This day in history:

Sometimes I like to deep dive into what happened today in years past, and there are whole websites designated to just that.

Well, here’s a good one and this is to all my writer friends out there . . .

Daniel Defoe (1660-1731)- journalist, writer, criminal 😳, turned spy later in life!

Summary- Defoe wrote a pamphlet in 1702 that ticked off England’s high officials and church leaders. The pamphlet, The Shortest Way with the Dissenters, was 29 pages of satire. The dissenters were Protestants in disagreement with the Church of England.

The Problem? 🤷🏻‍♀️

No one could understand his point. He seemed to be supporting religious freedom in a time when the crown was the one who decided how people believed and practiced that belief. He wrote a silly story, that made accusations that people could not understand. What was he saying? Was it true or not?

Satire, especially political and religious, is still hard for people to understand.

Defoe went into hiding. He went bankrupt. Eventually he was arrested for “seditious libel” and put in the stocks for the last three days of July 1703 in three different prominent spots in England.

What happened?

Well, I guess it was raining, so less people went out to torment him. But the ones who did on this day, 321 years ago, did not throw rocks or bricks or rotten food or dead animals.

They threw flowers at him! 🌺 🌹 🌸

And his friends loitered around outside the crowds and passed out more of his writings.

What happened to Daniel Defoe?

He raised eight children, became some sort of spy in Scotland, and wrote Robinson Crusoe, in 1719.

My takeaways?

1- Keep writing, my friends, even when you’re misunderstood.
2- Standing up to the establishment and confusing them is good and important, but also hard and scary.
3- Throw flowers instead, even when you disagree.

Heidi xoxo ❤️