Roger Williams National Memorial Presents

Jessa Piaia as Sarah Dyer Britton

On Saturday, July 25th, at 6:30pm, historic re-enactor Jessa Piaia will present a one-person interpretation of the sister-in-law of Mary Dyer entitled Sarah Dyer Britton: On the Death by Hanging of her Sister-in-Law Rebel Quaker Mary Dyer at Roger Williams National Memorial. The performance is set in 1661 and follows the death, by hanging, of Mary Dyer on Boston Common in June 1660 for her defiance of the Puritan law banning all Quakers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Historians credit Mary Dyer as "the first woman martyr in America" and the portrayal of her sister-in-law, Sarah Dyer Britton, captures the Dyer family’s experience as early settlers in Boston in 1636. Soon embroiled in the Anne Hutchinson controversy, the Dyers and 60 other families left Boston to become the "First Planters" in Rhode Island two years later. Relive the trials and tribulations experienced by early colonial settlers, when Church and State acted as one in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Understand the role that Roger Williams and others had in establishing a settlement based on religious freedom right here in Rhode Island. It was Williams’ ideals of religious freedom that formed the basis, some 140 years later, for the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. The presentation, sponsored by the National Park Service, runs 50 minutes in length and includes and informal Q & A at the end.

This event is free and open to the public. For more information contact Park Ranger John McNiff at the Roger Wiliams National Memorial, 401-521-7266 or email at john_mcniff@nps.gov. 

Saturday, July 25th— 6:30pm—Roger Williams National Memorial