Mary and William Dyer: Quaker Light and Puritan Ambition in Early New England

Mary Dyer is widely esteemed as one of the "Boston martyrs," four Quakers hanged by the Massachusetts Bay Colony between 1659 and 1661. When she returned to Boston in 1660, after having been banished twice from Massachusetts, she committed an act of deliberate civil disobedience that cost her her life, led to the downfall of the puritan government, and advanced the fundamental principles of freedom of conscience and expression. The challenge for the state has always been how to identify and then enforce the balance between the rights of individuals or groups to practice their beliefs, and the rights of others to likewise enjoy their liberties. The story of the Dyersƒ??especially Mary's storyƒ??is how that challenge played out between the New England puritans and the Quakers, and how her life and death shaped the outcome of that conflict.

• ISBN: 9781539351948
• Author: Winsser, Johan
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