify one another; yet such a set assembly, (as

was then in practice at Boston), where sixty or more did meet every

week, and one woman (in a prophetical way, by resolving questions of

doctrine, and expounding scripture) took upon her the whole exercise,

was agreed to be disorderly, and without rule."

Among the Quakers women's meetings were common; for equality of the

sexes was one of their teachings. In the _Journal_ of George Fox

(1672) we come across this statement: "We had a Mens-Meeting and a

Womens-Meeting.... On the First of these Days the Men and Women had

their Meetings for Business, wherein the Affairs of the Church of God

were taken care of." Moreover, what must have seemed an abomination to

the Puritan Fathers, these Quakers allowed their wives and mothers to

serve in official capacities in the church, and permitted them to take

part in the quarterly business sessions. Thus, John Woolman in his

_Diary_ says: "We attended the Quarterly meeting with Ann Gaunt and

Mercy Redman." "After the quarterly meeting of worship ended I felt

drawings to go to the Women's meeting of business which was very

full." What was especially shocking to their Puritan neighbors was the

fact that these Quakers allowed their women to go forth as missionary

speakers, and, as in the case of Mary Dyer, to invade the sacred

precincts of the Massachusetts Bay Colony to proselyte to Quakerism.

_VII. Female Rebellion_

But those Puritan colonists had far greater troubles to harass them than

the few quiet Quaker women who were moved by Inner Light to speak in the

village streets. One of these troubles we have touched upon--the Rise of

the Antinomians, or the disturbance caused by Anne Hutchinson. The other

was the Salem Witchcraft proceedings. In both of these women were

directly concerned, and indeed were at the root of the disturbances. Let

us examine in some detail the influence of Puritan womanhood in these

social upheavals that shook the foundations of church rule in New

England.

While most of the women of the Puritan colonies seem to have been too

busy with their household duties and their numerous children to concern

themselves extensively with public affairs, there was this one woman,

Anne Hutchinson, who has gained lasting fame as the cause of the

greatest religious and political disturbance occurring in Massachusetts

before the days of the Revolution. Many are the references in the early

writers to this radical leader and her followers. Some of the most

prominent men and women in the colony were inclined to follow her, and

for a time it appeared that hers was to be the real power of the day;

great was the excitement. Thomas Hutchinson in his _History of

Massachusetts Bay Colony_, told of her trial and banishment:

"Countenanced and encouraged by Mr. Vane and Mr. Cotton, she advanced

doctrines and opinions which involved the colony in disputes and

contensions; and being improved to civil as well as religious purposes,

had like to have produced ruin both to church and state."

Anne Hutchinson was the daughter of Francis Marbury, a prominent

clergyman of Lincolnshire, England. Intensely religious as a child, she

was deeply influenced when a young woman by the preaching of John

Cotton. The latter, not being able to worship as he wished in England,

moved to the Puritan colony in the New World, and Anne Hutchinson, upon

her arrival at Boston, frankly confessed that she had crossed the sea

solely to be under his preaching in his new home.

Many of the prominent men of the community soon became her followers:

Sir Harry Vane, Governor of the colony; her brother-in-law, the Rev.

John Wheelwright; William Coddington, a magistrate of Boston; and even

Cotton himself, leader of the church and supposedly orthodox of the

orthodox. That this was enough to turn the head of any woman may well be

surmised, especially when we remember that she was presumed to be the

silent and weaker vessel,--to find suddenly learned men and even the

greatest clergymen of the community sitting at her feet and hearing her

doctrines. It is difficult to determine the real state of affairs

concerning this woman and her teachings. Nothing unless, possibly the

witchcraft delusion at Salem, excited the colony as did this

disturbance in both church and state. While much has been written, so

much of partisanship is displayed in all the statements that it is with

great difficulty that we are able really to separate the facts from

jealousy and bitterness. During the first few months of her stay she

seems to have been commended for her faithful attendance at church, her

care of the sick, and her benevolent attitude toward the community. Even

her meetings for the sisters were praised by the pastors. But, not

content with holding meetings for her neighbors, she criticised the

preachers and their teachings. This was especially irritating to the

good Elders, because woman was supposed to be the silent member in the

household and meeting-house, and not capable of offering worthy

criticism. But even then the matter might have been passed in silence if

the church and state had not been one, and the pastors politicians.

Hutchinson, a kinsman of the rebellious leader, says in his _History of

Massachusetts Bay_:

"It is highly probable that if Mr. Vane had remained in England, or had

not craftily made use of the party which maintained these peculiar

opinions in religion, to bring him into civil power and authority and

draw the affections of the people from those who were their leaders into

the wilderness, these, like many other errors, might have prevailed a

short time without any disturbance to the state, and as the absurdity of

them appeared, silently subsided, and posterity would not have known that

such a woman as Mrs. Hutchinson ever existed.... It is difficult to

discover, from Mr. Cotton's own account of his principles published ten

years afterwards, in his answer to Bailey, wherein he differed from

her.... He seems to have been in danger when she was upon trial. The ...

ministers treated him coldly, but Mr. Winthrop, whose influence was now

greater than ever, protected him."

