Speaker 1: School of Humans.
Speaker 2: Hello filth heads.
Speaker 3: First of all, we got some huge news, absolutely enormous.
Speaker 2: So American Filth won an award.
Speaker 3: Ah want to give a huge shout out to the
Speaker 3: International Women's Podcast Awards for giving the show an award
Speaker 3: in Moment of Comedy gold he he I love to
Speaker 3: be celebrated, so go us. So yeah, Failth listeners, make
Speaker 3: sure you tell your friends that you listen to an
Speaker 3: award winning podcast and that they should also listen to
Speaker 3: the podcast so that we can keep making it. Yes,
Speaker 3: that's a threat. Speaking of threats, this is the last
Speaker 3: time I'm going to tell you about our live show
Speaker 3: because it's this Saturday at Dynamic El Dorado in Atlanta, Georgia,
Speaker 3: and we have a stellar lineup of comedians and we
Speaker 3: also got a lot of cool fun facts, and we're
Speaker 3: also going to have two extremely special guests. The first
Speaker 3: one is the Statue of Liberty, she's coming in from NYC.
Speaker 3: And another's special guests we have is Martha Washington resurrected
Speaker 3: from the dead. It's going to be crazy. So tickets
Speaker 3: to that are in the show notes and also on
Speaker 3: our Instagram.
Speaker 2: So check it out.
Speaker 3: But blah blah blah, announcements. Now we're going to get
Speaker 3: into some history, and we're going to go back to
Speaker 3: colonial times, because I feel like we've been dwelling a lot,
Speaker 3: and by we, I mean I specifically have been writing
Speaker 3: scripts about the nineteenth.
Speaker 2: Century, and so I'm a bit tired of that.
Speaker 3: So let's go back to the colonial times, back to
Speaker 3: the Massachusetts Bay Colony, back to those Puritans, and learn
Speaker 3: some filth about them. One of the most ironic things
Speaker 3: about the Puritans, who fled to the American colonies in
Speaker 3: the seventeenth century so that they could practice their religion
Speaker 3: is that once they were here, they were not open
Speaker 3: to people practicing another religion.
Speaker 2: Specifically, let's zoom in.
Speaker 3: On the Massachusetts Bay Colony, because there it was actually
Speaker 3: illegal to not go to church on Sunday, Puritan style,
Speaker 3: and if you didn't go, you got fined. Also, you
Speaker 3: often would get the living shit kicked out of you.
Speaker 3: But I suppose you deserved it because you made God mad.
Speaker 3: One of the groups who were super persecuted by the
Speaker 3: Puritans was the oatmeal people, Yes, the Quakers. And you
Speaker 3: know how one Quaker resisted these Puritans, Well, she went
Speaker 3: to church with her tits out cue the theme song.
Speaker 3: This is American filth and I'm Gabby Watts. Every week
Speaker 3: I tell you a filthy story from American history. This
Speaker 3: week Quaker jugs. So what does it mean to be
Speaker 3: a Quaker? I called it one of my good friends
Speaker 3: Mary At a Mendler who grew up amongst the Quakers,
Speaker 3: to tell me about it. Thanks for being the Quaker
Speaker 3: representative for this week. I think it's a really important
Speaker 3: historical role to have. What is Quakerism and how is it?
Speaker 3: How is it different from other types of like Protestantism.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so it was really cool is that Quackerism was
Speaker 4: started by this man named George Fox in England. And
Speaker 4: George Fox looks at the King and was like, with
Speaker 4: mine's so special, Like we're both humans, aren't we? Like
Speaker 4: why am I bowing to you? Like we're all We're
Speaker 4: all the same, We're all humans.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: And then the King was.
Speaker 4: Like, well, I'm gonna cut your head off.
Speaker 2: If you say them about loud.
Speaker 4: So he was like So then he moved to America
Speaker 4: and that's when Quakerism really got stronger. And there's two
Speaker 4: different types of Quakerism in America. But I was and
Speaker 4: can speak to what qua Kearism means for being on
Speaker 4: the on the eastern side unorganized Quaker and that meant
Speaker 4: that we would go to meeting on Sundays. Sometimes there
Speaker 4: would be an hour long like adult discussion before meeting.
