Mary Barrett Dyer ( born Mary Barrett Dyer , circa 1611 , London - June 1, 1660 , Boston ) - a Quaker , sentenced to death and executed in Boston on the basis of religious beliefs, is among the Boston martyrs . She is sometimes called the last martyr of North America .
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| Awards and prizes | National Women's Hall of Fame ( 2000 ) [d] |
Content
Biography
Mary grew up in England, then she and her husband William emigrated to Boston in 1635 . They joined the church in Boston, where Mary met Anna Hutchinson, who greatly influenced her religious beliefs. She preached that God speaks directly to each person, and not just through the clergy. Mary became her follower. The group organized Bible readings and professed views that did not match the Puritan community of the Massachusetts Bay colony .
During the trial of Anna Hutchinson in 1638, Mary was one of the few who defended her, and when Anna was expelled from the colony and went to Rhode Island , Mary and her family followed her. On the recommendation of Roger Williams, they moved to the Portsmouth colony in Rhode Island.
In 1651, the Dyer couple traveled with Roger Williams to England to confirm their right to own land. There Mary first heard George Fox's sermon and joined the Society of Friends, also known as the Quakers . Mary remained in England for four years, although her husband returned to Rhode Island in 1652 . Even before her return to America in 1657, the Quakers reached Boston and, with their faith, provoked even greater hatred among the clergy and Puritan authorities than with Anna Hutchinson.
On October 14, 1657, the Massachusetts Gulf Colony General Court passed a tough law against the Quakers, punishable by imprisonment and physical injuries, and next year another law that added the death penalty . This law was also promulgated in the colonies of New Plymouth and New Haven , as well as in the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam .
In 1658, Mary Dyer went to Boston. But she was soon arrested and imprisoned. When Mary did not arrive in Rhode Island on time, her husband began asking about her and found out that she was in prison in Boston. He immediately went there, but could not release her until he vowed that she would not remain in any city in the Massachusetts Gulf colony and would not speak with anyone on the way home.
After her release, Mary Dyer traveled all over New England , preaching the teachings of the Quakers. When they found her, they immediately expelled her.
All the exiled Quakers left Boston, but Robinson and Stevenson went to Salem , who was also in the subordinate area of the Massachusetts Gulf colony to visit and encourage their friends by faith. Soon after, they were arrested and imprisoned in Boston. When Mary Dyer returned to visit them, they recognized her and took her into custody.
Having violated their exile, Robinson, Stevenson and Dyer, in accordance with the law according to which they were exiled, had to pay their lives. Since this was the first execution of the Quakers for their faith and the first time they hung a woman, a protest arose, but the date of the triple execution by hanging was set for October 27, 1659 . On the day of the execution, they brought the Quakers to Boston Common Square to hang on a large oak tree. At the last moment, the governor, at the request of her husband Mary, received permission to postpone the execution, and she was untied and lowered from the stairs, and her comrades were hanged.
Mary was told that she could be freed from punishment if she promised not to preach Quaker doctrines anymore, but she refused. She was again expelled from the Massachusetts Gulf colony and returned to her home in Rhode Island, but soon went to Long Island and decided to fight the unfair laws, even if she had to give her life. She did not heed the persuasion of her husband and children to abandon their beliefs.
Six months after her death sentence, Mary ended up in Boston again and began to preach. She was immediately arrested and sentenced to hanging, which took place on June 1, 1660 .
She and a detachment of soldiers were taken around the city, ceasing to knock on the drums in front and behind, so that no one could hear what she would say along the way to the place of execution, which was about a mile away. When Mary climbed the steps to the scaffold, her former pastor at Boston First Church told her that if she recanted her mistakes, she would be freed. To this she replied: “No, I can’t, because I came obeying the will of the Lord, and until my death I remain faithful to His will” ... She was hanged, and her body was buried anonymous at the place of execution.
After the death of Mary Dyer, a member of the legislature said prophetic words: "She hung like a flag for example to others."
Mary’s friends sent a petition to King Charles II of England demanding an end to the terrible executions, and he sent a decree to Boston that if any Quaker was sentenced to death there in the future, he should be returned to England for trial.
See also
- Quaker History
Notes
- ↑ German National Library , Berlin State Library , Bavarian State Library , etc. Record # 119212803 // General Normative Control (GND) - 2012—2016.
- ↑ 1 2 SNAC - 2010.
- ↑ Encyclopædia Britannica
- ↑ American National Biography - 1999.