Unbelievable immigration story
🌀 Patrick Copeland
Results-Oriented Tech Leader: Customers. Strategy. Teamwork. Execution.
Recently Google took steps for some employees by recalling them to the US, in an attempt to protect them from a new immigration policy. Sundar said, "It’s painful to see the personal cost of this executive order on our colleagues." It is certainly painful and it hits very close to home. You won't believe the following story about someone in my own family.
My relative landed in Boston, and on arrival was taken to court and placed in custody. His crime, religious belief. It seems unbelievable, but it's absolutely true. Massachusetts Governor Endecott using an executive order, forced my relative and eight friends to be deported immediately. They were forcibly shipped home, but they quickly thought of ways to return.
A while later they quietly arrived by boat in New York. A couple of them made the mistake to return to Boston and were arrested. While there, my relative was cruelly beaten with a whip. He was left without bedding, food or water for three days. His wounds were raw and uncared for. After nine weeks he was thankfully released, but he continued to defy the law forbidding his beliefs.
He was later jailed again and a judge ordered that his right ear be cut off! He was also banished to the wilderness. Disfigured? Banished? How can this story be true?
At this point, you might wonder is this America? Well, yes and no. The date was 1658 in the early English Colonies. My relative was John Copeland. His crime was being a Quaker. At the time Quakerism was punishable by death and banishment.
Luckily John Copeland survived, started a family and is my 9th great-grandfather. Due to his tenacity and maybe luck, I'm able to call myself (and other descendants numbering in the 1000s) an American today.
A few of his friends, like Mary Dyer, were killed in the early 1660s by the government, and became famous as the Boston Martyrs.
It seems unbelievable today that we would discriminate against people based on their country or religious beliefs. It seems incredibly primitive to harm someone for what they believe in. Doesn't it?
P.S. other articles: Your best leader might be your mom, The art of change, Do you remember the Holocaust, and The art of forgiving.
More about the author: patrickcopeland.org
Project Manager
7yThe countries banned have not been the countries with the terrorists. 9/11 terrorists 15 out of 19 were from Saudi Arabia, 2 from United Arab Emirates and 1 from Lebanon, so why wouldn't they be first on the list? Aren't you curious?
Thanks for sharing and making us remember, Patrick.
Program Coordinator at MassDOT
7yYes, there are other races also go through such harshness. If people don't abide by the rules then they are spoiling everything for others as well. We need to be realistic about when and if you are arrested for doing the wrong thing then you need to be aware that you will get caught the next time.