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Before Yelp, complaining about a business in Boston could get you excommunicated and hanged
By adamg on Mon, 04/08/2019 - 9:09am
New England Folklore recounts the life of Ann Hibbins, a 17th-century Bostonian whose downfall began when she complained about what she thought was shoddy work by a carpenter on her home. One thing led to another, and in 1655 she was convicted of witchcraft. The General Court, on which her husband had served before his own death (from natural causes), upheld the conviction and she was hanged on Boston Common on June 19, 1656.
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Comments
Interesting rainy day read
I always found it fascinating that the Puritans, who fled England due to religious persecution, were the most intolerant, sanctimonious bunch of bastards on two feet after they showed up in Boston.
They claimed it was religious persecution.
Actually it's because they were dicks.
My maternal ancestors, gotta love them.
Minus the hanging part, story sounds modern
Rich Brookline socialite with husband in high position of government annoys many by refusing to pay local carpenter for work completed, claiming it was substandard. Makes similar accusations toward inspector asked to verify the job. .
TrophyWifeLinda
gets hanged for witchcraft. :-)
Even today
There are those that claim that preventing them from doing monstrous things to those of whom they don't approve constitutes religious persecution.
PREACH.
PREACH.
Anyone who has been around on this earth long enough
will notice certain things about human nature. One thing is: those who love proclaiming their tolerance are often not.
Nice try, but no, not applicable here
As mentioned above, the Puritans were intolerant dicks and were basically hounded out of England for being dicks and came here initially so they could practice their dickishness in peace (the Plymouth Puritans were absolute segregationists who felt the Church of England was beyond redemption, the later Massachusetts Bay Puritans believed the Church of England could still be reformed, but they still hated pretty much everybody who wasn't one of them).
So it is kind of ironic, nearly 400 years later, that both the Congregationalists and the Unitarians sprang from them, along with the Quakers, who started in England as a Puritan sect, but who were seen by the Massachusetts Puritans as heretics, deserving only of being hanged on the Common.
Ironic?
I think the irony is, imo, today's self described progressives are as puritanical as the puritants who founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony 400 years ago. The puritants have swung from being extremely conservative to being extremely liberal. Not really that surprising since the psychology behind people with extremist (far left-far right) views area quite similar.
I see we've departed from irony
Congregationalists are far left?
But then when the civil war started in the 1640s
that group in England started to believe that the Church of England (among other things) could be reformed or even abolished. Beheading an Archbishop of Canterbury helped with that, and then they moved on to an even bigger target.
A lot of the more fanatic Puritans in New England actually went back then.
Fascinating. Thank you.
I always enjoy these deep reads and callbacks to our history.
Most people change upon arriving here.
Some for better and some for worse.
Corporations really are
Corporations really are people!
Purdue Pharma is a witch!
Burn it!
Especially if you were a
Especially if you were a woman (wait, is that still the case??).
Once the trophy wife is deceased...
Trophy husband visits Florida strip mall...