The Naked Quaker "True Crimes and Controversies from the Courts of Colonial New England"

Book Review: The Naked Quaker- Abigail Sanchez

In the Naked Quaker “True Crimes and Controversies from the Courts of Colonial New England” by Diane Rapaport is basically what the title says. It is a book with around 12 stories of which are court records of what happened in New England that time. The author was very passionate of finding court records that she ended her actual career to keep pursing find old court records of which she was surprised to find so many of them and that not many people had found these. You can tell she is very passionate about what she is doing you can tell when reading the book. I enjoyed reading the book because it was very easy to read and follow through it was not boring and it almost made you feel like you were in the courthouse or somewhere in the town that you can witness some of the “crimes” that were taken place. I like on how she divided the stories all that had to do with witches and witchcraft were together, the others when the youth rebelled was another section and so forth. I also like how she provided a very brief but helpful summary of what each story was about and if there was a certain character introduced later in the book she brought up that later you would also hear from that person again. With honest sincerity I can say that this is the first book in a very long time that I read from cover to cover that was required because for once it didn’t feel boring or complex it was actually easy to enjoy. I liked learning on how the people back in the day were. When we think of our ancestors back in the day we think that they were honest, calm and very different of how we are today. But that book made me realize that nothing has changed from two hundred years ago until now. People still drank especially young people, there was still “drama” and everyone at a point had rebelled on something or someone. Reading this book made me realize that for everything that was done you would or could be sent to court. I exaggerate from saying that “even if you breathed the wrong way you were sent to court”. But that is because that’s how I feel if you were suspected of witchcraft, or if your pigs weren’t on your side of the property, or you engaged in a sexual relationship you were sent to court. And the punishment that seemed to be the one everyone got was getting whipped and having to pay a fine. I know that the Puritans had a way of wanting to live and that they were very strict. They felt like everyone should be in everyone’s business and if someone did not go to church then it was a game over you were committing the biggest sin. Going back to how I said that everyone was sent to court it was ridiculous because in one of the chapters I read called “to drive away melancholy” a husband and wife were sent to court because they were playing cards in their own house! No one was being threatened and in fact the husband was just trying to make his wife happy and have her pull through the hard winter that they were passing through. I mean in my opinion they were causing no harm to anyone at all, but obviously having a nosy neighbor or friends could hurt you because that is how they got sent to trial and were charged large fines and even the husband got whipped. That is why I tell you that the Puritans were very strict and wanted everyone to act the same that is why there were a lot of people that rebelled for example there were the “Quakers” of who rebelled against the Puritans and practiced of another faith which was the ultimate no no back in the day. That leads me to my other story “The Naked Quaker” of which Lydia Wardell came to church Sunday morning naked in a way of rebelling for not wanting to go practice that faith. It was the first time someone or a woman would do that and after being fined for not attending church and being whipped Lydia and her husband along with seven Quaker families fled away and started a new life. That is what a lot of the people used to do “flee” from where they were to live a better life because where they were was very strict and no one really was free. Like in one of the stories a girl got pregnant from a man that was already married and was also having a baby with his wife. The scared girl had to flee away to her uncle’s house to have a better life and in hopes that her child’s father would later come with them but that never happened. Instead like always he denied the baby. Now after reading that chapter I was left dumbfound because like I said earlier I thought that back then everyone was a little bit more “civil” but it just shows me that nothing but times have changed.  Because I mean how many times do we hear that a girl has become pregnant and when she says it’s a certain guy the guy if he doesn’t want to man up for his mistakes he will deny it. But now we have DNA’s test of which do not lie. After fully enjoying this book, I would highly recommend it you will never feel like you are reading because you have to instead you are reading for the enjoy of it. It will teach you a lot in so little pages and what I learned is that yes we evolve as human beings but nothing has changed. That drama with she said he said and the underage drinking and sexual relationships without being married, and being accused of something that is not true was alive back then just as much as it is now. And sadly I have to say that it will never stop but we just have to make the best of it and enjoy what we can for we only live once.