One of the earliest examples in colonial times of woman’s ignoring traditions and taking the initiative in dangerous work may be found in the daring invasion of Massachusetts by Quaker women to preach their belief.  Sewall makes mention of seeing such strange missionaries in the land of the saints:  “July 8, 1677.  New Meeting House (the third, or South) Mane:  In Sermon time there came in a female Quaker, in a Canvas Frock, her hair disshevelled and loose like a Periwigg, her face as black as ink, led by two other Quakers, and two others followed.  It occasioned the greatest and most amazing uproar that I ever saw."[298] No doubt some of these female exhorters acted outlandishly and caused genuine fear among the good Puritan elders for the safety of the colonies and the morals of the inhabitants.

Those were troubled times.  Indeed, between Anne Hutchinson and the Quakers, the Puritans of the day were harassed to distraction.  Mary Dyer, for example, one of the followers of Anne Hutchinson, repeatedly driven from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, returned just as often, even after being warned that if she came back she would be executed.  Once she was sentenced to death and was saved only by the intercession of her husband; but, having returned, she was again sentenced, and this time put to death.  The Quakers were whipped, disfigured by having their ears and nose cut off, banished, or even put to death; but fresh recruits, especially women, adorned in “sack cloth and ashes” and doing “unseemly” things, constantly took the place of those who were maimed or killed.  Why they should so persistently have invaded the Puritan territory has been a source of considerable questioning; but probably Fiske is correct when he says:  “The reasons for the persistent idea of the Quakers that they must live in Massachusetts was largely because, though tolerant of differences in doctrine, yet Quakerism had freed itself from Judaism as far as possible, while Puritanism was steeped in Judaism.  The former attempted to separate church and state, while under the latter belief the two were synonymous.  Therefore, the Quaker considered it his mission to overthrow the Puritan theocracy, and thus we find them insisting on returning, though it meant death.  It was a sacred duty, and it is to the glory of religious liberty that they succeeded."[299]

II.  Commercial Initiative

More might be said of the initiative spirit in religion, of at least a percentage of the colonial women, but the statements above should be sufficient to prove that religious affairs were not wholly left to the guidance of men.  And what of women’s originality and daring in other fields of activity?  The indications are that they even ventured, and that successfully, to dabble in the affairs of state.  Sewall mentions that the women were even urged by the men to expostulate with the governor about his plans for attending a certain meeting house at certain hours, and that after