WEBVTT NOTE 36. The Decline and Rigors of Plymouth 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.200 Volume 1, Chapter 36, The Decline and the Rigors of Plymouth 2 00:00:06.200 --> 00:00:11.600 What in all this time was happening to Plymouth, the mother colony of all New England? 3 00:00:11.600 --> 00:00:17.000 Succinctly, it was rapidly and irretrievably declining. 4 00:00:17.000 --> 00:00:26.200 As we have seen, its fur trade had virtually disappeared by 1640, and for the next 20 years only further decline ensued. 5 00:00:26.200 --> 00:00:36.200 By the mid-1640s, the town of Plymouth was virtually a ghost town, and economically the colony had become a backwater of Massachusetts Bay. 6 00:00:36.200 --> 00:00:47.200 By the 1640s, Plymouth, like Massachusetts, found the intensity of its religious zeal on the wane, and heresy and moral laxity were increasing. 7 00:00:47.200 --> 00:00:52.200 Plymouth faced a crossroads on how to react to this development. 8 00:00:52.200 --> 00:00:59.000 by Liberty and Toleration or by Following Massachusetts Path of Persecution. 9 00:00:59.000 --> 00:01:05.820 The critical point came in 1645 when William Vassel, a leading merchant, presented to the 10 00:01:05.820 --> 00:01:12.220 General Court of Plymouth as well as to that of Massachusetts Bay a petition for complete 11 00:01:12.220 --> 00:01:19.140 religious liberty, to grant full and free tolerance of religion to all men that will 12 00:01:19.140 --> 00:01:24.580 Preserve the Civil Peace and Submit Unto the Government. 13 00:01:24.580 --> 00:01:31.500 All men meant exactly that, including families, Roman Catholics and Jews. 14 00:01:31.500 --> 00:01:35.700 There was great sentiment in the general court in favor of the vassal petition. 15 00:01:35.700 --> 00:01:40.980 It commanded the support, in fact, of a majority of the Chamber of Deputies and even of such 16 00:01:40.980 --> 00:01:44.820 an old roustabout as Captain Miles Standish. 17 00:01:44.820 --> 00:01:51.060 But the ruling oligarchy of the colony, headed by Governor Bradford, Thomas Prance and Edward 18 00:01:51.060 --> 00:01:58.100 Winslow, strongly opposed religious liberty and was able to block its approval. 19 00:01:58.100 --> 00:02:03.060 This was the turning point, and for the next two decades, Plymouth accompanied its economic 20 00:02:03.060 --> 00:02:11.340 decline by following the lead of Massachusetts in increased theocracy and religious persecution. 21 00:02:11.340 --> 00:02:17.220 The colony proceeded to impose fines for failing to attend church, corporal penalties for 22 00:02:17.220 --> 00:02:22.980 denying the scripture, and denial of the rights of citizenship to all critics of the laws 23 00:02:22.980 --> 00:02:26.260 of Plymouth or of the true religion. 24 00:02:26.260 --> 00:02:31.380 One of the persistent troubles of Plymouth was a shortage of ministers, aggravated by 25 00:02:31.380 --> 00:02:36.300 its poverty, decline and increased intolerance. 26 00:02:36.300 --> 00:02:42.660 To deal with this scarcity, Plymouth took another fateful step down the theocratic road. 27 00:02:42.660 --> 00:02:47.760 It established a state church supported by taxation. 28 00:02:47.760 --> 00:02:53.940 Protests against this new establishment were led by Dr. Matthew Fuller of the town of Duxbury, 29 00:02:53.940 --> 00:02:58.880 who for his pains was denounced as wicked by the Plymouth authorities and forced to 30 00:02:58.880 --> 00:03:01.020 pay a steep fine. 31 00:03:01.020 --> 00:03:06.420 Despite this establishment, the pilgrim ministers remained poor, as they had to collect the 32 00:03:06.420 --> 00:03:12.780 pulpit taxes themselves, and the parishioners were usually far in arrears. 33 00:03:12.780 --> 00:03:15.400 Religious persecution continued to tighten. 34 00:03:15.400 --> 00:03:20.620 The colony did not believe itself too poor to afford inspectors of youth. 35 00:03:20.620 --> 00:03:27.100 One was appointed in each parish to supervise and birch any boy unruly in church. 