THE NAKED QUAKER

“The Naked Quaker”
Diane Rapaport wrote The Naked Quaker True Crimes and Controversies from the Courts of Colonial New England in 2007. When we think of the word Puritan we think of people reading their bibles and going to church, not people having fun or being judgmental towards each other to see if they could sue each other. On court days in colonial New England, the town’s people gathered from miles around to listen as local magistrates convened to hear cases. In the abundant records existing from these hearings, we experience the passions and concerns of ordinary people, often in their own words, more than three centuries after the emotion-charged events that brought them to court.
Many people sued others just to sue. They sued each other if they thought the other was a witch, if the other’s cattle got into their yard, for being rude to your parents, and even for being out past curfew which was 10 P.M. etc. Suing people at this time became a trend everyone was doing it.
Being accused of doing witchcraft and being a witch was one of the most popular ones. The Salem Witch Trials take us back to this time. The Salem Witch Trials, for the most part, were innocent widow women that were accused of being witches. If something bad were to happen to you all you had to say was a name of the person you thought did “witchcraft” on you. You then would be taken to court if there were significant amount of evidence against you. However, the town’s people would still terrorize you and make you feel like an outsider.
The court systems during colonial times were really conservative. They did like to see couples showing affection to each other in public especially if you were not yet married. The conservatives in the colonies would keep close eye for that and to see if any one was committing adultery. If you would get caught for committing any of those two the man will usually get away with committing this “crime” and the women would be punished. The women will get publically humiliated by being whipped.
The youth were also people that were watched closely. They were like they are today, disrespectful to authority, wanting to have fun, and just want to hang out with friends. When the young adults of the colonial times would party or hang out there would always be someone watching them closely. If the smallest thing happened that the witness didn’t like, they would automatically tell the town judge. The colonial judges didn’t like that the youth would hang out with people of different races or different social classes; as we can see from this quote from the book, “At these parties unmarried men consorted with single women, and people of different races and social classes partied together as equals.” I found this especially interesting because it goes along with what this class is about
Despite Puritan reputation of being “saint” and all “righteousness,” the England Colonies did not band alcohol. Most of the people actually had a drinking problem. Drinking alcohol was a common beverage for everyone in the family, even children during these times. For example hard cider and beer were the beverages that would be drank in a common household. I believe the colonial courts would try to control this by having few bars in town; there were not as many bars as there is now in days. There were only one or two bars, or taverns as they were called back then, for each colony. Just like today you needed a license to sell liquor not just any one could sell it. If you were caught selling liquor illegally you would be fined.
Neighbors would always fight with each other over the nominal things. It makes you think if they were just suing because everyone was doing it or because they just did not like the person. The neighbor’s chapter in this book seemed childish. They were not able to fix their problems on their own, so they would dispute their problems in court. One of the reasons people would sue is if their neighbor’s livestock would get into the other’s yard. The neighbor would then sue because their fence would get destroyed or something along those lines. The main issue of neighbors was over land and invading each other’s property.
The Puritans thought of themselves to be higher than anyone else, especially if you were an Indian. Indians would usually have to give up their traditions, customs, and beliefs so the Puritans would not persecute them. Even after the Indians would give up everything for them, they would still be seen as “the other.” Being the other was just basically being the outsider.
I liked The Naked Quaker because it did not bore me. It was just stories being told to me, which I like. Since it did not bore me I actually read and understood the book. I like reading about true stories, but rarely is there a non-fiction book that can engage me to keep reading how The Naked Quaker did.