Speaker 4: A meeting would just be we would sing three songs.
Speaker 4: We'd all come to a consensus on what three songs
Speaker 4: we wanted to sing, and then sit in silence for
Speaker 4: forty five minutes and if anyone is moved to speak
Speaker 4: during that time, then they can. But it's just something
Speaker 4: like a space where you can say what the light
Speaker 4: moves you to say. And that's something that they say
Speaker 4: in Quackrism a lot is that everyone has the same
Speaker 4: light within them and you can be moved by the
Speaker 4: light to speak in Quakerism, or you can also ask
Speaker 4: your fellow people to hold someone in the light if
Speaker 4: you're like thinking of someone or if someone's going through
Speaker 4: a rough time.
Speaker 3: Have you ever been moved to speak?
Speaker 2: I truly if you believe it, I'm signlent.
Speaker 3: Oh boy, oh wow, Mary, I don't know speaking the
Speaker 3: first forty five minutes in which you haven't said a word.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I've always been too scared. And did you know
Speaker 4: that that's how they got the name Quaker was because
Speaker 4: originally they're called the Society of Friends.
Speaker 2: But then some people.
Speaker 4: This might be a rumor too, but this is always
Speaker 4: what I heard was that ya on.
Speaker 3: This podcast, we don't like I don't like to verify
Speaker 3: and foe.
Speaker 4: So go ahead, okay, perfect, perfect when you have to
Speaker 4: speak of the stand up in front of and talk
Speaker 4: to everyone. And my meeting was really small, but some
Speaker 4: of them are a lot larger, and so then they
Speaker 4: noticed that people were shaking a little bit while they
Speaker 4: were talking. And then that's why they were like, oh,
Speaker 4: look at you guys, quake in while you're talking.
Speaker 2: A bunch of Quakers.
Speaker 4: And then the Quakers were like, that's right, we are
Speaker 4: Quakers because sometimes we're scared, and that's okay.
Speaker 3: So they took like the slur against them and they
Speaker 3: empowered themselves with it.
Speaker 2: I think that's nice.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I mean I was reading about it. I mean,
Speaker 3: this episode is mostly about in the seventeenth century when
Speaker 3: it kind of got going, but it seemed that I mean,
Speaker 3: obviously you're talking about the king. Obviously the king was like,
Speaker 3: George Fox, I'm gonna cut your freakin head off for
Speaker 3: saying these crazy things that you can like also access
Speaker 3: God in a way that like I can that we're
Speaker 3: not different blah blah blah. But you know, or were
Speaker 3: there other do you know of, like you know, the
Speaker 3: other reasons of why Puritans just freaking hated them?
Speaker 4: Well, I think a big reason why Puritans would have
Speaker 4: hated them is because they would have, especially in the
Speaker 4: seventeen hundreds, they were really into being simple, and you
Speaker 4: would think that Puritans would love that, but because they
Speaker 4: did have that, you know, that really simple garb that
Speaker 4: you see on the quick Grove no box.
Speaker 2: But then they eventually.
Speaker 4: Realized that like looking like especially simple made them come
Speaker 4: across as like better than I everybody, or like that
Speaker 4: they thought they were different than everybody, and then they
Speaker 4: were like, the whole point of this is that we're
Speaker 4: all the same, so we should just all just the saying.
Speaker 4: I know they were they were really into prison abolition,
Speaker 4: that's good, and Puritans love to bring.
Speaker 3: Puritans love prison, and they hate witches, and it seems
Speaker 3: like they kind of thought that the Quakers were witches
Speaker 3: too rude.
Speaker 4: But I can see how maybe they thought that maybe
Speaker 4: they were like, what are you guys even thinking about
Speaker 4: if you no one's telling you what to think.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Also, like if you're wearing a simple clothes, that's
Speaker 3: that's what witches love to wear, because you know, witches,
Speaker 3: they always be taking their rubes. They'd be disrobing all
Speaker 3: the time to go dance with satan you know.
