Symposium: First Contact - Indigenous Peoples and the First English Settlers at the Quaker Meeting House, July 19, 2019. A presentation of the Nantucket Historical Association.
Presented by Richard Pickering, Deputy Executive Director of Plimoth Plantation
In 1917, social critic H. L. Mencken said that Puritanism was "the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy." Mencken could also have said that Puritanism was the haunting fear that someone, somewhere is committing an act of kindness. Again and again Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut colonists fled from the surveillance and oppression of Puritan communities, because they had performed an act of compassion and their neighbors' scorn became unbearable. Thomas Macy (1608-1682) of Nantucket, James Cudworth (circa 1605-1681) of Scituate, and Tobias Feake (circa 1624-1672) of Flushing on Long Island are three examples of colonial men unwilling to persecute, punish, or mutilate Quaker missionaries and their converts. The loss of homes, reputations, and personal freedom were dramatic compensation for simple acts of humanity. Richard Pickering will tell each man's story and follow the very different paths their lives took after the Quaker crisis.