36 00:03:27.100 --> 00:03:32.100 When this procedure failed, the inspectors intensified their birching penalties and included 37 00:03:32.100 --> 00:03:35.460 girls in this corporal punishment as well. 38 00:03:35.460 --> 00:03:41.220 Governor William Bradford died in 1657 at the age of 67. 39 00:03:41.220 --> 00:03:47.940 He left the colony impoverished, though he himself died a rich man, the richest in Plymouth. 40 00:03:47.940 --> 00:03:54.940 He was succeeded by Thomas Prince, who liked to think of himself as a terror to evildoers. 41 00:03:54.940 --> 00:04:00.820 When the Quaker influx arrived in Plymouth, Prince was as good as his word. Laws passed 42 00:04:00.820 --> 00:04:07.220 against Quakers provided for the summary arrest of suspected heretics in order to keep corrupt 43 00:04:07.220 --> 00:04:13.620 would-be freemen from the colony. And as a special slap at any Anglican deviation, the 44 00:04:13.620 --> 00:04:17.900 vicious practice of celebrating Christmas was outlawed. 45 00:04:17.900 --> 00:04:26.700 In 1659, six Quakers were banished, and Governor Prince thundered that all Quakers deserved 46 00:04:26.700 --> 00:04:32.620 to be destroyed, both they, their wives, and their children, without pity or mercy. 47 00:04:32.620 --> 00:04:36.540 But most pilgrims balked at this call for total victory. 48 00:04:36.540 --> 00:04:44.460 As a result, the colony did not flay, brand, or mutilate, let alone kill, its Quakers, 49 00:04:44.460 --> 00:04:46.940 as did Massachusetts Bay. 50 00:04:46.940 --> 00:04:52.220 The leading case of Quaker persecution in Plymouth was that of Humphrey Norton, who 51 00:04:52.220 --> 00:04:58.700 was banished and then returned. Though denounced by Governor Prince, Norton refused, according 52 00:04:58.700 --> 00:05:04.760 to Quaker principles, to take an oath of allegiance. Sentenced to be whipped, Norton managed to 53 00:05:04.760 --> 00:05:10.720 escape the punishment by refusing to pay the customary marshal's fee for the service of 54 00:05:10.720 --> 00:05:15.120 of Being Whipped, and was again expelled. 55 00:05:15.120 --> 00:05:21.240 As in Massachusetts Bay, there was widespread public opposition to the persecution. 56 00:05:21.240 --> 00:05:26.160 The persecution itself multiplied the number of Quaker converts. 57 00:05:26.160 --> 00:05:32.080 Thus, almost the entire town of Sandwich, at the entrance to Cape Cod, was converted 58 00:05:32.080 --> 00:05:33.760 to the Quaker faith. 59 00:05:33.760 --> 00:05:39.040 Barnstable, further along the Cape, liberally harbored and protected Quakers. 60 00:05:39.040 --> 00:05:45.640 Indeed, Bonstable's pilgrim minister, Rev. John Lothrop, accepted his church members, 61 00:05:45.640 --> 00:05:49.080 all who promised to keep the Ten Commandments. 62 00:05:49.080 --> 00:05:54.360 To deal with the troublesome sandwich problem, the colonial government of Plymouth sent there 63 00:05:54.360 --> 00:06:03.000 as special colonial constable one George Barlow, soon to be notorious as the Quaker Terror. 64 00:06:03.000 --> 00:06:08.880 Barlow was paid on a commission basis by Plymouth Colony for finding heretics, naturally his 65 00:06:08.880 --> 00:06:16.040 His zeal was unbounded. Barlow ruthlessly plundered the town of Sandwich, finding all suspects 66 00:06:16.040 --> 00:06:22.080 and disenfranchising eight freemen. The people of Sandwich dealt with Barlow in their own 67 00:06:22.080 --> 00:06:28.840 good way, resisting, harassing him and his family and putting them into the stocks. Finally 68 00:06:28.840 --> 00:06:33.280 the people triumphed and Barlow was driven out of town. 69 00:06:33.280 --> 00:06:38.840 Another leading center of resistance in heresy was Toxbury, north of the town of Plymouth. 70 00:06:38.840 --> 00:06:44.000 Duxbury was a town filled with Baptist and Quaker converts. 71 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:48.680 Here resistance to the tyranny of the Plymouth authorities was led by Reverend John Holmes 72 00:06:48.680 --> 00:06:50.720 and the Howland family. 73 00:06:50.720 --> 00:06:55.760 Zoweth Howland was put into the stocks by the authorities for criticizing the persecuting 74 00:06:55.760 --> 00:07:01.920 ministers and many citizens of Duxbury joined him in choosing to pay the fine rather than 75 00:07:01.920 --> 00:07:04.200 attend the Pilgrim Church. 