A lot of you have already heard this because I retell this story often, but I thought I'd share it with those of you who have never seen my face. I would like to share with you all the story of Mary Dyer, and I will tell it to you as it was told to me: She was a converted Quaker living in Puritan New England (Massachusetts I think). Mary actively sought to convert her neighbors to the Quaker faith. The Puritans, being the restrictive society they have historically proven themselves to be, first arrested her and demanded that she recant the things she had said in her quest to convert her neighbors, but she refused. After serving her time, Miss Dyer went right back to her mission, blatantly defying the Puritan elders. They eventually sentenced her to be hanged. as she walked towards the gallows, the crowd around her made deafeningly loud noises. Mary approached her death with courage and dignity. Even as the hang man put her head in the noose and kicked the chair out from underneath her, she was so dignified and poised that the crowd fell silent. The first thing that broke this silence was someone saying, "she hangs like a flag."
The hangman was disgusted with what he had done he threw up several times afterward and when he went home he told his wife, "today I have met the most beautiful woman in the world and I am going to become a Quaker."
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