olent in our condemnation of the men who sat in
judgment upon these people, for to the Puritan the Quaker represented a
peril which in this day we cannot comprehend, while the Puritan had also
the excuse for harshness that he owned the land and only desired the
Quaker to remain outside his borders. Yet, when this is said, we can but
give the most hearty admiration to the superb courage of the people who
believed it to be their duty to intrude where they were not desired,
and, believing, shrank from no consequence of their faith. Their women,
with whom we have most particularly to do, suffered grievously for their
devotion; they were whipped at the cart's tail, they were maimed, they
were branded, they were even hanged; yet they persisted. By their
devotion they not only gained many adherents--rarely open sympathizers,
but secret friends--but set a standard for womanhood. Gradually the
Puritan camp, under the constancy of their foes, became divided. The
majority of the Puritans, and especially of their women, grew more and
more virulent as the Quakers persisted in their "intrusion"; but there
was among the women an element, ever growing and strengthening, which
found inspiration in the methods of those whom they had at first
contemned. They had themselves suffered for their faith, though not as
these others; and they found a respect for those who shrank from no
penalty so that they might testify to their faith and do service. It is
after the coming of the Quakers that we find the New England woman more
determined, more active, more bound to high ideals. The mark of the
despised Quakers remained deeply graven, in effect if not in heredity,
on the New England character, especially in its women. Moreover, the
example of the female preachers of the Quakers had its effect in urging
upon the New England woman hitherto undreamed-of possibilities of making
herself heard in the councils of the land. Seeing what women could do as
well as bear, the New England woman was made stronger for both, and she
did not forget the lesson which came to her through those whom at first
she received with hatred and despite.

Such were the great religious feminine uprisings and revolts in New
England. Woman had proved that she was capable of establishing at least
a partial independence, had shown that she was gradually coming to be a
force that would have to be reckoned with in future estimates of the
commonwealth. It is true that the fathers of th