Massachusetts and Religious Persecution
MASSACHUSETTS has fallen into line with Arkansas and Tennessee, and some of our brethren in Worcester are to be tried for working on Sunday. Massachusetts has not a very enviable character in the matter of persecution. It was from Massachusetts that Roger Williams and others—women too—were banished; it was in Massachusetts that the Baptists were whipped; it was in Massachusetts that Quakers, and women at that, were hanged on Boston Common; it was in Massachusetts that women were burned at the stake as witches; it was in Massachusetts and only last year, that a man was fined and imprisoned for publicly reading the Scriptures. With such a record it would be a wonder indeed if Massachusetts were less willing than any other State to persecute people for keeping the commandments of God.