Editing Dartmouth, Massachusetts (section)

=== Quakers ===
[[File:DartmouthMA ApponegansettMeetingHouse.jpg|thumb|The [[Apponegansett Meeting House]], built in 1791, is the oldest Quaker meeting house in southeastern Massachusetts. The site had been used by the Quaker community since at least 1699.]]

Members of the [[Quakers|Religious Society of Friends]], also known as [[Quakers]], were among the early European settlers on the [[South Coast (Massachusetts)|South Coast]].<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |last=Wittenberg |first=Ariel |title=The story of Dartmouth's first settlers: The Quakers |url=https://www.southcoasttoday.com/article/20140602/NEWS/140609959 |access-date=February 3, 2020 |website=southcoasttoday.com |language=en}}</ref> They had faced persecution in the [[Puritans|Puritan]] communities of [[Plymouth Colony]] and [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]]; the latter banned the Quakers in 1656–1657.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |last=Lukesh |first=Susan Snow |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4X_bCwAAQBAJ&q=Plymouth_Colony_and_Massachusetts_Bay_quaker_dartmouth_1652&pg=PA31 |title=Frozen in Time: An Early Carte de Visite Album from New Bedford, Massachusetts |date=February 15, 2016 |publisher=Lulu.com |isbn=978-1-4834-3920-4 |language=en}}</ref> When the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]] annexed the Plymouth Colony in 1691, Quakers already represented a majority of the population of Old Dartmouth.<ref name=":6" /> In 1699, with the support of [[Peleg Slocum]], the Quakers built their first [[meeting house]] in Old Dartmouth, where the [[Apponegansett Meeting House]] is now located.<ref>{{Cite book |author=Ricketson, Daniel |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1263627689 |title=The history of New Bedford, Bristol County, Massachusetts including a history of the old township of Dartmouth and the present townships of Westport, Dartmouth, and Fairhaven, from their settlement to the present time |date=1858 |publisher=D. Ricketson |oclc=1263627689}}</ref><ref name=":5" />

At first, the Old Dartmouth territory was devoid of major town centers, and instead had isolated farms and small, decentralized villages, such as [[Russells Mills Village Historic District|Russells' Mills]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Old Dartmouth Purchase |url=https://www.whalingmuseum.org/explore/exhibitions/harboring-hope-in-old-dartmouth/old-dartmouth-purchase |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200203160505/https://www.whalingmuseum.org/explore/exhibitions/harboring-hope-in-old-dartmouth/old-dartmouth-purchase |archive-date=February 3, 2020 |access-date=February 3, 2020 |website=New Bedford Whaling Museum |language=en}}</ref> One reason for this is that the inhabitants enjoyed their independence from the Plymouth Colony and they did not want to have a large enough population for the Plymouth court to appoint them a minister.<ref name=":6" /> There are still Quaker meeting houses in Dartmouth, including the Smith Neck Meeting House, the Allens Neck Meeting House, and the [[Apponegansett Meeting House]], which is on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].