John Bowne
John Bowne opened his home in Flushing to Quaker worship, defied Peter Stuyvesant, and won a transatlantic fight that helped shape early American religious liberty.
The Flushing Remonstrance: How Queens Helped Write the First Chapter of American Religious Freedom
In 1657, residents of Flushing, Queens challenged colonial authority over the persecution of Quakers. The Flushing Remonstrance became one of the earliest and boldest defenses of religious freedom in American history.