The Dark History of the Quakers
6/15/202656 min
17th century England was a world turned upside down.
A civil war resulted in King Charles I being executed, and from this moment a religious movement called the Quakers grew rapidly.
Far from the pacifists we think of them as today, Quaker leaders shocked the country with their radical approach, including attempts to resurrect the dead.
Taking us back to the 17th century today is Dr Erica Canela, historian and author of Zealous: A Darker Side of the Early Quakers.
Edited by Hannah Feodorov. Produced by Stuart Beckwith. Senior Producer is Freddy Chick.
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All music from Epidemic Sounds.
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First 90 secondsAnthony Delaney· Host0:00
[instrumental music] An executioner takes a red hot iron and bores it through a man's tongue. The smell of burning flesh fills the air as the letter B for blasphemer is seared into his forehead. Hundreds are watching. It's 1656, and the man punished is a Quaker named James Nayler. Today, Quakers are remembered as peaceful and gentle. But when they first emerged in the English Civil War, they were a wild and terrifying sect. So from radical 17th century England, this is After Dark. [instrumental music] Hello, and welcome to After Dark. Now, I saw this episode that we're gonna record today on the production sheet, and I thought to myself, "This is an unusual title." I, I hadn't expected to see The Dark Side of the Quakers, because growing up in Ireland, the Quakers have a very positive,