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, and Quakers love square dancing and that could
Speaker 4: look satanic probably the Puritans.
Speaker 3: That is pretty satan like Docy dough your partner. Yeah,
Speaker 3: that's basically that's basically speaking that the tongue of snakes.
Speaker 3: That's basically what that is.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you yeah, and that's where all all Quakers know that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, all Quakers know that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, his children.
Speaker 3: Yeah, not to speak for all Quakers, but all Quakers.
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, I think they'd all back me up.
Speaker 4: Everyone you meet on the Eastern side.
Speaker 3: Yeah, oh yeah. Why why are they called friends?
Speaker 4: Oh you know, I should I should know that.
Speaker 3: Well, No, I'll just I'll just I'll do a little
Speaker 3: bit of research and I'll just mention it on the pod.
Speaker 3: No worries, because you know, I guess it is rude
Speaker 3: to me to be like Marietta, you explain all of Quakerism.
Speaker 3: I'm not going to bother so rude.
Speaker 4: I shouldn't know why. I guess maybe George Tunks was
Speaker 4: just was just chilling. I feel like it just started
Speaker 4: as a friend group.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: He's like, these are we're all my friends. These are
Speaker 4: the homies. We chill and we give each other advice
Speaker 4: on stuff. And what's nice is that, Like you know
Speaker 4: how people go to their minister or the priest for
Speaker 4: advice and plagiarism, you just form a committee. You ask
Speaker 4: them to form a committee to help you think through something,
Speaker 4: and then you just get another little group of friends
Speaker 4: to help you with stuff.
Speaker 3: Oh nice, like a panel of pals.
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly, exactly. Society of friends, panel of pals.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I like, I like the idea. Society of the homies.
Speaker 3: That's really what.
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly, you're all just chilling.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well that you've heard it here, folks. What is Quakerism?
Speaker 3: It's where you're just chilling.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, Mary Etta, thank you so much for your insights
Speaker 3: on this would be really helpful for the episode that
Speaker 3: we're about to do. So thank you so much for
Speaker 3: being the spokesperson of all Quakers.
Speaker 4: Thank you, honor.
Speaker 3: That was Marietta Mendler, our Quaker correspondent for the show,
Speaker 3: and I guess I did a little bit of research,
Speaker 3: I suppose, just to clarify a couple things. So the
Speaker 3: Quaker founder George Fox, apparently the reason they're called friends
Speaker 3: is after a Bible verse from John fifteen fourteen that says,
Speaker 3: you are my friends if I do what I command you.
Speaker 3: So I guess what means to be a Quaker is
Speaker 3: that God he's like your pal. You know, he's your friend.
Speaker 3: No friends do they command you to do stuff. That's
Speaker 3: how I express my friendship. I just I really appreciate
Speaker 3: acts of service, just like the Lord. But you know,
Speaker 3: if you're trying to think about Quakers, some things that
Speaker 3: they believe in is that God is everywhere. We should
Speaker 3: have community, there should be a quality. They were very
Speaker 3: much involved in social justice. I mean, early on some
Speaker 3: Quakers did own slaves, but they were prohibited from owning
Speaker 3: slaves starting in seventeen some and they were some early
Speaker 3: abolitionists in the new United States of America. But you know,
Speaker 3: they were pacifists. They were very anti authority, they're very
Speaker 3: anti prison. You know, they would wear the simple dress.
Speaker 3: They were into being frugal, didn't like excess and Obviously
Speaker 3: the Puritans were like, fuf fricking hate that.
Speaker 2: Boo Quakers.
Speaker 3: But as I was talking about with Marietta, so the
Speaker 3: Quakers were absolutely despised.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, Like if.