Just what were Anne Hutchinson's doctrines no one has ever been able to

determine; even Winthrop, a very able, clear-headed man who was well

versed in Puritan theology, and who was one of her most powerful

opponents, said he was unable to define them. "The two capital errors

with which she was charged were these: That the Holy Ghost dwells

personally in a justified person; and that nothing of sanctification can

help to evidence to believers their justification."[16]

Her teachings were not unlike those of the Quietists and that of the

"Inner Light," set forth by the Quakers--a doctrine that has always held

a charm for people who enjoy the mystical. But it was not so much the

doctrines probably as the fact that she and her followers were a

disturbing element that caused her expulsion from a colony where it was

vital and necessary to the existence of the settlement that harmony

should prevail. There had been great hardships and sacrifices; even yet

the colony was merely a handful of people surrounded by thousands of

active enemies. If these colonists were to live there must be uniformity

and conformity. "When the Pequots threatened Massachusetts colony a few

men in Boston refused to serve. These were Antinomians, followers of

Anne Hutchinson, who suspected their chaplain of being under a 'Covenant

of works,' whereas their doctrine was one should live under a 'Covenant

of grace.' This is one of the great reasons why they were banished. It

was the very life of the colony that they should have conformity, and

all of them as one man could scarcely withstand the Indians. Therefore

this religious doctrine was working rebellion and sedition, and

endangering the very existence of the state."[17]

Mistress Hutchinson was given a church trial, and after long days of

discussion was banished. Her sentence as recorded stands as follows:

"Mrs. Hutchinson, the wife of Mr. William Hutchinson, being convented

for traducing the ministers and their ministry in the country, she

declared voluntarily her revelation, and that she should be delivered,

and the court ruined with her posterity, and thereupon was

banished."[18] The facts prove that she must have been a woman of

shrewdness, force, personality, intelligence, and endowed with the

ability to lead. At her trial she was certainly the equal of the

ministers in her sharp and puzzling replies. The theological discussion

was exciting and many were the fine-spun, hair-splitting doctrines

brought forward on either side; but to-day the mere reading of them is a

weariness to the flesh.

Anne Hutchinson's efforts, according to some viewpoints, may have been a

failure, but they revealed in unmistakable manner the emotional

starvation of Puritan womanhood. Women, saddened by their hardships,

depressed by their religion, denied an open love for beauty, with none

of the usual food for imagination or the common outlets for emotions,

such as the modern woman has in her magazines, books, theatre and social

functions, flocked with eagerness to hear this feminine radical. They

seemed to realize that their souls were starving for something--they may

not have known exactly what. At first they may have gone to the

assemblies simply because such an unusual occurrence offered at least a

change or a diversion; but a very little listening seems to have

convinced them that this woman understood the female heart far better

than did John Cotton or any other male pastor of the settlements.

Moreover, the theory of "inner light" or the "covenant of grace"

undoubtedly appealed as something novel and refreshing after the

prolonged soul fast under the harshness and intolerance of the

Calvinistic creed. The women told their women friends of the new

theories, and wives and mothers talked of the matter to husbands and

fathers until gradually a great number of men became interested. The

churches of Massachusetts Bay Colony were in imminent danger of losing

their grasp upon the people and the government. It is evident that in

the home at least the Puritan woman was not entirely the silent, meek

creature she was supposed to be; her opinions were not only heard by

husband and father but heeded with considerable respect.

And what became of this first woman leader in America? Whether the fate

of this woman was typical of what was in store for all female speakers

and women outside their place is not stated by the elders; but they were

firm in their belief that her death was an appropriate punishment. She

removed to Rhode Island and later to New York, where she and all her

family, with the exception of one person, were killed by the Indians. As

Thomas Welde says in the preface of _A Short Story of the Rise, Wane

and Ruin of the Antinomians_ (1644): "I never heard that the Indians in

these parts did ever before commit the like outrage upon any one family,

or families; and therefore God's hand is the more apparently seen

herein, to pick out this woful woman, to make her and those belonging to

her an unheard of heavy example of their cruelty above others."

_VIII. Woman and Witchcraft_

It was at staid Boston that Anne Hutchinson marshalled her forces; it

was at peace-loving Salem that the Devil marshalled his witches in a

last despairing onslaught against the saints. To many readers there may

seem to be little or no connection between witchcraft and religion; but

an examination of the facts leading to the execution of the various

martyrs to superstition at Salem will convince the skeptical that there

was a most intimate relationship between the Puritan creed and the

theory of witchcraft.

Looking back after the passing of more than two hundred years, we cannot

but deem it strange that such an enlightened, educated and thoroughly

intelligent folk as the Puritans could have believed in the possession

of this malignant power. Especially does it appear incredible when we

remember that here was a people that came to this country for the

exercise of religious freedom, a citizenship that was descended from men

trained in the universities of England, a stalwart band that under

extreme privation had founded a college within sixteen years after the

settlement of a wilderness. It must be borne in mind, however, that the

Massachusetts colonies were not alone in this belief in witchcraft. It

was common throughout the world, and was as aged as humanity. Deprived

of the aid of modern science in explaining peculiar processes and

happenings, man had long been accustomed to fall back upon devils,

witches, and evil spirits as premises for his arguments. While the

execution of the witch was not so common an event elsewhere in the

world, during the Salem period, yet it was not unknown among so-called

enlightened people. As late as 1712 a woman was burned near London for

witchcraft, and several city clergymen were among the prosecutors.

