Many examples of the ferocity with which the Quakers were treated in the New England Colonies might be cited, yet so inspired were these early pioneers with the deep significance and importance of their message that they were compelled to brave the untried wilderness paths and surmount difficulties which we in these days might be tempted to deem insurmountable, in order to deliver it; women with their babes at the breast would not hesitate to undertake “a very sore Journey, and (according to Man) hardly accomplishable, through a Wilderness above Sixty Miles,” knowing that it led inevitably to stripes and bondage and possible death; yet in spite of all, we are told of one such that she was enabled to kneel down and pray in the spirit of the Master for the forgiveness of her cruel persecutors. This “so reached upon a Woman that stood by, and wrought upon her, that she gave Glory to God, and said that surely she could not have done that thing, if it had not been by the Spirit of the Lord.”[51] The Quakers still continued boldly to preach, and persecution waxed fiercer and fiercer. The Chronicler says: “Their lives (as men) became worse than Death and as living Burials.” The offences for which Friends suffered so severely were of a most trivial character, such as non-attendance at Public Worship for which they had been previously fined, and for not removing their hats. In the event of their refusal to pay any fines which might be imposed they became liable under a law made on accounts of debts, by which it was permissible to sell those persons who refused or were unable to pay their fines “to any of the English Nations as Virginia or Barbadoes to Answer the said Fines.”