Speaker 3: We're looking at the mid seventeenth century in the colonies
Speaker 3: and also in Mummy England, the Quakers were being rounded
Speaker 3: up and jailed and then also having the ship beat
Speaker 3: out of them. And you know what was so bad
Speaker 3: about them according to the Puritans, Well, you know, they
Speaker 3: were weird, they were radical. They were saying, like anyone
Speaker 3: can access God's insane. The Puritan elite they like to
Speaker 3: gate keep God. They're like, no, you need us to
Speaker 3: access God. Ugh, you guys are crazy. And then sometimes
Speaker 3: Quakers with their meetings, with their beliefs, they were kind
Speaker 3: of mystical in some ways, and so a lot of people, yeah,
Speaker 3: they're like, uugh, quakersm that's basically like being a witch.
Speaker 3: We don't like that. And so yeah, the Quakers, they
Speaker 3: weren't having a great time. And in sixteen sixty three
Speaker 3: there was this one Quaker, Lydia Perkins Wardell, and she
Speaker 3: was about to experience some of that Puritan wrath. Lucky her,
Speaker 3: so Lydia was born a regular old Puritan in the
Speaker 3: Massachusetts Bay Colony. She was described as young and tender,
Speaker 3: a chaste woman. But then she got married to this
Speaker 3: dude named Elia Kim, and that's when he and thus
Speaker 3: she became a Quaker. Because that's what you do as
Speaker 3: a dutiful wife. You convert to a religion where they
Speaker 3: beat the shit out of you. Excellent idea, like him,
Speaker 3: I've been meaning to get some whippings.
Speaker 2: Or you know, she might have liked being a Quaker.
Speaker 2: We don't know.
Speaker 3: Her perspective wasn't written down, how helpful. But anyway, no
Speaker 3: matter how she felt about it, she was likely very
Speaker 3: aware about what was going on with Quakers. She probably
Speaker 3: knew about the tale of Anne Austin Mary Fisher. For example.
Speaker 3: They were both Quakers from London, and they were like, huzzah,
Speaker 3: we're going to go take everything George Fox has said
Speaker 3: and spread it around the New World. So they got
Speaker 3: on this boat called the Swallow. They went over to Barbados.
Speaker 3: People in Barbados were like, hey, this actually seems like
Speaker 3: a cool idea. That's interesting. But then Anne and Mary
Speaker 3: were about to have a terrible time because they decided
Speaker 3: to sail up to the northern colonies, And when they arrived,
Speaker 3: the deputy governor of the Massachusetts Colony, Richard Bellingham, ordered
Speaker 3: them to be detained on board. Some officers searched their
Speaker 3: stuff and seized one hundred books of theirs, carried them
Speaker 3: off the boat and burned them. Also, he imagined, and
Speaker 3: traveling with one hundred books, what a burden doesn't all
Speaker 3: fit in a carry on? And now why did Richard
Speaker 3: Bellingham order them to burn those books? When the two
Speaker 3: women arrived on July eleventh, sixteen fifty six, he called
Speaker 3: a council together in Boston, and they said this, upon examination,
Speaker 3: are found not only to be transgressors of the former laws,
Speaker 3: but to hold very dangerous, heretical and blasphemous opinions. And
Speaker 3: they do also acknowledge that they came here purposely to
Speaker 3: propagate their said errors and heresies, bringing with them and
Speaker 3: spreading here sundry books wherein are contained most corrupt, heretical
Speaker 3: and blasphemous doctrines contrary to the truth of the Gospel.
Speaker 3: Here professed a us dangerous, heretical, blasphemous I think that
Speaker 3: could be a good song. But anyway, after that, Mary
Speaker 3: and Anne's ordeal got even worse. The two of them
Speaker 3: were thrown in jail and they weren't even allowed to
Speaker 3: use a candle to light the room they were in.
Speaker 3: Then they were stripped naked and examined in all their
Speaker 3: nooks and crannies because you know, that's where Quakerism is.
Speaker 2: And apparently one of.
Speaker 3: Their examiners was a man disguised in woman's clothing, so
Speaker 3: just a little pervert trying to get some action. After
Speaker 3: that examination, their cell was locked and boarded up. Not
Speaker 3: even food could get into where they were, and so
Speaker 3: the attention of these Massachusetts Bay Puritans was basically to
Speaker 3: starve them. But luckily for these two ladies, there was
Speaker 3: an innkeeper who was really sympathetic to their cause, and
Speaker 3: so he bribed the jailer to give them food and
Speaker 3: then they were released.
