Suffer Not A Women To Speak (R)

In “Suffer not a woman to speak,” there was distinct and a sole intent on what the author had intended for the reader to understand, the author want to state that woman in the 17^th century were oppressed in the colonies of the New World. Woman during this time era had no rights and no liberties in the society. They were treated in the same class or ranking as the children were. They were unable to speak out or to have their own opinion in society and were limited to the home and the raising of the children.

Anne Hutchinson was a good example of how women were treated in society at that time. She was exiled out of the colony of Massachusetts Bay Colony for speaking out and for having her own opinion. She thought that the some of the Puritan beliefs like the prayer should be different, and so she tried to implement that into the Puritan church, slowly, and became found as a heretic for having such “outrageous” beliefs and views on the religion of the church. Unlike the Puritans, the Quakers had different viewpoints on women, who saw them as people with opinions of their own. The women in those societies were very implanted and abundant throughout it by the women being, for example, a preacher or a person in the board of the town meetings. The women’s role in society was not at all enthusiastic or tolerant of women in the society. The Salem witch trials in the 17^th century, where 14 women, out of 20 people executed, were hung for being accused of practicing the art of witchcraft.

Women in colonial society were being restricted and forced to be a social lower status then the men were, for they were not at all looked upon as equals and will not until the 20^th century, were women’s suffrage became a national ideal. Women had to deal with the husband and the ordeals that he was involved in. The women were to obey and follow their husband and everything that he told them to do, for the men held all power in the household. The only protection she had was abuse that the husband could have given her, but in retrospect, the women had no real rights in society. The women was a suppressed and sufferer in colonial society, who made her the lowest status possible, for her to be under the power of the men. The women were not tolerated as people and were not allowed opinions or open-minded sayings in any society throughout history, up until very recently.