Mary Dyer: Biography of a Rebel Quaker

This is the history of Mary Dyer (1611--1660) whose efforts to seek and find 'freedom to worship' led eventually to her death. Her quest began when she and her husband sailed from 'Old' to 'New' England in 1635. They were soon disillusioned by the intolerant practices and beliefs of the Puritans, who considered all truth could be found in the Old Testament -- and only there. Variations, from Puritan interpretations of the Ten Commandments, were punished by cruel torture and/or death. Banished from Boston for protesting such rigidity in belief and practice, Mary was among the group who founded Rhodes Island, where freedom in belief and practice of worship was established.

The story of Mary Dyer, executed in 1660 in Boston for her Quaker beliefs, should be an instructive walk on the darker side of American democracy--but this treatment by debut author Plimpton reads more like one of those perky biographies inflicted on middle- schoolers for a social-studies project. In retelling Dyer's life, Plimpton relies a great deal on intuitive insight, because Dyer left only two pieces of writing- -letters to the Boston authorities. As a result, the author's presentation lacks the imaginative flair of a novel or the measured restraint of a serious biography. Moreover, it's flawed further by graceless, even arch, prose: ``conversation passed between them like a fresh gushing stream''; ``the inhabitants, predominantly deer, gazed in wonder at the big sails approaching.'' The facts of Dyer's life, such as they are, are all here: How Dyer and her husband arrived in 1635 in the Bay Colony in search of a new land and a freer way of worship, only to find that the Puritans had entrenched themselves with a government that was more a theocracy then a limited democracy. The Dyers prospered, but Mary--a woman of deep spirituality--soon grew dissatisfied with the rigid Puritan theology and its emphasis on male supremacy. A friendship with the charismatic Anne Hutchinson, who believed in a ``covenant of grace,'' led to the Dyers' expulsion from Boston to Rhode Island- -but it was Mary's meeting, while on a lengthy visit to England, with Quaker founder George Fox that radically changed her life. Fearful of anything that threatened its hegemony, the Boston establishment executed her for preaching her Quaker beliefs--an act that appalled King Charles II, who, through Royal Charter, secured religious tolerance in Rhode Island, though not in Boston, where the cruel treatment of Quakers continued. A second-rate rendering of a first-rate idea: the limit of popular tolerance in early American democracy as exemplified by the life and death of one courageous woman. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

An underlying irony surfaces in this plodding biography of the only woman in America to die for her Quaker beliefs. In 1635 Mary Dyer and her husband William emigrated to the "new" England. Pursuing freedom from the restrictive Puritanism of home, they found similar infringements on their faith in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. They were eventually banished and Mary, inspired by her friend, the outspoken Anne Hutchinson, became one of the group that founded Rhode Island on the premise of religious freedom for all and a modicum of women's equality. Still seeking spiritual fulfillment, she returned to England, became a follower of George Fox and, as a Quaker missionary, sailed back to the colonies. In Boston, where the general court had banished Quakers as "a pernicious sect" in 1658, she was hanged in 1660. Limning the evolution of an early crusader for civil rights, Plimpton ( Operation Crossroads Africa ) also describes Mary's relationships with Native Americans. Illustrations not seen by PW.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.