Speaker 2: Five weeks later.
Speaker 3: They got back on board their boat, went to Barbados
Speaker 3: and then back to England, so their trip not necessarily successful.
Speaker 3: But that innkeeper who helped them out he became a
Speaker 3: Quaker and started spreading the Quakerism around and then literally
Speaker 3: a few days after Anne and Mary left, some other
Speaker 3: Quakers landed in the Massachusetts Bay colony and those dudes
Speaker 3: were also imprisoned.
Speaker 2: They were also released several.
Speaker 3: Weeks later after a lot of torture and torment. But
Speaker 3: when the second round of Quaker missionaries landed, that's when
Speaker 3: the people in the Massachusetts Bay Colony were like, we
Speaker 3: need to pass some laws that are anti Quaker. The
Speaker 3: first law was like, if Quakers got on a boat
Speaker 3: from England over to the Colonies, the captain of that
Speaker 3: boat is not allowed to let them get on land.
Speaker 2: If the captain lets.
Speaker 3: The Quakers off the boat, he has to page a
Speaker 3: huge fine because yuck Quakers. And then another law was like,
Speaker 3: but if a Quaker does make it onto the land,
Speaker 3: they are to be committed to the House of Correction
Speaker 3: where they must be severely whipped. And then we're gonna
Speaker 3: make them do hard labor constantly, and no one is
Speaker 3: allowed to talk to them.
Speaker 2: The next year got even crazier.
Speaker 3: There was a law that was passed that said, any
Speaker 3: Quaker that enters Massachusetts Bay Colony must have one of
Speaker 3: his ears cut off, and then if he keeps being
Speaker 3: a Quaker, he'll lose another ear, and then for the
Speaker 3: third time, if he's still being a Quaker, they'd pull
Speaker 3: out this man's tongue and stick it through with a
Speaker 3: hot iron. Yikes, that's apparently just for the dude Quakers.
Speaker 3: The women Quakers, all they have to do is get
Speaker 3: beat severely. Then in sixteen sixty one there was another
Speaker 3: decree that said any wandering Quakers will be apprehended, strip
Speaker 3: naked from the middle upward, tied to carts, and then
Speaker 3: whipped through the town. And at this point the colony's
Speaker 3: prisons were filled with Quakers, and there was even four
Speaker 3: executions people being executed just for being Quakers. But then
Speaker 3: King Charles the Second put out this decree that was like, hey, guys, sorry,
Speaker 3: but you can't actually kill the Quakers just because they're Quakers.
Speaker 3: So calm down, sure beat them whatever, just no executions, thanks.
Speaker 2: For everyone.
Speaker 3: In the Massachusetts Bay Colony, it was illegal to not
Speaker 3: go to Puritan church on Sundays. If you didn't go
Speaker 3: to church, you got fined or they might give you
Speaker 3: one of those severe whippings. And so back to Lydia. Lydia,
Speaker 3: as a Quaker, knew about this punishment. She had probably
Speaker 3: witnessed this, specifically in the case of three other women
Speaker 3: and coleman, Mary Tomkins and Alice Ambrose in sixteen sixty two.
Speaker 3: A year before this happened to Lydia, Tompkins and Ambrose
Speaker 3: had tried to organize a Quaker group in Dover, but
Speaker 3: then the police, I said, the police, the Purton's not
Speaker 3: the police. The Peerton elite were like, get the hell
Speaker 3: out of here. So the two of them left. But
Speaker 3: then a year later they were determined to get Quakerism
Speaker 3: in Dover, so they came back, and this time they
Speaker 3: were joined by Coleman, and they started another group, but
Speaker 3: were quickly discovered, and then the magistrate ordered their punishment.
