Yorkshire-born James Nayler, after experiencing what he described as the voice of God calling him from work in his fields, had given up his possessions and began seeking a spiritual direction, which he had found in Quakerism in 1652 after meeting George Fox.

Nayler has become the most prominent of the traveling Quaker evangelists known as the "Valiant Sixty"; he has attracted many converts and is considered a skilled theological debater.

By all accounts an extremely charismatic man with a somewhat Christ-like appearance, he has also attracted a loyal personal following, which some other Quakers regard with suspicion.

Fox had on several occasions expressed concern that the ministry of Nayler and his associate Martha Simmonds is becoming overly enthusiastic and erratic.

Though the substance of the disagreements is unclear, by 1656 Fox and Nayler were hardly on speaking terms.

Fox had visited Nayler on September 23, 1656, in his prison at Exeter; when the prisoner refused to kiss his hand, Fox had pushed his foot toward him, saying, "It is my foot."

It was clearly not a gesture that looked toward reconciliation, Fox has never apologized, and the differences remain.

Nayler and his friends, including Simmonds, had in October 1656 staged a demonstration that proved disastrous: Nayler had reenacted the arrival of Christ in Jerusalem that is commemorated on Palm Sunday, riding on horseback into Bristol attended by followers who sing "Holy, holy, holy" and strewing the muddy path with garments.

Though Nayler had denied that he was impersonating Jesus and said rather that "Christ was in him" (consistent with the Quaker doctrine of the Inner light), he refuses to comment further on the meaning of the action, and the ecstatic devotion of his followers has persuaded many that he has messianic pretensions.

He is on December 16, 1656, convicted of blasphemy in a highly publicized trial before the Second Protectorate Parliament.

Narrowly escaping execution, he is whipped through the streets of Bristol before the branding of the letter B on his forehead, piercing of his tongue with a hot iron in the pillory, and two years' imprisonment at hard labor.

This is especially bad for the movement's respectability in the eyes of the Puritan rulers because some consider Nayler (and not Fox, who had been in jail at the time) to be the actual leader of the movement.

Fox is horrified by the Bristol event, recounting in his Journal that "James ran out into imaginations, and a company with him; and they raised up a great darkness in the nation", despite Nayler's account of his actions being consistent with Quaker theology, and despite similar lofty language used by Fox and the other Quakers themselves.

Nevertheless, Fox and the movement in general denounce Nayler publicly, though this does not stop anti-Quaker critics from using the incident to paint Quakers as heretics, or to equate them with Ranters.

Holder, determined to return to New England, had gone to George Fox, one of the leaders of the Friends, for help in securing passage on another ship.

Holder and John Copeland had traveled back to Massachusetts together.

This time around, Holder has actually been able to preach to people, and many have responded favorably.

In the town of Sandwich, several people had become convinced of the truth of the Quaker message and adopted those beliefs and practices themselves.

A small band of Friends had already been meeting for a few months when Holder arrived, under the ministry of Nicholas Upsall, a new Friend who was in exile from Boston.

Holder and Copeland had been jailed for their activities in Sandwich, and the Friends had begun meeting secretly in a place that was called “Christopher’s Hollow” in Holder’s honor. (The hollow is still known by that name.)

William Penn the Younger had become a close friend of George Fox, the founder of the Quakers, whose movement started in the 1650s during the tumult of the Cromwellian revolution.

The times sprouted many new sects, besides Quakers, including Seekers, Ranters, Antinomians, Soul Sleepers, Adamites, Diggers, Levellers, Antibaptists, Behmenists, Muggletonians, and many others, as the Puritans were more tolerant than the monarchy had been.

Following Cromwell's death and the reestablishment of the Crown, the King had responded with harassment and persecution of all religions and sects other than Anglicanism.

Fox risks his life, wandering from town to town, and he attracts followers who likewise believed that the "God who made the world did not dwell in temples made with hands."

By abolishing the church’s authority over the congregation, Fox has not only extended the Protestant Reformation more radically, but he has helped extend the most important principle of modern political history – the rights of the individual – upon which modern democracies are later to be founded.

Penn has traveled frequently with Fox, through Europe and England.

He has also written a comprehensive, detailed explanation of Quakerism along with a testimony to the character of George Fox, in his introduction to the autobiographical Journal of George Fox.

