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