Speaker 3: The punishment read, you and the King's name are to
Speaker 3: take these vagabond Quakers and Coleman, Marry Tompkins and Alice
Speaker 3: Ambrose and fastened them to a cart's tail, driving the
Speaker 3: cart through several towns, whipped them on their backs ten
Speaker 3: times in each town, and so conveyed them from constable
Speaker 3: to constable until they'd come out of this jurisdiction. So yeah,
Speaker 3: he was condemning them to a whipping tour. So in
Speaker 3: the winter of sixteen sixty two, which is before global warming,
Speaker 3: so I imagine it was.
Speaker 2: Cold as hell.
Speaker 3: They were indeed tied to a cart stripped from the
Speaker 3: waist down and toted it from town to town being whipped.
Speaker 3: Luckily they didn't have to finish their tour because in
Speaker 3: Salisbury the authorities were like, this is too much, and
Speaker 3: they released the three women. And you would think after
Speaker 3: being on a whipping tour, tied to a cart with
Speaker 3: your shirt taken off, that maybe you'd be encouraged not
Speaker 3: to preach Quakerism in Dover. But these three women. A
Speaker 3: year later, they went back to Dover yet again, and
Speaker 3: this time the authorities dragged them down to the river
Speaker 3: and were like, we're gonna drown you. But apparently during
Speaker 3: this altercation a strong wind swept through which pushed back
Speaker 3: the Puritan authorities and the women were able to escape.
Speaker 3: This feels fake, but okay, but when these women were
Speaker 3: tit out on their whipping tour, I mean they didn't
Speaker 3: on purpose have their tits out, That's just what the
Speaker 3: Puritans made them do. Lydia and her husband Alia him
Speaker 3: were some of the spectators. You know, they had to
Speaker 3: go support their friends, being like, I'm sorry you're getting whipped.
Speaker 2: We're on your side.
Speaker 3: They saw them when they were on their first stop
Speaker 3: in Dover and the Puritan reverend there was being a
Speaker 3: little bitch about it. He quote stood and looked and
Speaker 3: laughed at it, and Eliakim was like, damn, this guy sucks.
Speaker 3: He called him a brute and then for calling him that,
Speaker 3: Aliakim was thrown in jail. But that wasn't the first
Speaker 3: time Aliakim had been thrown in jail. Ever since they
Speaker 3: had converted to Quakerism, Lydia and alike Him had been
Speaker 3: having a hard time. Like him, was constantly harassed, he
Speaker 3: was beaten up. But this Quaker couple did some pretty
Speaker 3: radical stuff. They hid notable Quakers in their home who
Speaker 3: were fleeing prosecution. At one point, there was actually a
Speaker 3: raid on their household, which was encouraged by a local
Speaker 3: reverend who was trying to quote keep the wolves from
Speaker 3: his sheep. Oh, you know, those aggressive pacifist Quakers. And
Speaker 3: along with all this physical punishment, Elia Him had also
Speaker 3: been fined multiple times for not going to church, and
Speaker 3: with all of these finds that he constantly got, basically
Speaker 3: all of his assets had been taken away from him
Speaker 3: and his family. He was also getting fined for Lydia's
Speaker 3: absence from church, and eventually, because the Puritans had done
Speaker 3: just about everything to alia him that they could, because remember,
Speaker 3: you couldn't just kill Quakers anymore. The church summoned Lydia
Speaker 3: to answer for her absence from church and for quote
Speaker 3: teaching false doctrine, and so Lydia, probably understanding that what
Speaker 3: happened to them those women in Dover was about to
Speaker 3: happen to her, she was like, HM, let's protest this shit.
Speaker 3: I ain't got nothing to lose. So she went down
Speaker 3: to the church, but before she entered, she stripped off
Speaker 3: her petticoat. So she walked into that church with her
Speaker 3: Quaker jugs out and bobbin, we'll be right back after
Speaker 3: these soothing advertisements.
Speaker 2: Wow, what a sight.
Speaker 3: Lydia walked into that church bear breasted at Sunday Church. Honestly,
Speaker 3: if that happened more often.
Speaker 2: Maybe I would go to church.
