Lady Deborah Moody, a seventeenth-century widow who fled persecution in England, was excommunicated from the church in Salem, Massachusetts. Called "dangerous" for dissenting from the orthodox belief concerning infant baptism, the new immigrant departed to found the first U.S. town (Gravesend, Long Island, New York) where inhabitants enjoyed statutory liberty. That was 350 years ago. Now the New York City mayor has memorialized Moody's work by issuing a proclamation in her honor.
Lady Moody was one of a group of precursors of the Seventh-day Baptists who in turn passed on to Adventists the truth about the Sabbath. This documented account of the "woman who wrote our Declaration of Independence 150 years before the men got around to it" provides fascinating insights into the early history of religious toleration in the United States.
