#and i'm not talking about sources written by quakers i'm talking abt ones written by historians who prolly barely know modern quakers exist

[yardsards]

the posts about belos being a puritan witch hunter reminded me of the FUNNIEST fact i once read about that era:

okay so like, background: puritans and quakers had MAJOR beef back then. nowadays people tend to lump them together bc they were both branches of christianity popular in colonial era america but they were actually extremely ideologically opposed. the quakers were basically the anarchist hippies of the 1600s and the puritans were... the puritans.

and y'know, mostly the groups stuck to their own colonies, but there was some intermingling and some proselytizing from both groups. and the puritans did NOT take kindly to the quakers barging in on their communities. this was before the witch trials were in full force, so they didn't always jump straight to execution, but quakers were often accused of witchcraft and heresy and punished appropriately. and the quakers, a notoriously rowdy bunch at the time, obviously protested *loudly* at this. screaming in the streets, banging pots and pans, interrupting church services and court hearings, etc.

now here's the funny part: another way they protested was STRIPPING NAKED IN PUBLIC. imagine you're a little puritan lad sent to the market to buy some molasses. and you hear shouting and clanging coming from the town square so you veer from your path to see what all the hubbub is about. and you just. get an eyeful of dicks n tits n asscheeks. how are you supposed to react.