Quaker Women in American Colonies

"Quaker Women in the American Colonies" During the colonial period, women were considered inferior to men and “nothing more than servants for their husbands.” During the eighteenth century, unmarried Quaker women were the first to vote, stand up in court, and evangelize; although Quaker women enjoyed rights that women today take for granted, they were most known for their religious radicalism. According to Rufus Jones, a professor at Harvard, the Quakers “felt, as their own testimony plainly shows, that they were not solitary adventurers, but that God was pushing them out to be the bearers of a new and mighty word of Life which was to remake the world, and that the whole group behind them was in some sense embodied in them.” Women like Margaret Fell and Mary Dyer contributed to the Quaker religion and bolstered their communities, even through great personal hardship. Margaret Fell was the wife of George Fox, the creator of the Society of Friends, and she held a position in the Quaker religion that rivaled all others. She interceded on behalf of her Quaker friends several times during her life, even going to prison for her beliefs. As a married Quaker, the rights she enjoyed should have been stripped and she should have reverted back to a more subservient role, but her husband allowed her to continue to be outspoken; she is often considered the first feminist. Although Anne Hutchinson was considered a radical but not a Quaker, Mary Dyer became a Quaker in her quest to find a more satisfying religion; she was banished several times from Massachusetts by Governors John Winthrop and John Endicott. While she may have become a martyr for the cause, her death was paramount to changing some of the anti-Quaker laws that had been enacted. Both of these women suffered greatly for their beliefs, either through personal hardship or loss of their life. These Quakers women were some of the most radical believers in the colonies, putting life and family at risk

Bibliography: An abstract of the Life of Margaret Fell. November 17, 2007. <http://www.gwyneddfriends.org/margaret_fell.html> Anne Hutchinson, December 1, 2007. <http://www.annehutchinson.com/anne_hutchinson_biography_003.htm> Jones, Rufus. The Quakers in the American Colonies. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1966. Mary Barrett Dyer. December 3, 2007. <http://www.rootsweb.com/~nwa/dyer.html>