A few extracts from colonial writings should make clear the attitude of

the Puritan leaders toward these unfortunates accused of being in league

with the devil. Winthrop thus records a case in 1648: "At the court one

Margaret Jones of Charlestown was indicted and found guilty of

witchcraft, and hanged for it. The evidence against her was, that she

was found to have such a malignant touch, as many persons, (men, women,

and children), whom she stroked or touched with any affection or

displeasure, etc., were taken with deafness ... or other violent pains

or sickness.... Some things which she foretold came to pass.... Her

behaviour at her trial was very intemperate, lying notoriously, and

railing upon the jury and witnesses, etc., and in the like distemper she

died. The same day and hour, she was executed, there was a very great

tempest at Connecticut, which blew down many trees, etc."[19]

Whether in North or in South, whether among Protestants or Catholics,

this belief in witchcraft existed. In one of the annual letters of the

"English Province of the Society of Jesus," written in 1656, we find

the following comment concerning the belief among emigrants to Maryland:

"The tempest lasted two months in all, whence the opinion arose, that it

was not raised by the violence of the sea or atmosphere, but was

occasioned by the malevolence of witches. Forthwith they seize a little

old woman suspected of sorcery; and after examining her with the

strictest scrutiny, guilty or not guilty, they slay her, suspected of

this very heinous sin. The corpse, and whatever belonged to her, they

cast into the sea. But the winds did not thus remit their violence, or

the raging sea its threatenings...."[20]

Even in Virginia, where less rigid religious authority existed, it was

not uncommon to hear accusations of sorcery and witchcraft. The form of

hysteria at length reached at Salem was the result of no sudden burst of

terror, but of a long evolution of ideas dealing with the power of

Satan. As early as 1638 Josselyn, a traveler in New England, wrote in

_New England's Rareties Discovered_: "There are none that beg in the

country, but there be witches too many ... that produce many strange

apparitions if you will believe report, of a shallop at sea manned with

women; of a ship and a great red horse standing by the main-mast, the

ship being in a small cove to the eastward vanished of a sudden. Of a

witch that appeared aboard of a ship twenty leagues to sea to a mariner

who took up the carpenter's broad axe and cleft her head with it, the

witch dying of the wound at home."

The religion of Salem and Boston was well fitted for developing this

very theory of malignant power in "possessed" persons. The teachings

that there was a personal devil, that God allowed him to tempt mankind,

that there were myriads of devils under Satan's control at all times,

ever watchful to entrap the unwary, that these devils were rulers over

certain territory and certain types of people--these teachings naturally

led to the assumption that the imps chose certain persons as their very

own. Moreover, the constant reminders of the danger of straying from the

strait and narrow way, and of the tortures of the afterworld led to

self-consciousness, introspection, and morbidness. The idea that Satan

was at all times seeking to undermine the Puritan church also made it

easy to believe that anyone living outside of, or contrary to, that

church was an agent of the devil, in short, bewitched. As it is only the

useful that survives, it was essential that the army of devils be given

a work to do, and this work was evident in the spirit of those who dared

to act and think in non-conformity to the rule of the church. The

devil's ways, too, were beyond the comprehension of man, cunning,

smooth, sly; the most godly might fall a victim, with the terrible

consequence that one might become bewitched and know it not. At this

stage it was the bounden duty of the unfortunate being's church brethren

to help him by inducing him to confess the indwelling of an evil spirit

and thus free himself from the great impostor. And if he did not confess

then it were better that he be killed, lest the devil through him

contaminate all. Why, says Mather, in his _Wonders of the Invisible

World_: "If the devils now can strike the minds of men with any poisons

of so fine a composition and operation, that scores of innocent people

shall unite in confessions of a crime which we see actually committed,

it is a thing prodigious, beyond the wonders of the former ages, and it

threatens no less than a sort of dissolution upon the world."

To avoid or counteract this desolation was the purpose of the legal

proceedings at Salem. It was believed by fairly intelligent people that

Satan carried with him a black book in which he induced his victims to

write their names with their own blood, signifying thereby that they had

given their souls into his keeping, and were henceforth his liegemen.

The rendezvous of these lost and damned was deep in the forest; the time

of meeting, midnight. In such a place and at such an hour the assembly

of witches and wizards plotted against the saints of God, namely, the

Puritans. According to Cotton Mather's _Wonders of the Invisible World_,

at the trial of one of these martyrs to superstition, George Burroughs,

he was accused by eight of the confessing witches "as being the head

actor at some of their hellish rendezvouzes, and one who had the promise

of being a king in Satan's kingdom, now going to be erected. One of them

falling into a kind of trance affirmed that G.B. had carried her away

into a very high mountain, where he shewed her mighty and glorious

kingdoms, and said, 'he would give them all to her, if she would write

in his book.'"

In such an era, of course, the attempt was too often made to explain

events, not in the light of common reason but as visitations of God to

try the faith of the folk, or as devices of Satan to tempt them from the

narrow Path. Such an affliction as "nerves" was not readily

acknowledged, and anyone subject to fits or nervous disorders, or any

child irritable or tempestuous might easily be the victim of witchcraft.

