The first Quakers to arrive in America came to Boston in July 1656.
They were two Englishwomen, Ann Austin and Mary Fisher. Although no law
had yet been passed in Massachusetts prohibiting the arrival of Quakers,
the two women were immediately imprisoned and searched carefully for
"witch-marks." Deputy Governor Richard Bellingham sent officers to the
ship, searched the ladies' baggage, seized their stock of Quaker
literature, and had it summarily burned. The women were imprisoned for
five weeks, during which time no one was allowed to visit or speak to
them. No light or writing material was allowed in their cell, and the
prisoners were almost starved to death. At the end of this ordeal, they
were shipped back to Barbados.
Bellingham denounced the two Quakers as heretics, transgressors with
"very dangerous, heretical, and blasphemous opinions" and "corrupt,
heretical, and blasphemous doctrines." Bellingham's litmus test for
deciding if the ladies were Quakers was brusque indeed; one of them
happened to say "thee," whereupon Bellingham declared that "he needed no
more; now he knew they were Quakers."