In effect, Penn has become the first theologian, theorist, and legal defender of Quakerism, providing its written doctrine and helping to establish its public standing.

Penn’s first of many pamphlets, "Truth Exalted", was a "short but sure testimony" against all religions except Quakerism.

His strident attack on the Trinity and his branding the Catholic Church as "the Whore of Babylon" and Puritans as "hypocrites and revelers in God" brought him attention from the Anglican Church.

He also lambasted all "false prophets, tithemongers, and opposers of perfection".

Pepys, a neighbor of the Penns, thought it a "ridiculous nonsensical book" that he was "ashamed to read".

Penn is imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1668 after writing a follow up tract entitled The Sandy Foundation Shaken.

The Bishop of London orders that Penn be held indefinitely until he publicly recant his written statements.

The official charge is publication without a license but the real crime is blasphemy, as signed in a warrant by King Charles II.

Penn is placed in solitary confinement in an unheated cell and threatened with a life sentence.

He bravely responds, "My prison shall be my grave before I will budge a jot: for I owe my conscience to no mortal man."

Given writing materials in the hope that he would put on paper his retraction, Penn instead writes another inflammatory treatise, No Cross, No Crown, remarkable for its historical analysis and citation of sixty-eight authors whose quotations and commentary he had committed to memory and was able to summon without any reference material at hand.

Penn petitioned for an audience with the King, which is denied but which lead to negotiations on his behalf by one of the royal chaplains.

The twenty-four-year-old Penn is released after eight months of imprisonment.

Two hundred settlers from the towns of Chorleywood and Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire and other towns in nearby Buckinghamshire arrive also in 1677 and establish the town of Burlington.

George Fox himself had made a journey to America to verify the potential of further expansion of the early Quaker settlements.

William Penn, a Quaker visionary who had not been disinherited by his father, Admiral Sir William Penn, has come into a large fortune, but had found himself in jail again for six months as he continued to agitate.

After gaining his freedom, he had finally married Gulielma Springett in April 1672, after a four year engagement filled with frequent separations.

Penn has stayed close to home but has continued writing his tracts, espousing religious tolerance and railing against discriminatory laws.

A minor split has developed in the Quaker community between those who favor Penn’s analytical formulations and those who prefer George Fox’s simple precepts, but overriding the differences is the fact that the persecution of Quakers has accelerated and Penn has again resumed missionary work in Holland and Germany.

Seeing conditions deteriorating, Penn had decided to appeal directly to the King and the Duke, proposing a solution that would solve the dilemma—a mass emigration of English Quakers.

Some Quakers have already moved to North America, but the New England Puritans, especially, are as hostile towards Quakers as are Anglicans in England, and some of the Quakers have been banished to the Caribbean.

A group of prominent Quakers that includes Penn in 1677 purchase the colonial province of West Jersey (half of the current state of New Jersey).

Northeastern North America

(1694 to 1695 CE): Conflict, Colonization, and the Emergence of Slave Societies

In 1694–1695 CE, Northeastern North America remained embroiled in colonial warfare, significant demographic shifts, and critical economic transformations. These years saw continued fighting between French and British colonial powers (King William’s War), the consolidation of plantation slavery, the expansion of European settlements, and strategic indigenous migrations and alliances.

Intensified Colonial Warfare

Iberville’s Atlantic Campaign (1695)

In 1695, Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville, a renowned French-Canadian military commander, conducted aggressive naval expeditions targeting English holdings along the Atlantic Coast, from Fort William Henry on the contested New England–Acadia boundary to the fortified settlement of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Iberville, who previously captured Fort Severn (a Hudson’s Bay Company trading post) in 1690, significantly disrupted English commerce and heightened tensions between France and Britain.

Continued Frontier Conflict in New England

As part of King William’s War, frontier warfare intensified in New England and Acadia, where indigenous warriors allied with the French, particularly the Wabanaki Confederacy, launched numerous raids on English settlements. The conflict severely disrupted colonial expansion and settlement in northern New England and intensified mutual hostility between English colonists and indigenous groups.

Emergence of Slave Societies in Carolina

Barbadian Influence and Plantation Slavery

English planters from Bermuda had established settlements near what would become Charleston, South Carolina, during the 1670s, laying the foundation for plantation agriculture. By the mid-1680s, wealthy slaveowners from Barbados had become the dominant political force in Carolina, reshaping it into a deeply hierarchical society. They informally modified the original settlement plan—the Grand Model—into a plantation oligarchy, adopting noble titles while establishing an economic system heavily reliant on enslaved African labor.