Note what Increase Mather has to say on the matter when explaining the

case of the children of John Goodwin of Boston: "...In the day time

they were handled with so many sorts of Ails, that it would require of

us almost as much time to Relate them all, as it did of them to Endure

them. Sometimes they would be Deaf, sometimes Dumb, and sometimes Blind,

and often, all this at once.... Their necks would be broken, so that

their Neck-bone would seem dissolved unto them that felt after it; and

yet on the sudden, it would become again so stiff that there was no

stirring of their Heads...."[21]

As we have noted in previous pages, the morbidness and super-sensitive

spiritual condition of the colonists brought on by the peculiar social

environment had for many years prepared the way for just such a tragic

attitude toward physical and mental ailments. The usual safety vents of

modern society, the common functions we may class as general "good

times," were denied the soul, and it turned back to feed upon itself.

The following hint by Sewall, written a few years before the witchcraft

craze, is significant: "Thorsday, Novr. 12. After the Ministers of this

Town Come to the Court and complain against a Dancing Master, who seeks

to set up here, and hath mixt Dances, and his time of Meeting is

Lecture-Day; and 'tis reported he should say that by one Play he could

teach more Divinity than Mr. Willard or the Old Testament. Mr. Moodey

said 'twas not a time for N.E. to dance. Mr. Mather struck at the Root,

speaking against mixt Dances."[22] And again in the records by another

colonist, Prince, we note: "1631. March 22. First Court at Boston.

Ordered That all who have cards, dice, or 'tables' in their houses shall

make way with them before the next court."[23]

But the lack of social safety valves seemingly did not suggest itself to

the Puritan fathers; not the causes, but the religious effect of the

matter was what those stern churchmen sought to destroy. Says Cotton

Mather: "So horrid and hellish is the Crime of Witchcraft, that were

Gods Thoughts as our thoughts, or Gods Wayes as our wayes, it could be

no other, but Unpardonable. But that Grace of God may be admired, and

that the worst of Sinners may be encouraged, Behold, Witchcraft also has

found a Pardon.... From the Hell of Witchcraft our merciful Jesus can

fetch a guilty Creature to the Glory of Heaven. Our Lord hath sometimes

Recovered those who have in the most horrid manner given themselves away

to the Destroyer of their souls."[24]

Where did this mania, this riot of superstition and fanaticism that

resulted in so much sorrow and so many deaths have its beginning and

origin? Coffin in his _Old Times in the Colonies_ has summed up the

matters briefly and vividly: "The saddest story in the history of our

country is that of the witch craze at Salem, Mass. brought about by a

negro woman and a company of girls. The negress, Tituba, was a slave,

whom Rev. Samuel Parris, one of the ministers of Salem, had purchased in

Barbadoes. We may think of Tituba as seated in the old kitchen of Mr.

Parris's house during the long winter evenings, telling witchcraft

stories to the minister's niece, Elizabeth, nine years old. She draws a

circle in the ashes on the hearth, burns a lock of hair, and mutters

gibberish. They are incantations to call up the devil and his imps. The

girls of the village gather in the old kitchen to hear Tituba's stories,

and to mutter words that have no meaning. The girls are Abigail

Williams, who is eleven; Anne Putnam, twelve; Mary Walcot; and Mary

Lewis, seventeen; Elizabeth Hubbard, Elizabeth Booth, and Susannah

Sheldon, eighteen; and two servant girls, Mary Warren, and Sarah

Churchill. Tituba taught them to bark like dogs, mew like cats, grunt

like hogs, to creep through chairs and under tables on their hands and

feet, and pretend to have spasms.... Mr. Parris had read the books and

pamphlets published in England ... and he came to the conclusion that

they were bewitched. He sent for Doctor Griggs who said that the girls

were not sick, and without doubt were bewitched.... The town was on

fire. Who bewitches you? they were asked. Sarah Good, Sarah Osbum, and

Tituba, said the girls. Sarah Good was a poor, old woman, who begged her

bread from door to door. Sarah Osburn was old, wrinkled, and

sickly."[25]

The news of the peculiar actions of the girls spread throughout the

settlement; people flocked to see their antics. By this time the

children had carried the "fun" so far that they dared not confess, lest

the punishment be terrific, and, therefore, to escape the consequences,

they accused various old women of bewitching them. Undoubtedly the

little ones had no idea that the delusion would seize so firmly upon

the superstitious nature of the people; but the settlers, especially the

clergymen and the doctors, took the matter seriously and brought the

accused to trial. The craze spread; neighbor accused neighbor; enemies

apparently tried to pay old scores by the same method; and those who did

not confess were put to death. It is a fact worth noting that the large

majority of the witnesses and the greater number of the victims were

women. The men who conducted the trials and passed the verdict of

"guilty" cannot, of course, stand blameless; but it was the long pent-up

but now abnormally awakened imagination of the women that wrought havoc

through their testimony to incredible things and their descriptions of

unbelievable actions. No doubt many a personal grievance, petty

jealousy, ancient spite, and neighborhood quarrel entered into the

conflict; but the results were out of all proportion to such causes, and

remain to-day among the blackest and most sorrowful records on the pages

of American history.

As stated above, some of the testimony was incredible and would be

ridiculous if the outcome had not been so tragic. Let us read some bits

from the record of those solemn trials. Increase Mather in his

_Remarkable Providences_ related the following concerning the

persecution of William Morse and wife at Newberry, Massachusetts: "On

December 8, in the Morning, there were five great Stones and Bricks by

an invisible hand thrown in at the west end of the house while the Mans

Wife was making the Bed, the Bedstead was lifted up from the floor, and

the Bedstaff flung out of the Window, and a Cat was hurled at her....

