The First Book Banned In America -- and other thoughts

[SorellaLaBefana]

...in 1637 when Thomas Morton, a lawyer, writer, and social reformer from Devon, England, published his book New English Canaan, which criticized the Puritans he lived among in the Massachusetts Bay colony. Although Puritans were not popular with everyone living in colonial New England, Morton’s scathing appraisal of their customs and political structure was a step too far for many, which led to the New England Canaan being banned – an act that likely made it the first book to be officially censored in the New World...

...Morton and his community gathered to celebrate [May Day with a May Pole] again in 1628, a Puritan militia led by Myles Standish (who Morton nicknamed “Captain Shrimp”) invaded, cut down the pole. Morton was then tried and found guilty of selling arms to Indigenous peoples, and was exiled to an island off the coast of New Hampshire, where he was left for dead. In act like something from Disney’s Captain Jack Sparrow’s playbook, Morton somehow managed to get himself off the island and then went back to England, where he sued the Massachusetts Bay Company...

Morton did not hold back. His book tore into the Puritans, portraying them as religious fanatics who were intolerant, cruel, and hypocritical. He contrasted their theocracy with what he saw as the harmonious and free lifestyle of Indigenous peoples and his own ideas for how the colony should function. He also mocked the Puritans’ religious beliefs and governance, described them as incompetent, and accused them of unlawfully taking Indigenous land (again, he was happy to do this himself, but you know how it goes)...

The Massachusetts Bay authorities quickly stamped down on the publication, banning its circulation in the colony. They feared it would undermine their authority and encourage opposition to their strict theocratic rule...

https://www.iflscience.com/what-was-the-first-book-to-be-banned-in-america-78604
[ IFL allows two free articles to be read per month ]

Besides his observation on Puritanism (Puritanism: the haunting fear that someone, somewhere is having a good time) H. L. Mencken (American journalist and, more widely, a social philosopher) had direct experience with banned writings as he was arrested for selling a copy of one of the newspapers for which he wrote and which was banned by the Comstock Laws in a city (Boston) where these laws were actually enforced.

The Comstock Laws (passed in 1873) will likely once again be much in the news since these laws were never revoked and thus the act of mailing certain things is a Federal crime under Title 18 USC 1461 (in recent decades basically used only to prosecute those disseminating child-pornography) but which are of much wider application:

§1461. Mailing obscene or crime-inciting matter
Every obscene, lewd, lascivious, indecent, filthy or vile article, matter, thing, device, or substance; and-

Every article or thing designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion, or for any indecent or immoral use; and

Every article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine, or thing which is advertised or described in a manner calculated to lead another to use or apply it for producing abortion, or for any indecent or immoral purpose; and

Every written or printed card, letter, circular, book, pamphlet, advertisement, or notice of any kind giving information, directly or indirectly, where, or how, or from whom, or by what means any of such mentioned matters, articles, or things may be obtained or made, or where or by whom any act or operation of any kind for the procuring or producing of abortion will be done or performed, or how or by what means abortion may be produced, whether sealed or unsealed; and

Every paper, writing, advertisement, or representation that any article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine, or thing may, or can, be used or applied for producing abortion, or for any indecent or immoral purpose; and

Every description calculated to induce or incite a person to so use or apply any such article, instrument, substance, drug, medicine, or thing-

Is declared to be nonmailable matter and shall not be conveyed in the mails or delivered from any post office or by any letter carrier.

Whoever knowingly uses the mails for the mailing, carriage in the mails, or delivery of anything declared by this section or section 3001(e) of title 39 to be nonmailable, or knowingly causes to be delivered by mail according to the direction thereon, or at the place at which it is directed to be delivered by the person to whom it is addressed, or knowingly takes any such thing from the mails for the purpose of circulating or disposing thereof, or of aiding in the circulation or disposition thereof, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both, for the first such offense, and shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both, for each such offense thereafter.

The term "indecent", as used in this section includes matter of a character tending to incite arson, murder, or assassination.

https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title18-section1461&num=0&edition=prelim

The 1975 attempt to use the Comstock Laws to prosecute providing information about legal abortions (Bigelow v. Virginia, 421 U.S. 809) failed after Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973) had been upheld—however...

[Timeflyer]

1. Great post, great to know the full story of US history (colonial and after), influence of religion on society.

[ZDU]

2. Cast off your religion-based shackles...

Free yourself

[SorellaLaBefana]

3. Yes, "No Gods, No Masters"

Is one of the slogans of the Freedom From Religion Foundation

Historically it was used by Labor Rights and anarchist (anti-capitalism, anti-monarchy) movements of the latter part of the nineteenth century.

Labor Rights were later recognized as simply Human Rights—in the same manner that Women's Rights confer no special rights to women, only granting them the Human Rights to which all are entitled.