Massachusetts -- Church history; Massachusetts -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775; Puritans -- Massachusetts
Her judges at Ipswich had her bound to a rough post of the tavern, in
which they sat, and then, while the splinters tore her bare breasts,
they had her flesh cut from her back with the lash. [Footnote: _New
England Judged_, ed. 1703, p. 377.]
“Thus they served the wife, and the husband escaped not free; ... he
taxing Simon Broadstreet, ... for upbraiding his wife ... and telling
Simon of his malitious reproaching of his wife who was an honest woman
... and of that report that went abroad of the known dishonesty of
Simon’s daughter, Seaborn Cotton’s wife; Simon in a fierce rage, told
the court, ‘That if such fellows should be suffered to speak so in the
court, he would sit there no more:’ So to please Simon, Eliakim was
sentenc’d to be stripp’d from his waste upward, and to be bound to an
oak-tree that stood by their worship-house, and to be whipped fifteen
lashes; ... as they were having him out ... he called to Seaborn Cotton
... to come and see the work done (so far was he from being daunted by
their cruelty), who hastned out and followed him thither, and so did old
Wiggins, one of the magistrates, who when Eliakim was tyed to the tree
and stripp’d, said ... to the whipper... ‘Whip him a good;’ which the
executioner cruelly performed with cords near as big as a man’s little
finger;... Priest Cotton standing near him ... Eliakim ... when he was
loosed from the tree, said to him, amongst the people, ‘Seaborn, hath my
py’d heifer calv’d yet?’ Which Seaborn, the priest, hearing stole away
like a thief.” [Footnote: _New England Judged_, ed. 1703, pp. 377-379.]
As Margaret Brewster was the last who is known to have been whipped, so
is she one of the most famous, for she has been immortalized by Samuel
Sewall, an honest, though a dull man.
“July 8, 1677. New Meeting House Mane: In sermon time there came in a
female Quaker, in a canvas frock, her hair disshevelled and loose like
a Periwigg, her face as black as ink, led by two other Quakers, and two
other followed. It occasioned the greatest and most amazing uproar that
I ever saw. Isaiah 1. 12, 14.” [Footnote: _Mass. Hist. Coll._ fifth
series, v. 43.]
In 1675 the persecution had been revived, and the stories the woman
heard of the cruelties that were perpetrated on those of her own faith
inspired her with the craving to go to New England to protest against
the wrong; so she journeyed thither, and entered the Old South one
Sunday morning clothed in sackcloth, with ashes on her head.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account