Susan Stoderl

07/23/2025

Mary Dyer (1611-1660), a Quaker martyr, defied religious intolerance and paid the ultimate price for her convictions.

Mary Dyer and her husband William emigrated to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635. As Puritans, they believed in strict moral conduct, personal piety, biblical authority, and predestination. However, between 1636 and 1638, she became involved in the Antinomian Controversy led by Anne Hutchinson. The colony’s leaders, including John Winthrop, viewed Hutchinson’s teachings as a threat to the colony’s religious and social order. The authorities banished Mary from Boston, so she and her family moved to Rhode Island.

Later, in the early 1650s, Mary traveled to England, where she converted to Quakerism. Quakers believed in finding an inner light, equality, and direct communion with God. She returned to New England as a Quaker missionary, despite the harsh laws that banned Quakers from Massachusetts.

Authorities arrested Mary multiple times for defying the anti-Quaker laws. In 1659, the court sentenced her to death, but she received a last-minute reprieve. Undeterred, she returned to Boston in 1660 to protest religious persecution. Authorities arrested her again, and this time they sentenced her to death by hanging.

Her death sparked outrage and helped shift public opinion, which led to the easing of anti-Quaker laws in Massachusetts. Statues honoring her stand in Boston, Philadelphia, and Indiana to mark her courage and commitment to religious freedom.

In a time when there is a strong White Christian Nationalist movement in the US, it is important to remember that one voice can make a difference.

07/22/2025

I have a love of history, and as a result, developed an interest in historical housing. I lived in three different historical homes in San Francisco, New York City, and Baltimore. When reading the general news, my interest was further piqued upon stumbling upon structures known as spite houses. They are real-life examples of how far people will go to make a point by building homes to annoy, obstruct, or protest. The first I would like to introduce is the Richardson Spite House in New York City.

In 1882, developer Joseph Richardson owned a strip of land at the corner of Lexington Avenue and 82nd Street. It measured 5 feet in width and 104 feet long. His neighbor, developer Hyman Sarner, offered Richardson $1,000 to buy the land for his apartment building. Richardson‌ demanded $5,000. When Sarner refused, Richardson upped the ante.

In retaliation, Richardson constructed a four-story apartment building with two suites per floor, each containing three rooms and a bath. The building’s design only allowed one person to use the stairs or hallway at a time, and the dining tables were limited to 18 inches in width.

In retaliation, Richardson constructed a four-story apartment building with two suites per floor, each containing three rooms and a bath. Only one person could use the stairs or hallway at a time, and dining tables could only be 18 inches in width.

Richardson and his wife lived in the building until he died in 1897. After his passing, a legal battle ensued between his daughter and stepmother over the property. After the Lexington subway line began construction in 1911, the spite house became a structural and financial liability. The building’s instability and difficulties led to its demolition in 1915, ending the family feud.

07/15/2025

Twelfth-century chroniclers wrote about William the Conqueror’s 1079 establishment of his New Forest for deer and boar hunting. Orderic Vitalis, William of Malmesbury, Florence of Worcester, and Henry of Huntingdon condemned the New Forest project as cruel because of its destruction of thirty-six villages and churches to make a personal hunting preserve.

They also agreed that God delivered retribution upon William’s family for these cruelties. His second son, Richard, died around 1070 while hunting in the New Forest. William of Malmesbury claimed he “contracted a disorder from a stream of foul air”, referring to a sudden illness or injury while hunting. An arrow killed William’s third son and successor, Rufus, in 1100, while he was hunting in the New Forest. Historians still debate whether it was an accident or an assassination. Chroniclers mention a third fatality, often identified as Richard of Lincoln, the illegitimate son of Henry I, who died in a hunting accident in the New Forest, either hanged by tree branches or thrown from his horse.

Commoners could still exercise their ancient rights. They could graze ponies and cattle, turn out pigs to eat acorns, collect wood for fuel, and cut peat and dig clay. However, if they disturbed or poached deer, felled trees, cleared forest land for agricultural use, or put up fencing, there were severe penalties. Blinding, having a hand cut off, or even the death penalty were common.

