Agents promise “golden Mountains, and having delivered them into the hands of the Dutch Merchants…ridicule these poor people on Account of their Simplicity and Credulity”
- A Frankfort merchant. 1752
” Welcome (or Not?)
Huguenots
In 1662 French Protestants from La Rochelle, fleeing perse-cution for their religious beliefs, petitioned the Massachusetts government for permission to settle. (Early “Huguenots” shared Calvinist beliefs similar to the Puritans.) Although there was some concern that French “enemies” might infil-trate, they were soon accepted and supported.
Image Above: A notably successful example of “assimilation,” Paul Revere was the most famous Huguenot descendent.
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Jerseymen
Marblehead and Salem merchants traded with the Jersey Islands, British possessions off the coast of France. Some residents with French names immigrated to Massachusetts. Although accepted over time, some “Jerseymen” were considered untrustworthy at first, a common immigrant experience.
Image Above: Map of Jersey Island
Quakers
Early Quakers could be disruptive – but not violent. Their harsh suppression by the Puritan government over religious differences continuous to puzzle and disturb. In 1660 Mary Dyer and three others were hanged on Boston Common. Over time attitudes changed. In 1741 the legislature considered compensating Quakers as “former sufferers.” In 1742 legislation was filed allowing Quakers to be witnesses and to serve in office.
Image Above: Mary Dyer condemned.
Catholics
Religious wars between Catholics and Protestants killed millions in seventeenth century Europe. For Massachusetts Puritans Catholicism represented not only abhorrent religious ideas but also military threats from powerful enemies, France and Spain. In 1700 life imprisonment was proposed for Catholic priests and death for any that escaped captivity.
Image Above: French missionary Pere Marquette preaching at the Mississippi River.
- Raynor Memorial Library, Marquette University
Irish Prisoners of War
As in the case of Scottish war prisoners, some Irish survivors of Oliver Cromwell’s campaign in Ireland arrived in Massachusetts as forced indentured servants. Because of religious differences they experienced less acceptance than Scottish Protestants.
Image Above: Cromwell at Dunbar by Andrew Carrack Dow.
- Tate Britain
- Massachusetts Archives
Book Burning
Two women “Mary” and “Ann” of “that sort of people commonly known by the name of Quakers” have arrived in Boston from Barbados. It is ordered that they be returned to the island and “That all such corrupt books as shall be found . . . to be brought in . . . be forthwith burnt and destroyed.” July 11, 1676 Massachusetts Archives
- Massachusetts Archives