76 00:07:04.200 --> 00:07:09.680 Particularly galling to the despotic Governor Prince was the fact that his own daughter 77 00:07:09.680 --> 00:07:17.240 Elizabeth had fallen in love with author Howland, the leading opponent of his tyrannical rule. 78 00:07:17.240 --> 00:07:23.360 Repeatedly Prince had Howland arrested and heavily fined for the crime of courting Elizabeth, 79 00:07:23.360 --> 00:07:29.700 but Prince finally, after a decade, broke down and permitted their marriage. 80 00:07:29.700 --> 00:07:35.480 One of the strongest centers of liberal resistance in Plymouth was the town of Situate, at the 81 00:07:35.480 --> 00:07:42.780 extreme north of the colony. Here the resistance was led by two eminent leaders of the colony, 82 00:07:42.780 --> 00:07:48.840 the veteran assistant governor, Captain James Cudworth, and Timothy Hatherley, a member 83 00:07:48.840 --> 00:07:55.120 of the general court for twenty years. Hatherley was summarily expelled from the general court 84 00:07:55.120 --> 00:08:01.040 and disfranchised by the province, but the town of Situate stubbornly re-elected him 85 00:08:01.040 --> 00:08:06.880 as a deputy. The general court, however, refused to seat the intractable Hatherley. 86 00:08:06.880 --> 00:08:12.000 Cudworth in his turn was dismissed from his high post as one of Plymouth's two commissioners 87 00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:18.320 of the United Colonies. Bitterly, Cudworth denounced the actions. Our civil powers are 88 00:08:18.320 --> 00:08:24.320 so exercised in matters of religion and conscience that we have no time to affect anything that 89 00:08:24.320 --> 00:08:28.320 tends to the promotion of the civil wheel. 90 00:08:28.320 --> 00:08:32.920 Cudworth also attacked the establishment of a state religion as well as the persecution 91 00:08:32.920 --> 00:08:34.640 of the Quakers. 92 00:08:34.640 --> 00:08:38.540 But even Cudworth's protest was met in the familiar way. 93 00:08:38.540 --> 00:08:45.880 He was dismissed as assistant governor, deprived of his military command, and disfranchised. 94 00:08:45.880 --> 00:08:49.700 This treatment of Cudworth only swelled the tide of protest. 95 00:08:49.700 --> 00:08:54.900 The frightened magistrates decided to appoint sound and reliable pilgrims in each town to 96 00:08:54.900 --> 00:09:02.700 argue with the Quakers and convert them. But this policy turned out disastrously. Deacon 97 00:09:02.700 --> 00:09:08.980 John Cook, officially appointed to spy upon heretics, was himself converted to the Baptist 98 00:09:08.980 --> 00:09:14.860 faith and excommunicated by the pilgrims. A much more telling blow to the authorities 99 00:09:14.860 --> 00:09:21.420 was the case of Isaac Robinson. Robinson, son of the beloved Reverend John Robinson, 100 00:09:21.420 --> 00:09:28.180 the founder of the Pilgrim Sect, who had never left Leiden, Holland for America, was appointed 101 00:09:28.180 --> 00:09:35.180 the official Convincer at Sandwich. Instead, the would-be converter was himself converted 102 00:09:35.940 --> 00:09:42.340 and became a Quaker. The embittered magistrates denounced Robinson for sundry scandals and 103 00:09:42.340 --> 00:09:47.260 and Falsehoods dismissed him from all his offices and deprived him of his rights as 104 00:09:47.260 --> 00:09:49.340 a free man. 105 00:09:49.340 --> 00:09:55.900 In the end, the Quakers emerged victorious, as they did in Massachusetts Bay. 106 00:09:55.900 --> 00:10:02.260 Town after town in Plymouth Colony eventually took it upon itself to grant full civil rights 107 00:10:02.260 --> 00:10:04.060 to the Quakers. 108 00:10:04.060 --> 00:10:10.820 The death of old Governor Prince in 1673 brought the more liberal, younger generation to the 109 00:10:10.820 --> 00:10:19.820 and the new governor, Major Josiah Winslow, restored all civil rights to the Quakers and their supporters. 110 00:10:19.820 --> 00:10:27.820 James Cudsworth, too, was renamed assistant governor. The old persecuting zeal in Plymouth Colony was ended.