Quakers

===Migration to North America===
{{see also|History of the Quakers#William Penn and settlement in colonial Pennsylvania}}
The persecution of Quakers in North America began in July 1656 when English Quaker missionaries [[Mary Fisher (missionary)|Mary Fisher]] and [[Ann Austin]] began preaching in Boston.<ref name=EB1911>{{Cite EB1911 |wstitle=Friends, Society of |volume=11 |page=227 |first=Alfred |last=Brayshaw}}</ref> They were considered heretics because of their insistence on individual obedience to the [[Inner light]]. They were imprisoned for five weeks and banished<ref name=EB1911/> by the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]]. Their books were burned,<ref name=EB1911/> and most of their property confiscated. They were imprisoned in terrible conditions, then deported.<ref>Edward Digby Baltzell, ''Puritan Boston and Quaker Philadelphia'' (1996) p. 86.</ref>

[[File:Mary dyer being led.jpg|thumb|Quaker Mary Dyer led to execution on Boston Common, 1 June 1660.]]
In 1660, English Quaker [[Mary Dyer]] was hanged near<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.celebrateboston.com/ghost/boston-neck-executions.htm |title=Boston Neck Gallows, Colonial Execution Place for Quakers |website=www.celebrateboston.com |access-date=2020-01-03}}</ref> [[Boston Common]] for repeatedly defying a [[Puritan]] law banning Quakers from the colony.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rogers |first=Horatio |year=2009 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L5_5yIgpa-YC |title=Mary Dyer of Rhode Island: The Quaker Martyr That Was Hanged on Boston |pages=1–2 |publisher=BiblioBazaar, LLC |isbn=9781103801244}}</ref> She was one of the four executed Quakers known as the [[Boston martyrs]]. In 1661, [[Charles II of England|King Charles II]] forbade Massachusetts from executing anyone for professing Quakerism.<ref name=CHLS>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EzvHvEDPosQC&pg=PR41 |title=Puritans and Puritanism in Europe and America: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia |editor1-first=Francis J. |editor1-last=Bremer |editor2-first=Tom |editor2-last=Webster |year=2006 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |page=xli |isbn=9781576076781}}</ref> In 1684, England [[Massachusetts Bay Colony#Revocation of charter|revoked the Massachusetts charter]], sent over a royal governor to enforce English laws in 1686 and, in 1689, passed a broad Toleration Act.<ref name=CHLS/>

[[File:William Penn at 22 1666.jpg|thumb|left|upright|William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania and West Jersey, as a young man]]
Some Friends migrated to what is now the north-eastern region of the United States in the 1660s in search of economic opportunities and a more tolerant environment in which to build communities of "holy conversation".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Levy |first=Barry |title=Quakers and the American Family |pages=113}}</ref> In 1665 Quakers established a meeting in [[Shrewsbury Township, New Jersey|Shrewsbury, New Jersey]] (now Monmouth County), and built a meeting house in 1672 that was visited by George Fox in the same year.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.shrewsburyquakers.org/article/history |title=History of Shrewsbury Quakers|date=11 August 2014}}</ref> They were able to establish thriving communities in the [[Delaware Valley]], although they continued to experience persecution in some areas, such as [[New England]]. The three colonies that tolerated Quakers at this time were [[West Jersey]], [[Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations|Rhode Island]], and [[Province of Pennsylvania|Pennsylvania]], where Quakers established themselves politically. In Rhode Island, 36 governors in the first 100 years were Quakers. West Jersey and Pennsylvania were established by affluent Quaker [[William Penn]] in 1676 and 1682 respectively, with Pennsylvania as an American commonwealth run under Quaker principles. William Penn signed a peace treaty with [[Tamanend|Tammany]], leader of the Delaware tribe,<ref>{{Cite book |author=David Yount |year=2007 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pk7ycUq3cxsC&pg=PA82 |title=How the Quakers invented America |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |page=82 |isbn=978-0-7425-5833-5}}</ref> and other treaties followed between Quakers and Native Americans.<ref name="BBC Overview">{{Cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/subdivisions/quakers_1.shtml |publisher=BBC |work=Religions |title=Quakers |access-date=13 June 2017}}</ref> This peace endured almost a century, until the [[Penn's Creek Massacre]] of 1755.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.penntreatymuseum.org/treaty.php|title=Penn Treaty Museum|website=www.penntreatymuseum.org}}</ref> Early colonial Quakers also established communities and meeting houses in North Carolina and Maryland, after fleeing persecution by the Anglican Church in Virginia.<ref>[http://articles.dailypress.com/1989-01-15/news/8901100018_1_quakers-colonial-virginia-colonial-anglican-church "Quakers Often Fled Virginia"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151009051032/http://articles.dailypress.com/1989-01-15/news/8901100018_1_quakers-colonial-virginia-colonial-anglican-church |date=9 October 2015 }}, Rowlings, Virginia, ''Daily Press'', 15 January 1989</ref>

In a 2007 interview, author David Yount (''How the Quakers Invented America'') said that Quakers first introduced many ideas that later became mainstream, such as democracy in the Pennsylvania legislature, the [[United States Bill of Rights|Bill of Rights]] to the [[United States Constitution|U.S. Constitution]] from Rhode Island Quakers, trial by jury, equal rights for men and women, and public education. The [[Liberty Bell]] was cast by Quakers in [[Philadelphia]], Pennsylvania.<ref>[https://www.c-span.org/video/?202202-17/quakers-invented-america How the Quakers Invented America], a five-minute interview with David Yount by Peter Slen, C-SPAN, 1 November 2007.</ref>