appears that private marriage was permitted; but as the sect developed and increased in power and influence, single and private marriage was relegated to the past and regarded as a characteristic of the old popish superstition. In Maryland the Labadists were especially hostile to private marriages, declaring that “hell was full of ordinary marriages”.[1] They dispensed with bright-colored and showy garments and wore no ornaments. No class distinctions whatever were admitted, although the leader at all times was to be obeyed.[2] They ate only common and coarse food and were essentially ascetic.
The communal beliefs and practices of the Labadists did not gain an active sympathy even in a city so favorable to them as Wiewerd; and before long they turned their eyes toward the New World as the only logical seat of their supposed Utopian order. By 1667 Surinam was the only colonial possession left Holland in the western continent which the Labadists thought suitable for a future residence. To this colony they determined to emigrate, preferring to remain, if possible, under the Dutch flag. The commission that was sent to the Guianas to seek a spot for settlement returned with such disparaging reports to the effect that the Dutch colony was filled with all kinds of crawling and biting insects; that their lives would be constantly endangered by wild animals; that the air was tainted with sickly odors; and that “snakes ran through the houses like mice in Holland.”[3] Although one of the principal tenets of the Labadist faith held that mankind should return to a primitive mode of civilization, there were few of the sect who were