In summary, William the Conqueror/Disruptor’s brutal conquest tactics left entire regions scorched, depopulated, and starving. He extracted vast sums of gold and silver from the English, often with little justification. William replaced the Anglo-Saxon elite with Norman lords, seizing land and imposing harsh feudal laws. The creation of royal forests like the New Forest came with severe restrictions—commoners faced brutal penalties for hunting or gathering wood. Finally, he imposed Norman French as the language of the elite, sidelining English and reshaping the legal and social landscape.

07/10/2025

Alice of Dunk’s Ferry was born in Philadelphia in 1686 to enslaved parents from Barbados. Some referred to her as Black Alice or Old Alice. This bold woman was a storyteller, oral historian, and toll taker whose life spanned three different centuries.

In 1691, Sam Carpenter, a friend of William Penn, purchased Alice when she was five and put her to work at a tavern near Independence Hall. She later recalled lighting Penn’s pipe on one of his visits, for which he tipped her a penny. When Alice turned ten, Carpenter moved her to Bensalem (in Bucks County) to work as a Dunk’s Ferry toll taker for the next forty years. The ferry operated between the west bank of the Delaware River in Bensalem, just south of the mouth of Neshaminy Creek, and Dunk’s Ferry (now Bethany, NJ).

Alice excelled at being on the water and fishing. During the Revolutionary War, reports say she rowed George Washington across the Delaware River in a raft-like ferry. Black Alice also established fisheries along the river. She caught shad and salted them in barrels to sell to ships. Even when she went blind, she still rowed out to fish and returned with a good catch.

Alice watched Philadelphia transform from an early river settlement into a new nation’s capital. Her engraved portrait appeared in Volume 2 of Isaiah Thomas’s “Eccentric Biography” (Worcester, 1804). He wrote of her remarkable memory and skill as a historian and storyteller. Known for her piety, but illiterate, she asked people to read the Bible to her. She was an enthusiastic member of Christ Church, riding her horse the 16.8 miles to church, often at a gallop, until she was ninety-five.

Between the ages of 96 and 100, Alice lost her sight. Her sight returned enough to perceive moving objects by the time she reached the age of 102.

Thomas reported that just “before she died her hair became perfectly white and the last of her teeth dropt sound from her head aged 116 years.”

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07/08/2025

William the Conqueror created a new feudal system. What made it new? It was far more centralized, militarized, and bureaucratic than the existing continental system.
William owned all of England as king. He “granted” land to the loyal hierarchy, and they became its “managers.” No one in England could hold land except by fulfilling their service and financial obligations to William. Tenants could not create vassals, as they did on the continent, which prevented the rise of semi-independent local lords. The tenants-in-chief (nobility) supplied a certain number of knights for the king’s military for a set period each year and collected what was due to the king and the church from those under their control.

William owned all of England as king. He “granted” land to the loyal hierarchy, and they became its “managers.” No one in England could hold land except by fulfilling their service and financial obligations to William. Tenants could not create vassals, as they did on the continent, which prevented the rise of semi-independent local lords. The tenants-in-chief (nobility) supplied a certain number of knights for the king’s military for a set period each year and collected what was due the king and the church from those under their control.

William commissioned the Domesday Book in 1086, which made up an all-encompassing accounting system. The Domesday Book listed landowners, tenants, livestock, mills, and plow teams for over 13,000 places. It set the taxable value of land and everyone’s financial and military obligations. The survey’s findings were binding and unchallengeable.

Peasant labor fed the realm, but they received little in return for it. Peasants and serfs bore the cost of the system’s power and riches. They had little chance of bettering their situation, which led to a vast revolt across England in 1381. At last, the ruling class had to reckon with the growing unrest among the lower orders. This sped up the decline of serfdom in the following century.

07/02/2025

Dublin-born Veronica Guerin studied accounting at Trinity College before becoming a public relations professional. During the 1990s, she took on Dublin’s crime gangs as a writer for the “Sunday Independent.” Her accounting expertise helped her trace financial transactions, revealing the involvement of influential drug lords.