The man's Wife going to the Cellar ... the door shut down upon her, and

the Table came and lay upon the door, and the man was forced to remove

it e're his Wife could be released from where she was."[26a]

Again, see the remarkable vision beheld by Goodman Hortado and his wife

in 1683: "The said Mary and her Husband going in a Cannoo over the River

they saw like the head of a man new-shorn, and the tail of a white Cat

about two or three foot distance from each other, swimming over before

the Cannoo, but no body appeared to joyn head and tail together."[26b]

Cotton Mather in his _Wonders of the Invisible World_ gives us some

insight into the mental and physical condition of many of the witnesses

called upon to testify to the works of Satan. Some of them undoubtedly

were far more in need of an expert on nervous diseases than of the

ministrations of either jurist or clergyman. "It cost the Court a

wonderful deal of Trouble, to hear the Testimonies of the Sufferers; for

when they were going to give in their Depositions, they would for a long

time be taken with fitts, that made them uncapable of saying anything.

The Chief Judge asked the prisoner who he thought hindered these

witnesses from giving their testimonies? and he answered, He supposed it

was the Devil."

It must have been a reign of terror for the Puritan mother and wife.

What woman could tell whether she or her daughter might not be the next

victim of the bloody harvest? Note the ancient records again. Here are

the words of the colonist, Robert Calef, in his _More Wonders of the

Invisible World_: "September 9. Six more were tried, and received

Sentence of Death; viz., Martha Cory af Salem Village, Mary Easty of

Topsfield, Alice Parker and Ann Pudeater of Salem, Dorcas Hoar of

Beverly, and Mary Bradberry of Salisbury. September 1st, Giles Gory was

prest to Death." And Sewall in his _Diary_ thus speaks of the same

barbarous execution just mentioned: "Monday, Sept. 19, 1692. About noon,

at Salem, Giles Gory was press'd to death for standing Mute; much pains

was used with him two days, one after another, by the Court and Capt.

Gardner of Nantucket who had been of his acquaintance, but all in

vain."[27a]

Those were harsh times, and many a man or woman showed heroic qualities

under the strain. The editor of Sewall's _Diary_ makes this comment upon

the silent heroism of the martyr, Giles Cory: "At first, apparently, a

firm believer in the witchcraft delusion, even to the extent of

mistrusting his saintly wife, who was executed three days after his

torturous death, his was the most tragic of all the fearful offerings.

He had made a will, while confined in Ipswich jail, conveying his

property, according to his own preferences, among his heirs; and, in the

belief that his will would be invalidated and his estate confiscated, if

he were condemned by a jury after pleading to the indictment, he

resolutely preserved silence, knowing that an acqittance was an

impossibility."[27b]

In the case of Cory doubtless the majority of the people thought the

manner of death, like that of Anne Hutchinson, was a fitting judgment of

God; for Sewall records in his ever-helpful Diary: "Sept. 20. Now I

hear from Salem that about 18 years agoe, he [Giles Cory] was suspected

to have stamp'd and press'd a man to death, but was cleared. Twas not

remembered till Ann Putnam was told of it by said Cory's Spectre the

Sabbath day night before the Execution."[28]

The Corys, Eastys, and Putnams were families exceedingly prominent

during the entire course of the mania; Ann Putnam's name appears again

and again. She evidently was a woman of unusual force and impressive

personality, and many were her revelations concerning suspected persons

and even totally innocent neighbors. Such workers brought distressing

results, and how often the helpless victims were women! Hear these

echoes from the gloomy court rooms: "September 17: Nine more received

Sentence of Death, viz., Margaret Scot of Rowly, Goodwife Reed of

Marblehead, Samuel Wardwell, and Mary Parker of Andover, also Abigail

Falkner of Andover ... Rebecka Eames of Boxford, Mary Lacy and Ann

Foster of Andover, and Abigail Hobbs of Topsfield. Of these Eight were

Executed."[29] And Cotton Mather in a letter to a friend: "Our Good God

is working of Miracles. Five Witches were lately Executed, impudently

demanding of God a Miraculous Vindication of their Innocency."[30]

And yet how absurd was much of the testimony that led to such wholesale

murder. We have seen some of it already. Note these words by a witness

against Martha Carrier, as presented in Cotton Mather's _Wonders of the

Invisible World_: "The devil carry'd them on a pole to a witch-meeting;

but the pole broke, and she hanging about Carrier's neck, they both

fell down, and she then received an hurt by the fall whereof she was not

at this very time recovered.... This rampant hag, Martha Carrier, was

the person, of whom the confessions of the witches, and of her own

children among the rest, agreed, that the devil had promised her she

should be Queen of Hell."

