Summary: Listen in to Fieldstone Common this week as host Marian Pierre-Louis talks to author Diane Rapaport about her book The Naked Quaker: True Crimes and Controversies from the Courts of Colonial New England. The word “Puritan” conjures up dour images of 17th-century New Englanders. We rarely think of Puritans as people who had fun, or sex. Our ancestors used different words, but human nature was not so different 350 years ago. In the title story, a Quaker woman walks into Puritan Sunday meeting and drops her dress to protest actions of the colonial authorities. The Naked Quaker takes us into the lives of our ancestors, revealing how they behaved and spoke. A highway robber threatens his victim: “I will take you by your eyelids and make your heels strike fire!” A mysterious woman wields “enthusiastical power” over married men, who break the law to follow her. Diane Rapaport, a former trial lawyer, has made a new career as a historical consultant, genealogist, award-winning author and popular speaker. She offers an unusual combination of expertise and experience—in law, history and genealogy—and she enjoys discovering and telling the stories of our past. She specializes in court records and other historical resources of New England, and her current research focuses on African Americans and Native Americans in the colonial period. She is also the author of New England Court Records: A Research Guide for Genealogists and Historians. For more details and upcoming schedule see: http://FieldstoneCommon.blogspot.com