Expansion of Rice and Indigo Cultivation

In the South Carolina Lowcountry, east of the Atlantic Seaboard fall line, rice plantations flourished. Plantation labor relied heavily on enslaved Africans, whose numbers grew rapidly; by 1720, enslaved people constituted the majority in South Carolina. Additionally, the colony began experimenting with indigo, a valuable plant source of blue dye, during this period. Although large-scale indigo cultivation and innovation would later become famously associated with Eliza Lucas Pinckney (born 1722), initial efforts and interest in indigo as a commercial crop date from the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The growth of these crops further cemented slavery’s central economic role in Carolina society.

Divergence of North Carolina and Quaker Influence

The northern portion of Carolina developed distinctly, characterized by small farmers, Quaker communities, and less reliance on enslaved labor. Communication difficulties between north and south Carolina prompted separate administration from 1691 onward. Quakerism, introduced in Carolina by its founder George Fox in 1672, dominated the northern Albemarle Settlements. Quaker leader John Archdale was appointed governor of Carolina in August 1694, further entrenching Quaker influence. Archdale named Thomas Harvey deputy governor of North Carolina, and by August 1695, he replaced Joseph Blake as governor, highlighting growing administrative separation.

Cheyenne Migrations and Conflicts

Assiniboine-Cheyenne Conflict and Migration

According to tribal histories, during the seventeenth century, the Cheyenne were driven westward by the Assiniboine (Hóheeheo’o, "the rebels," named by the Lakota/Dakota peoples), moving from the Great Lakes region into present-day Minnesota and North Dakota. The most prominent ancient Cheyenne settlement was Biesterfeldt Village, located along the Sheyenne River in eastern North Dakota. These migrations reshaped indigenous territorial boundaries and alliances across the Northern Plains.

Cheyenne Arrival on the Missouri River

The Cheyenne oral history records their first significant arrival at the Missouri River in 1676, marking a key moment in their westward migration, driven by territorial pressures from competing indigenous groups and colonial expansion.

European Colonial Claims and Rivalries

By the late seventeenth century, major European powers claimed extensive portions of North America:

• Spain controlled Florida, modern-day Mexico, and much of the southwest.

• France established New France, encompassing Canada, Acadia, and the central Illinois Country.

• England occupied the northern Atlantic coast and steadily expanded its influence southward through the Carolina colony.

France remained wary of territorial vulnerability, given Britain’s aggressive colonial ambitions and Spanish presence in the South.

New York City: Slavery and Piracy Hub

During the 1690s, New York City emerged as the principal colonial port for importing enslaved Africans into the northern colonies. The city’s strategic harbor also became a critical supply base for pirate vessels operating along the Atlantic coast, reflecting its growing economic and strategic significance within Britain’s North American colonies.

Indigenous Alliances and Adaptations

Wabanaki Confederacy’s Continued Resistance

The Wabanaki Confederacy, comprised of Algonquian-speaking peoples including the Mi’kmaq, Maliseet, Penobscot, and Abenaki, continued its fierce resistance to English settlement expansion, carrying out numerous raids throughout the region. Their actions supported French objectives and asserted indigenous autonomy.

Haudenosaunee Strategic Neutrality

The Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Iroquois) sought strategic neutrality after decades of warfare and disease-induced population decline, navigating carefully between French and British colonial pressures. Their cautious diplomatic stance reflected their precarious position and declining influence in regional affairs.

Legacy of the Era (1694–1695 CE)

The period of 1694–1695 CE marked critical developments in Northeastern North America. Intensified warfare during King William’s War, Iberville’s Atlantic campaign, and indigenous alliances reshaped regional power dynamics. Meanwhile, the entrenchment of plantation slavery, driven by Barbadian elites, established a new socio-economic reality in Carolina, sharply distinguishing it from the more egalitarian, Quaker-influenced North. Cheyenne migration patterns illustrated indigenous strategic adaptations in response to conflicts and pressures from other Native American groups. European colonial powers solidified territorial claims, setting the stage for future conflicts, while New York’s prominence as a slavery and piracy hub reflected changing economic conditions in the colonies. Collectively, these developments significantly influenced the cultural, economic, and geopolitical trajectories of Northeastern North America.