Here and there a few brave souls dared to protest against the outrage;

but they were exceedingly few. Lady Phipps, wife of the governor, risked

her life by signing a paper for the discharge of a prisoner condemned

for witchcraft. The jailor reluctantly obeyed and lost his position for

allowing the prisoner to go; but in after years the act must have been a

source of genuine consolation to him. Only fear must have restrained the

more thoughtful citizens from similar acts of mercy. Even children were

imprisoned, and so cruelly treated that some lost their reason. In the

_New England History and General Register_ (XXV, 253) is found this

pathetic note: "Dorcas Good, thus sent to prison 'as hale and well as

other children,' lay there seven or eight months, and 'being chain'd in

the dungeon was so hardly used and terrifyed' that eighteen years later

her father alleged 'that she hath ever since been very, chargeable,

haveing little or no reason to govern herself.'"[31]

How many extracts from those old writings might be presented to make a

graphic picture of that era of horror and bloodshed. No one, no matter

what his family, his manner of living, his standing in the community,

was safe. Women feared to do the least thing unconventional; for it was

an easy task to obtain witnesses, and the most paltry evidence might

cause most unfounded charges. And the only way to escape death, be it

remembered, was through confession. Otherwise the witch or wizard was

still in the possession of the devil, and, since Satan was plotting the

destruction of the Puritan church, anything and anybody in the power of

Satan must be destroyed. Those who met death were martyrs who would not

confess a lie, and such died as a protest against common liberty of

conscience. No monument has been erected to their memory, but their

names remain in the old annals as a warning against bigotry and

fanaticism. Though some suffered the agonies of a horrible death, there

were innumerable women who lived and yet probably suffered a thousand

deaths in fear and foreboding. Hear once more the words of Robert

Calef's ancient book, _More Wonders of the Invisible World_: "It was the

latter end of February, 1691, when divers young persons belonging to Mr.

Parris's family, and one or more of the neighbourhood, began to act

after a strange and unusual manner, viz., by getting into holes, and

creeping under chairs and stools, and to use sundry odd postures and

antick gestures, uttering foolish, ridiculous speeches.... The

physicians that were called could assign no reason for this; but it

seems one of them ... told them he was afraid they were bewitched....

March the 11th, Mr. Parris invited several neighbouring ministers to

join with him in keeping a solemn day of prayer at his own house....

Those ill affected ... first complained of ... the said Indian woman,

named Tituba; she confessed that the devil urged her to sign a book ...

and also to work mischief to the children, etc."

"A child of Sarah Good's was likewise apprehended, being between 4 and 5

years old. The accusers said this child bit them, and would shew such

like marks, as those of a small set of teeth, upon their arms...."

"March 31, 1692, was set apart as a day of solemn humiliation at

Salem ... on which day Abigail Williams said, 'that she saw a great number

of persons in the village at the administration of a mock sacrament, where

they had bread as red as raw flesh, and red drink.'"

The husband of Mrs. Cary, who afterwards escaped, tells this: "Having

been there [in prison] one night, next morning the jailer put irons on

her legs (having received such a command); the weight of them was about

eight pounds: these with her other afflictions soon brought her into

convulsion fits, so that I thought she would have died that night. I

sent to entreat that the irons might be taken off; but all entreaties

were in vain...."

"John Proctor and his wife being in prison, the sheriff came to his

house and seized all the goods, provisions and cattle ... and left

nothing in the house for the support of the children...."

"Old Jacobs being condemned, the sheriff and officers came and seized

all he had; his wife had her wedding ring taken from her ... and the

neighbours in charity relieved her."

"The family of the Putnams ... were chief prosecutors in this business."

"And now nineteen persons having been hanged, and one pressed to death,

and eight more condemned, in all twenty and eight ... about fifty

having confessed ... above an hundred and fifty in prison, and above two

hundred more accused; the special commission of oyer and terminer comes

to a period...."

During the summer of 1692 the disastrous material and financial results

of the reign of terror became so evident that the shrewd business sense

of the colonist became alarmed. Harvests were ungathered, fields and

cattle were neglected, numerous people sold their farms and moved

southward; some did not await the sale but abandoned their property. The

thirst for blood could not last, especially when it threatened

commercial ruin. Moreover, the accusers at length aimed too high;

accusations were made against persons of rank, members of the governor's

family, and even the relatives of the pastors themselves. "The killing

time lasted about four months, from the first of June to the end of

September, 1692, and then a reaction came because the informers began to

strike at important persons, and named the wife of the governor. Twenty

persons had been put to death ... and if the delusion had lasted much

longer under the rules of evidence that were adopted everybody in the

colony except the magistrates and ministers would have been either hung

or would have stood charged with witchcraft."[32]

The Puritan clergymen have been severely blamed for this strange wave of

fanaticism, and no doubt, as leaders in the movement, they were largely

responsible; but even their power and authority could never have caused

such wide-spread terror, had not the women of the day given such active

aid. The feminine soul, with its long pent emotions, craved excitement,

and this was an opportunity eagerly seized upon. As Fisher says, "As

their religion taught them to see in human nature only depravity and

corruption, so in the outward nature by which they were surrounded, they

saw forewarnings and signs of doom and dread. Where the modern mind now

refreshes itself in New England with the beauties of the seashore, the

forest, and the sunset, the Puritan saw only threatenings of

terror."[33]

We cannot doubt in most instances the sincerity of these men and women,

and in later days, when confessions of rash and hasty charges of action

were made, their repentance was apparently just as sincere. Judge

Sewall, for instance, read before the assembled congregation his

petition to God for forgiveness. "In a short time all the people

recovered from their madness, [and] admitted their error.... In 1697 the

General Court ordered a day of fasting and prayer for what had been done

amiss in the 'late tragedy raised among us by Satan.' Satan was the

scapegoat, and nothing was said about the designs and motives of the

ministers."[34] Possibly it was just as well that Satan was blamed; for

the responsibility is thus shifted for one of the most hideous pages in

American history.