Speaker 3: But Lyddia was there protesting the law that said you
Speaker 3: had to go to Puriton Church with her titties out
Speaker 3: for everyone to see. She knew the consequences, and she
Speaker 3: was like, I'm freeing the Quakers by freeing the nipple.
Speaker 3: She didn't actually say that, and I'm sure this caused
Speaker 3: a frickin' scene for those Puritans.
Speaker 2: Puritans hated nudity.
Speaker 3: They were like, nudity is evil unless you are married
Speaker 3: and doing some pro creating, or if we're whipping you.
Speaker 3: Hypocritical Puritans would never be. But the thing is Lydia,
Speaker 3: she wasn't the first Quaker to go naked out in
Speaker 3: these streets. See, there was actually a trend going on
Speaker 3: in Quakerism called going naked as a sign, a sign
Speaker 3: for what you might ask well, a sign of being
Speaker 3: close to the Lord. So you remember George Fox, who
Speaker 3: Marietta was talking about, Who's the dude who founded Quakerism.
Speaker 3: In sixteen fifty two, he wrote a letter that said, quote,
Speaker 3: the Lord made one to go naked among you a
Speaker 3: figure of thy nakedness and of your nakedness, and as
Speaker 3: a sign amongst you before your destruction cometh, that you
Speaker 3: might see that you were naked and not covered with
Speaker 3: the truth. And George FLOGGX I don't know if he
Speaker 3: was trying to be taken seriously, but it does sound
Speaker 3: like he's pretty pro nudity as a sign of being
Speaker 3: close with the Lord.
Speaker 2: And after he wrote that, there was.
Speaker 3: A slew of naked cases where Quakers would just be
Speaker 3: walking around in the streets of England in some sort
Speaker 3: of state of undress. Like in one small town in England,
Speaker 3: two Quakers who called themselves Adam and Eve quote went
Speaker 3: for some while, as some uncivilized heathens do, discovering their
Speaker 3: nakedness to the eye of every beholder. Then there was
Speaker 3: a case where a Quaker ran through a town and
Speaker 3: nothing but his shirt, calling on people to repent, trying
Speaker 3: to convert people with your dick out. Now that's an
Speaker 3: effective missionary. And these naked events they kept happening sporadically.
Speaker 2: There was even a guy who.
Speaker 3: Went around naked for three years. But back to Lydia.
Speaker 3: After her shocking scene as a naked Quaker at the church,
Speaker 3: she was ordered to appear in court. That hearing was
Speaker 3: on May fifth, sixteen sixty three, and there she did
Speaker 3: wear her clothes, but she was sentenced to a severe punishment.
Speaker 3: First she was fined two shillings and sixpence for not
Speaker 3: attending church, and then she had to basically reimburse the
Speaker 3: marshal who brought her to court for the expenses of
Speaker 3: their travel, which was like ten shillings, which honestly that
Speaker 3: seems like a lot. Like was this marshal like a
Speaker 3: donkey and buggy uber service at peak hours. And then finally,
Speaker 3: of course, Lydia was sentenced to be quote severely whipped,
Speaker 3: and indeed her whipping was quite severe. She was dragged
Speaker 3: from the courtroom down to a nearby tavern where she
Speaker 3: was stripped down to the wat tits out again and
Speaker 3: then tied to a splintery post. It seems back in
Speaker 3: the day there was a lot of splintery posts and
Speaker 3: a crowd gathered, specifically of men and boys, and she
Speaker 3: was lashed somewhere between twenty and thirty times, which, as
Speaker 3: one historical account said, tore her bosom. As she writhed
Speaker 3: under the lash, yeah, can you.
Speaker 2: Tore her bosom? Absolutely horrendous.
Speaker 3: Anyway, after Lydia got her whipping, the Wardell family was like,
Speaker 3: we gotta get the heck out of here. This place sucks.
Speaker 3: We're losing all of our money, we're also being tortured.
Speaker 3: So what they did is they moved to New Jersey, Ah,
Speaker 3: New Jersey, where everyone wants to.
