Oliver Hazard Perry
THE STORY OF OLIVER HAZARD PERRY.
I.—How the Perry Family Came to Rhode Island.
A very long time ago, there lived in England a young Quaker whose name was Edmund Perry.
At that time the Quakers were much persecuted. They were a quiet and peace-loving people, and would not serve in the army. They had their own religious meetings, and refused to pay money for the support of the Church of England. For these reasons, they were imprisoned, beaten, and driven from their homes.
Edmund Perry believed that the Quakers were right, and he could not endure these persecutions. So, in 1650, he came to America to live.
Thirty years before that time, a company of Pilgrims had left England because they also wished to be free to worship God as they chose. They had founded a colony at Plymouth, which is now in the state of Massachusetts.
Edmund Perry thought that in this settlement of Pilgrims he could surely live peaceably in the enjoyment of his own belief. He did not stay long in Plymouth, however. His Quaker religion was hated there, as it had been in England; and the Pilgrims did not wish to have any one in their colony who did not agree with them.