_IX. Religion Outside of New England_

Apparently it was only under Puritanism that the colonial woman really

suffered through the requirements of her religion. In other colonies

there may have been those who felt hampered and restrained; but

certainly in New York, Pennsylvania, and the Southern provinces, there

was no creed that made life an existence of dread and fear. In most

parts of the South the Established Church of England was the authorized,

or popular, religious institution, and it would seem that the women who

followed its teachings were as reverent and pious, if not so full of the

fear of judgment, as their sisters to the North. The earliest settlers

of Virginia dutifully observed the customs and ceremonies of the

established church, and it was the dominant form of religion in Virginia

and the Carolinas throughout the colonial era. John Smith has left the

record of the first place and manner of divine worship in Virginia: "Wee

did hang an awning, which is an old saile, to three or four trees to

shadow us from the Sunne; our walls were railes of Wood; our seats

unhewed trees till we cut plankes; our Pulpit a bar of wood nailed to

two neighbouring trees. In foul weather we shifted into an old rotten

tent; this came by way of adventure for new. This was our Church till we

built a homely thing like a barne set upon Cratchets, covered with

rafts, sedge, and earth; so also was the walls; the best of our houses

were of like curiosity.... Yet we had daily Common Prayer morning and

evening; every Sunday two sermons; and every three months a holy

Communion till our Minister died: but our Prayers daily with an Homily

on Sundays wee continued two or three years after, till more Preachers

came."

According to Bruce's _Institutional History of Virginia in the

Seventeenth Century_[35] it would seem that the early Virginians were as

strict as the New Englanders about the matter of church attendance and

Sabbath observance. When we come across the notation that "Sarah Purdy

was indicted 1682 for shelling corn on Sunday," we may feel rather sure

that during at least the first eighty years of life about Jamestown

Sunday must have been indeed a day of rest. Says Bruce: "The first

General Assembly to meet in Virginia passed a law requiring of every

citizen attendance at divine services on Sunday. The penalty imposed was

a fine, if one failed to be present. If the delinquent was a freeman he

was to be compelled to pay three shillings for each offense, to be

devoted to the church, and should he be a slave he was to be sentenced

to be whipped."[36]

In Georgia and the Carolinas of the later eighteenth century the

influence of Methodism--especially after the coming of Wesley and

Whitefield--was marked, while the Scotch Presbyterian and the French

Huguenots exercised a wholesome effect through their strict honesty and

upright lives. Among these two latter sects women seem to have been very

much in the back-ground, but among the Methodists, especially in

Georgia, the influence of woman in the church was certainly noticeable.

There was often in the words and deeds of Southern women in general a

note of confident trust in God's love and in a joyous future life,

rather lacking in the writings of New England. Eliza Pinckney, for

instance, when but seventeen years old, wrote to her brother George a

long letter of advice, containing such tender, yet almost exultant

language as the following: "To be conscious we have an Almighty friend

to bless our Endeavours, and to assist us in all Difficulties, gives

rapture beyond all the boasted Enjoyments of the world, allowing them

their utmost Extent & fulness of joy. Let us then, my dear Brother, set

out right and keep the sacred page always in view.... God is Truth

itself and can't reveal naturally or supernaturally contrarieties."[37a]

There is a sweet reasonableness about this, very refreshing after an

investigation of witches or myriads of devils, and, on the whole, we

find much more sanity in the Southern relationship between religion and

life than in the Northern. While there was some bickering and

quarreling, especially after the arrival of Whitefield; yet such

disputes do not seem to have left the bitterness and suspicion that

followed in the trail of the church trials in Massachusetts. Indeed,

various creeds must have lived peacefully side by side; for the colonial

surveyor, de Brahm, speaks of nine different sects in a town of twelve

thousand inhabitants, and makes this further comment: "Yet are (they)

far from being incouraged or even inclined to that disorder which is so

common among men of contrary religious sentiments in other parts of the

world.... (The) inhabitants (were) from the beginning renound for

concord, compleasance, courteousness and tenderness towards each other,

and more so towards foreigners, without regard or respect of nature and

religion."[37b]

Perhaps, however, by the middle of the eighteenth century religious

sanity had become the rule both North and South; for there are many

evidences at that later period of a trust in the mercy of God and

comfort in His authority. We find Abigail Adams, whose letters cover

the last twenty-five years of the eighteenth century, saying, "That we

rest under the shadow of the Almighty is the consolation to which I

resort and find that comfort which the world cannot give."[38] And

Martha Washington, writing to Governor Trumbull, after the death of her

husband, says: "For myself I have only to bow with humble submission to

the will of that God who giveth and who taketh away, looking forward

with faith and hope to the moment when I shall be again united with the

partner of my life."[39] In the hour when the long struggle for

independence was opening, Mercy Warren could write in all confidence to

her husband, "I somehow or other feel as if all these things were for

the best--as if good would come out of evil--we may be brought low that

our faith may not be in the wisdom of men, but in the protecting

providence of God."[40] Among the Dutch of New York religion, like

eating, drinking and other common things of life, was taken in a rather

matter-of-fact way. Seldom indeed did these citizens of New Amsterdam

become so excited about doctrine as to quarrel over it; they were too

well contented with life as it was to contend over the life to be. Mrs.