Speaker 2: Go, but their lives were a lot better there.
Speaker 3: Eliakim was able to become a Quaker minister, but after
Speaker 3: this happened in sixteen sixty three, it was still freaking
Speaker 3: hard to be a Quaker. George Fox eventually came over
Speaker 3: to the colonies in the early sixteen seventies, but in
Speaker 3: the Massachusetts Bay Colony there were still laws being passed
Speaker 3: against Quaker stuff, like in sixteen seventy five, Quaker meetings
Speaker 3: were banned. Then in sixteen seventy seven another law was
Speaker 3: passed that said it was okay for the Puritan constables
Speaker 3: to break into people's houses and arrest them if they
Speaker 3: were suspected Quakers. But ye old Oatmeal people continued to protest.
Speaker 3: One fun protest happened in sixteen seventy seven. A group
Speaker 3: of Quakers went to go spook a congregation on a
Speaker 3: Sunday morning, not by taking their tops off, but by
Speaker 3: dressing up as the devil. The leader of the group
Speaker 3: was named Margaret Brewster, and she wore a disguise of
Speaker 3: a canvas frock, her hair dishoveled and loose like a
Speaker 3: paara wig, her.
Speaker 2: Face as black as ink.
Speaker 3: And so this group of protesters and their outfits shuffled
Speaker 3: in looking scary as hell, and the congregation of Puritans
Speaker 3: was freaked out. Men were shouting, women were fainting classic.
Speaker 3: But then the protesters were all arrested and court. The
Speaker 3: magistrates were like, why the heck did you dress up
Speaker 3: as the devil and terrify all these innocent Puritans, And
Speaker 3: Margaret Brewster she was like, I'm protesting the fact that
Speaker 3: we can't have Quaker meetings. She said, if you will
Speaker 3: draw your swords against the Lord and his people, the
Speaker 3: Lord will assuredly draw his sword against you, the sword
Speaker 3: being we will dress up like the devil and freak
Speaker 3: you out, and if you can believe it, she was
Speaker 3: charged to find and also was stripped down to the waist,
Speaker 3: tied to a cart, and whipped twenty times. Eventually it
Speaker 3: got slightly better for the Quakers, okay, because there was
Speaker 3: this guy, William penn He's one of the main Quakers.
Speaker 3: He was given a charter from King Charles the second
Speaker 3: and he went over to the colonies to make Pennsylvania
Speaker 3: where the.
Speaker 2: Quakers could live in peace. Mar Lots of other stuff.
Speaker 3: Happened too, but that's where we're gonna end the tail,
Speaker 3: with the Quakers in Pennsylvania and with Elia, Kim and
Speaker 3: Lydia having a much better life in New Jersey, where
Speaker 3: they didn't have to be constantly fined and beaten.
Speaker 1: How nice.
Speaker 3: And of course every episode we learn a lesson from
Speaker 3: American Filth, and I think the lesson we learned today
Speaker 3: in solidary with the Quakers is yeah, that was some
Speaker 3: silence like a Quaker meeting. So if you fell moved,
Speaker 3: feel free to speak up and say something.
Speaker 2: Queue to the credits.
Speaker 3: American Filth is a production of School of Humans and
Speaker 3: iHeart Podcast. This episode with sound design written and hosted
Speaker 3: by me Gabby Wattson.
Speaker 2: The theme song is by me and Jesse Niswanger.
Speaker 3: Virginia Prescott, ELC Croley and Brandon Barr are executive producers,
Speaker 3: and you can follow along with the pod on Instagram
Speaker 3: at American Filth Pod. There you can also find links
Speaker 3: to American Filth Live, which is this Saturday, June twenty
Speaker 3: ninth at Dynamic El Dorado in Atlanta, Georgia. Also, please like, subscribe, review,
Speaker 3: leave some stars, make your friends listen to this award
Speaker 3: winning podcast so that we can continue the show next year,
Speaker 3: or harass iHeart and say please please please keep American
Speaker 3: Filth going. All right, talk with you guys next week.
Speaker 1: By School of Humans