In conclusion, what may we say as to the general status of the colonial woman in the church?  Only in the Quaker congregation and possibly among the Methodists in the South did colonial womanhood successfully assert itself, and take part in the official activities of the institution.  In the Episcopal church of Virginia and the Carolinas, the Catholic Church of Maryland and Louisiana, and the Dutch church of New York, women were quiet onlookers, pious, reverent, and meek, freely acknowledging God in their lives, content to be seen and not heard.  In the Puritan assembly, likewise, they were, on the surface at least, meek, silent, docile; but their silence was deceiving, and, as shown in the witchcraft catastrophe, was but the silence of a smouldering volcano.  In the eighteenth century, the womanhood of the land became more assertive, in religion as in other affairs, and there is no doubt that Mercy Warren, Eliza Pinckney, Abigail Adams, and others mentioned in these pages were thinkers whose opinions were respected by both clergy and laymen.  The Puritan preacher did indeed declare against speech by women in the church, and demanded that if they had any questions, they should ask their husbands; but there came a time, and that quickly, when the voice of woman was heard in the blood of Salem’s dead.

FOOTNOTES: 

[1] Reprinted in English Garner, Vol.  II, p. 429.

[2] Vol.  I, p. 101.

[3] Sewall’s Diary, Vol.  I, p. 40.

[4] Ibid., Vol.  I, p. 111.

[5] Ibid., Vol.  I, p. 167.

[6] Diary, Vol.  I, p. 116.

[7] Diary, Vol.  III, p. 71.

[8] Original Narratives of Early Am.  Hist., Narratives of the Witchcraft Cases. p. 96, 97.

[9] Winthrop:  Hist. of N.E., Vol.  II, p. 36.

[10] Winthrop:  Hist. of N. Eng., Vol.  II, p. 411.

[11] Child Life in Colonial Days; P. 238.

[12] Ibid.

[13] Pp. 137, 185.

[14] Writings of Col.  Byrd, Ed. Bassett, p. 25.

[15] Winthrop:  History of New England, Vol.  II, pp. 79, 335.

[16] Hutchinson:  History of Massachusetts Bay. Chapter I.

[17] Fiske:  Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America, Vol.  I, p. 232.

[18] Hutchinson:  History of Massachusetts Bay, Chapter I.

[19] History of New England, Vol.  II, p. 397.

[20] Narratives of Early Maryland, p. 141.

[21] Narratives of Witchcraft Cases, p. 102.

[22] Sewall:  Diary, Vol.  I, p. 103.

[23] Annals of New England, Vol.  I, p. 579.

[24] Narratives of Witchcraft Cases, p. 135.

[25] Page 210.

[26a],[26b] Narratives of Witchcraft Cases, p. 38.

[27a],[27b] Diary, Vol.  I, p. 364.