Grant in _Memoirs of an American Lady_ has left us many intimate

pictures of the life in the Dutch colony. She and her mother joined her

father in New York in 1758, and through her residence at Claverach,

Albany, and Oswego gained thorough knowledge of the people, their

customs, social life and community ideas and ideals. Of their relation

to church and creed she remarks: "Their religion, then, like their

original national character, had in it little of fervor or enthusiasm;

their manner of performing religious duties regular and decent, but

calm, and to more ardent imaginations might appear mechanical.... If

their piety, however, was without enthusiasm it was also without

bigotry; they wished others to think as they did, without showing rancor

or contempt toward those who did not.... That monster in nature, an

impious woman, was never heard of among them."[41]

Unlike the New England clergyman, the New York parson was almost without

power of any sort, and was at no time considered an authority in

politics, sickness, witchcraft, or domestic affairs. Mrs. Grant was

surprised at his lack of influence, and declared: "The dominees, as

these people call their ministers, contented themselves with preaching

in a sober and moderate strain to the people; and living quietly in the

retirement of their families, were little heard of but in the pulpit;

and they seemed to consider a studious privacy as one of their chief

duties."[42] However, it was only in New England and possibly in

Virginia for a short time, that church and state were one, and this may

account for much of the difference in the attitudes of the preachers. In

New York the church was absolutely separate from the government, and

unless the pastor was a man of exceedingly strong personality, his

influence was never felt outside his congregation.

In conclusion, what may we say as to the general status of the colonial

woman in the church? Only in the Quaker congregation and possibly among

the Methodists in the South did colonial womanhood successfully assert

itself, and take part in the official activities of the institution. In

the Episcopal church of Virginia and the Carolinas, the Catholic Church

of Maryland and Louisiana, and the Dutch church of New York, women were

quiet onlookers, pious, reverent, and meek, freely acknowledging God in

their lives, content to be seen and not heard. In the Puritan assembly,

likewise, they were, on the surface at least, meek, silent, docile; but

their silence was deceiving, and, as shown in the witchcraft

catastrophe, was but the silence of a smouldering volcano. In the

eighteenth century, the womanhood of the land became more assertive, in

religion as in other affairs, and there is no doubt that Mercy Warren,

Eliza Pinckney, Abigail Adams, and others mentioned in these pages were

thinkers whose opinions were respected by both clergy and laymen. The

Puritan preacher did indeed declare against speech by women in the

church, and demanded that if they had any questions, they should ask

their husbands; but there came a time, and that quickly, when the voice

of woman was heard in the blood of Salem's dead.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Reprinted in _English Garner_, Vol. II, p. 429.

[2] Vol. I, p. 101.

[3] Sewall's _Diary_, Vol. I, p. 40.

[4] _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 111.

[5] _Ibid._, Vol. I, p. 167.

[6] _Diary_, Vol. I, p. 116.

[7] _Diary_, Vol. III, p. 71.

[8] Original Narratives of Early Am. Hist., Narratives of the

Witchcraft Cases. p. 96, 97.

[9] Winthrop: _Hist. of N.E._, Vol. II, p. 36.

[10] Winthrop: _Hist. of N. Eng._, Vol. II, p. 411.

[11] _Child Life in Colonial Days_; P. 238.

[12] _Ibid._

[13] Pp. 137, 185.

[14] _Writings of Col. Byrd_, Ed. Bassett, p. 25.

[15] Winthrop: _History of New England_, Vol. II, pp. 79, 335.

[16] Hutchinson: _History of Massachusetts Bay._ Chapter I.

[17] Fiske: _Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America_, Vol. I, p. 232.

[18] Hutchinson: _History of Massachusetts Bay_, Chapter I.

[19] _History of New England_, Vol. II, p. 397.

[20] _Narratives of Early Maryland_, p. 141.

[21] _Narratives of Witchcraft Cases_, p. 102.

[22] Sewall: _Diary_, Vol. I, p. 103.

[23] _Annals of New England_, Vol. I, p. 579.

[24] _Narratives of Witchcraft Cases_, p. 135.

[25] Page 210.

[26a],[26b] _Narratives of Witchcraft Cases_, p. 38.

[27a],[27b] _Diary_, Vol. I, p. 364.

[28] _Diary_, Vol. I, p. 364.

[29] _Narratives of Witchcraft Cases_, p. 366.

[30] _Narratives of Witchcraft Cases_, p. 215.

[31] _Narratives of Witchcraft Cases_, p. 159.

[32] Fisher: _Men, Women and Manners in Colonial Times_, p. 165.

[33] Fisher: _Men, Women and Manners in Colonial Times_, p. 165.

[34] Fisher: _Men, Women and Manners in Colonial Times_, p. 171.

[35] Pages 22, 35.

[36] _Institutional History_, Vol. I, p. 29.

[37a],[37b] Ravenel: _Eliza Pinckney_, p. 65.

[38] _Letters_, p. 106.

[39] Wharton: _Martha Washington_, p. 280.

[40] Brown: _Mercy Warren_, p. 96.

[41] _Memoirs of an American Lady_, p. 29.

[42] _Memoirs of an American Lady_, p. 155.