Excerpt from The Salem World of Nathaniel Hawthorne
Excerpt from The Salem World of Nathaniel Hawthorne by Margaret Moore
(courtesy of University
of Missouri Press)
Margaret Moore's claim that "Hawthorne's primary connection with Quaker persecution,
however, was his descent from the Phelps
family" (34) is interesting because he is also descended from William Hathorne,
the Puritan well known for his persecution of the Quakers. Moore offers in this
excerpt a brief account of the lives of Nicholas and Hannah Phelps, Hawthorne's
ancestors.
"Nicholas and Hannah Phelps became Quakers, and the meetings in Salem
were held at their home in the Woods. They were repeatedly fined for absence
from the Puritan meeting (the only one allowed) and for entertaining Quakers.
William Hathorne had issued and order to his minions: "You are required by virtue
hereof, to search in all suspicious houses from private meetings, and if they
refuse to open the doors, you are to break open the door upon them, and return
the names of all ye find to Ipswich Court." Finally both Hannah and Nicholas
were arrested; Hannah was put into jail, and Nicholas was banished from the
colony" (34).