Guerin received death threats, but refused to back off. In October 1994, a man shot two bullets into her home following a story about the murder of crime boss Martin Cahill murder by the IRA. Guerin ignored it as a warning. When answering her doorbell in January 1995, a masked man pointed a pistol at her head, then shot her in the leg. The ballistics analysis showed that both attacks used the same weapon.

The authorities believed that gang leader John Gilligan ordered her threats and murder in June 1996. His powerful South Dublin drug cartel imported over 20,000 kg of cannabis, worth about £180 million, between 1994 and 1996. When questioned about his wealth, Gilligan threatened to harm her and her son.

In 1996, Brian Mehan, a Gilligan gang member, murdered Guerin at a traffic light. Her death sparked major reforms. The Irish government established the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB). CAB could seize assets from suspected criminals without a prior conviction.

Veronica Guerin described “Ireland’s untouchables” as not a single syndicate, but a network of connected criminals, driven by shared interests in drug trafficking, money laundering, and violence.

Engraved on the memorial marker for Veronica Guerin at Dublin Castle”

“Be Not Afraid. Greater justice was her ideal and it was her ultimate achievement. Her courage and sacrifice saved many from the scourge of drugs and other crime. Her death has not been in vain.”

07/01/2025

By 1070, William began a significant Norman reform of the Church. William replaced Anglo-Saxon bishops and abbots with Normans, who then became feudal lords over church property. Those living on church lands had to provide military service to the king. English papal decrees required William’s approval, as did bishops seeking to travel outside of England. Clerical celibacy became a moral and spiritual standard for bishops following Roman discipline. Grand Romanesque structures replaced the simple church designs of the Anglo-Saxons, symbolizing faith and authority.

Before these changes, Anglo-Saxon monasteries played a pivotal role in shaping the development of learning, literacy, and land ownership. Bishops and abbots wielded political influence, often guiding the royal court. Some parish priests were married with children. Sons frequently followed them into the clergy. Although the Church encouraged celibacy, it did not enforce it as a requirement. In rural communities, priests were an integral part of village life. The communities were unhappy when William made this change.

Under King Edgar in the 10th century, monasteries adhered to the principles of Benedictine monasticism. Once insular, the English Church now became involved in European politics and the Gregorian Papal Reform Movement. William and bishops like Lanfranc and Anselm adopted those ideals. This shift centered on power, property, and control, not morality. Celibate clergy kept property and wealth within the Church because they had no children to inherit it. The Gregorian reforms brought the Church more power.

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06/25/2025

06/24/2025

William the Conqueror didn’t just win a few battles and become King of England. He changed everything about England in a short time. Æthelstan (Ruler from 924 to 939), considered the first King of England, unified all the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in 927 and declared himself “King of the English.” William the Conqueror disrupted every aspect of the country, including women’s rights, the church, social structure, treasury, and forestry. In Part 4 of my William the Conqueror series, I’ll examine the disruption of women’s rights.

Before William, under Anglo-Saxon rule, women could: 1. Own Land, 2. inherit property, 3. start divorce proceedings, and 4. act as legal witnesses. The Norman Conquest ushered in an increased patriarchal legal and social order, reshaping women’s roles and rights dramatically.

Before the conquest, women were tenants-in-chief, holding land directly from the king, while others held land deeded locally or inherited. In the 1086 Domesday Book, there were 479 women landholders out of over 16,000.

After the Battle of Hastings, many Anglo-Saxon women inherited land from their deceased husbands and fathers. William’s rule required these women to marry a Norman to keep their inheritance. Since the deceased soldiers were traitors, by association, so were those who refused to marry a Norman. Marriages became tools of political consolidation to transfer land ownership to the Norman husbands.

Anglo-Saxon women often avoided forced marriages by joining a nunnery. Others rebelled by teaching their Anglo-Norman children English and thus preserved the language. French was the dominant language of the English court, law, and aristocracy. However, the English language survived since most common women had little to do with the hierarchy. Almost three hundred years later, in 1362, English replaced French as the official language in legal proceedings.

They couldn’t own or inherit land, but could save the English language.