Collect Day #26, BETSEY DUE RAZEE
God of forgiveness, whose will it is always to have mercy, we remember before you Betsey Due Razee, about whom we know so little. We do know that she was investigated, humiliated and singled out by her church for the misdeeds of her husband. And we know that she had the courage to stand her ground, alone, until she had no choice, and still was mistreated. We ask your forgiveness for the sins of your church, past and present. We ask that we have our eyes opened when we judge needlessly or unfairly. We pray for the many, like Betsey, whom the church has persecuted. Let Betsey’s story convict us when we show no understanding or mercy. May we be humble enough to give thanks for her convictions and her steadfastness. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
DAY #26, March 15, 2018
Hancock
BETSEY DUE RAZEE
(1794 – 1836)
Eric Aldrich
Part of observing Lent is repenting for our sins. As difficult as that may be for some of us, repenting was a particular challenge for Betsey Due Razee. Born into a mixed- race family in Hancock, New Hampshire, in 1790, Betsey spent two years of her life in the mid-1820s arguing with Rev. Archibald Burgess and a church committee investigating her marriage difficulties.
Within his first six months as pastor of the Hancock Church of Christ, Rev. Burgess in 1823 led his first formal inquiry of discipline for the church. The Due family, identified in U.S. censuses as free people of color, were members of the church. Burgess’s predecessor, Rev. Reed Paige, led a discipline inquiry into Betsey’s mother in 1794. Hannah Due was alleged to have been married to another man when she had an adulterous relationship with her current husband, James Due.
Jump ahead to 1823, when Rev. Burgess’s church appointed a committee to “inquire and adjust if possible the difficulties between Mr. (Richard) Razee and his wife (Betsey), a member of this church.”
In 1824, the church committee reported that Richard left his wife and children two years prior but was now willing “to return to his duty and live in peace and harmony with his wife, making confession to the church and to her, provided that she would meet him in similar terms.”
An Unforgiving Temper of Mind
Betsey would have none of it. The church reported that “she utterly refused to receive him as a husband.” That was in March 1824, the moment that Rev. Burgess and his church committee suspended their attention to Richard Razee’s abandonment of his family and focused instead on Betsey. Among the church’s charges against Betsey were that she refused “to be reconciled to her husband, except upon unreasonable terms,” namely that he “manifest that he was a Christian by at least one year’s life of holiness.”
Over months of humiliating hearings before the church, Betsey stood her ground, refusing to repent or to have her husband back. Burgess wrote in the church records that Betsey manifested “an implacable disposition, an unforgiving temper of mind and unchristian spirit.” At Betsey’s suggestion, the church convened a council of pastors from neighboring towns to consider the matter. After a day-long trial in June 1825, the council ruled against Betsey, adding that she designed to entice her husband “into the crime of adultery, with a view to facilitate separation.”
Despite her angry disagreement with the ruling and the church’s position, Betsey prepared a confession. “I have sinned and now wish to make the satisfaction which the gospel requires,” Betsey’s letter reads. At length in her letter Betsey repented her sins and implored the church for forgiveness.
Confessions Rejected
But the church rejected Betsey’s repentance. “Mrs. Razee refused to give any answers,” according to Burgess’s notes. “And her appearance was highly dissatisfactory to the church as manifesting an impenitent and unchristian spirit.” More church letters admonishing her followed. By early 1826, Betsey had prepared a second letter of confession. The church rejected that confession, too, noting that she neglected to attend meetings when her case was under consideration.
In May 1826, the church excommunicated Betsey, along with her husband, Richard Razee, in absentia. By then, Richard Razee had long left his wife and children for a new life in New York state. Betsey was 36, with three surviving children, and had endured more than two dozen meetings in the case over the past two years.
Betsey Due Razee’s story was one of many dramas that played out in this town in the decades before the Civil War. Her determination to stand up against the church’s pious leaders are gleaned in the thin scraps of remaining archives, but absent from the history books. Her complex story holds many lingering riddles, touched by shades of skin color, a family’s heritage and the sometimes-interrupted arc of repentance.
