Customer Reviews

Naked Quaker

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3 star:		(1)
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Who'd imagine that a little book about court cases in seventeenth century New England could be so completely enchanting? Yes, this little volume is the product of historical research. Diane Rapaport, a trial lawyer-turned-storyteller, combed through paper archives, microfilm, and other archival sources to collect these real-life tales. Her magic touch turns them into a quirky, irresistible read.

Rapaport's twenty-five tales are grouped by subject, and you won't know which chapter to turn to first, since part of the fun is in her titles. Chapter 1, Witches and Wild Women, gives us "The Witch at the Top of the Stairs" -- a bad-neighbor situation that blew out of proportion and ended up in court. Chapter 2, Coupling, includes "The Scottish Rogue" and "The Wandering Wife" -- two sleazy tales that would fit right into prime time if you put them in modern dress.

Other stories you'll read with relish are "The Purloined Pigs" (in which the aptly named Michael Bacon lets his hogs run wild); "To Drive Away Melancholy" (a young couple fall afoul of the law by hosting sinful card games in their remote cabin); and "Drinking With The Drummer" (the town drummer tops up his four-pound salary with bootlegging).

The title story, "The Naked Quaker," leads with the details of Lydia Wardell's 1663 protest in Newbury, Massachusetts. Lydia and the rest of the Massachusetts Quakers were persecuted and penalized, and sometimes banished or even executed. Attendance at the Puritan Sabbath services was mandatory, and Lydia chose to protest by taking off her clothes. This form of protest, according to the author, was "popular among dissenting Quakers ... in 1650's England, as a way to symbolize the spiritual nakedness of their persecutors." Lydia "was ordered to be severely whipped" and soon after this punishment she and her husband relocated to the more tolerant New Jersey wilderness.

For all its entertainment value, this book is a serious piece of historical research that provides a wealth of insight into the past. It's our good luck that Diane Rapaport has the talent to create such a readable little book out of it all. Highly recommended!

Whoever still thinks history is boring probably hasn't been paying attention - and certainly hasn't read Diane Rapaport's The Naked Quaker: True Crimes and Controversies from the Courts of Colonial New England (Commonwealth Editions).
Since human history is largely a by-product of human nature, court dockets are bound to be filled with intriguing goings-on in any era.

In this collection we encounter community leaders like Thomas Danforth dealing with neighborhood squabbles (that could escalate to witchcraft charges); neighbors from Hell (like Bacon the pig thief); and humble folk who might otherwise never have been recorded at all (like enslaved Sylvanus Warro fighting for his freedom).

Endnotes provide the scholarly basis for the tales which cast an uncommon light on a frequently stereotyped part of our nation's past. The stories themselves provide a darned good read.

Marilynne K. Roach author of The Salem Witch Trials: a Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege
The Salem Witch Trials: A Day-by-Day Chronicle of a Community Under Siege

Collections strong in regional American history - particularly New England regional history - will want to add THE NAKED QUAKER: TRUE CRIMES AND CONTROVERSIES FROM THE COURTS OF COLONIAL NEW ENGLAND to the collection. It comes from a historian and former trial lawyer who uses court records to provide over twenty true stories previously published in his column for New England Ancestors journal. A wider audience can now appreciate these lively vignettes of early crime.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Being a former law professor and a rabid history buff, The Naked Quaker: True Crimes and Controversies from the Courts of Colonial New England, by Diane Rapaport [Commonwealth Editions, 2007] was right up my alley. It is a collection of cases gleaned from the archival court records of Puritan New England, c. 1620s to the latter part of that century.

Although we think of the present as being a litigious time, and in some ways it is, it doesn't hold a tallow candle to the inhabitants of 17-century Massachusetts. Moreover, many of the causes are remarkably familiar even today--i.e. drunkenness, unlicensed sale of liquor, unpaid debts, unwanted advances, and obstreperous youth, etc. Therefore, as Ms Rapaport points out, "Goin to law" was a common remedy for large and small issues.

It was also a source of spectator entertainment that came around usually every quarter (Courts of Quarterly Session)--but more often as required--and people would gather from miles around to watch or partake. Lawyers were hardly ever retained, judges were sometimes commissioned from the ranks of the previously convicted, and the courtroom was generally a tavern. All of this Ms Rapaport reveals as part of her meticulous research.

In fact, going through the pages of The Naked Quaker is like taking a front row seat at some of the sessions. For example we have Mrs. Elizabeth Goodman, a notoriously outspoken widow, who was accused of being a witch on the basis that she had an uncanny knowledge of her neighbours affairs, and that, after Mrs. Goodman admitted "some affection" for a certain gentleman, his new wife suffered "very strange fits" after the wedding. Nonetheless, the judges decided that the evidence was "not sufficient ... take away her life," and so she was set free.

Then we have a "lascivious meeting" of unmarried men and women in the fall of 1660. This group, including Harvard students and their young women friends, drank wine together at a tavern, and then moved on to Harvard Yard where they were witnessed holding hands. One witness even described a girl sitting on a boy's lap, and other amorous behaviour that shocked the sensibilities of proper Puritan judges, and so the participants were admonished to "avoid the like loose practices in the future."

On the other hand, a husband and wife were severely punished for playing and allowing to be played games of cards at their home.

Outright religious intolerance was not only rife, particularly between Puritans and Quakers, it was legally sanctioned. For years the Massachusetts authorities had engaged in unrelenting persecution of Quakers--the General Court issued a series of laws penalizing the "accused sect of heretics"--and it was illegal for Quakers to meet together or to teach others about their beliefs.74 It was also unlawful (whether Quaker or not) not to attend church on the Sabbath, and Lydia Wardell and her husband had been fined for missing (Puritan) services on twenty consecutive Sundays. Consequently, Lydia did attend one Sunday in 1663--only she did it naked.

Although this is a chronicle of digested court cases, the reader need have no concerns about it being a dry or dusty read. On the contrary, probably because of her experience as a speaker on the subject, Ms Rapaport has struck an agreeable balance between law and journalism. In addition, given the direct quotes in the arcane language of the day, and the grassroots insight into everyday life, it could also be a valuable resource for writers working on that era.

Highly recommended for his buffs like myself. Five stars.

Gerry Burnie
"Nor All Thy Tears: Journey to Big Sky" and 2 others

The only way to truly know a person is to room with them. The only way to truly know a town or a neighborhood is to live there. But how can you get to know a past era? One of the best substitutes to living there is reading court records, observing what the men and women of that time and place argued about, and also the way in which the authorities handled their cases. "The Naked Quaker" is a selection of some of the strangest and most surprising gleanings from 17th-century New England court records. They are fun to read, but best of all they provide illumination on what life in Puritan New England was really like. Who knew Indians successfully sued Englishmen in English courts? And who knew that Quakers used public nudity as a theological protest? Now we know, thanks to this gem of a book.

The stories are perfect for what they originally were which is magazine articles. As a collection though they become repetitive and disjointed. I had this book with me on 2 5 hour flights, a 4 hour train ride and a similar length bus ride. I still was not able to get myself to continue reading it. Only one person out ten in my book club liked it.

I found most of the stories in this collection interesting and, at times, amusing. However, the typeface is difficult to read. I finally gave up about two thirds of the way through just because it was such a hassle. If you have exceptional eyesight and an interest in quirky historical legal stories, it's worth a read.