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Studying American history means encountering Quakers, not just in Pennsylvania, but in some unexpected places as well. George Fox himself visited the colonies and some of the world’s oldest meeting houses are in New York and Pennsylvania. In fact, in the 1600s Anglicans, Puritans, and Quakers made up the majority of the colonists. The history of our faith and the history of our country are inextricably entwined!
It was William Penn who began to diversify the mix in the 1680s, not by being the first to bring Quakers to America – there were already Quakers in America – but by establishing a policy of tolerance in his new colony that attracted not only Quakers, but Scots Presbyterians, English Baptists and Catholics, as well as Lutherans and radical sectarians from Germany. Attracting settlers was the key to success and, according to my textbook, Pennsylvania had “the most successful beginning of any European colony in North America.” Religious toleration was a political idea whose time had come – an Act of Toleration was passed by the English parliament in 1688 – and Quakers, as usual, were a bit ahead of the curve. In addition to Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey were also founded by Quakers, and none of those colonies ever required their residents to support an official church. Quakers began to be a minority religion here for the first time during the Great Awakening of the 1740s largely because Quakers do not evangelize. This marginalization grew during the struggles that led up to the American Revolution, as you might expect, because Quakers maintained their opposition to “fighting with outward weapons.” Unlike most American churches of the time, they never saw opposition to British policies as “rejecting sin and obeying God.” For Quakers, God was above politics, in a time when politics was almost the only thing people talked about. Quakers continued to exert considerable influence, however. The American Revolution occurred just at the time when slavery was being redefined from a misfortune to a moral evil and Quakers were at the forefront of that movement both in England and in America. This was the period when John Woolman was following his leading convincing Quaker slave owners to free their slaves and in 1770 New England Yearly Meeting led the way by prohibiting slave owning among its members. Somewhat later in 1821 a little known Quaker, Benjamin Lundy, began to publish the first newspaper dedicated to the cause of abolition. His assistant editor was William Lloyd Garrison, the famous abolitionist, whose more famous paper, however, was largely supported by black rather than Quaker subscribers. But when the abolition movement gave birth to the women’s rights movement, it was Quaker Lucretia Mott who was the co-organizer of the 1848 Seneca Falls convention. Quakers were also represented when the flood gates of immigration opened in the 1840s. In addition to newcomers from Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, and Holland, there were a sizable number of Quakers from Norway, of all places. Today Quakers are again growing in numbers. That should not come as a surprise, since most of us in Memphis Friends Meeting grew up in other churches, but to realize that Quakers have grown between 1990 and 2001, by 224 percent is astonishing. In this Christmas season, perhaps we can take a moment to remember and celebrate our heritage and to look forward to future challenges. Happily, it looks as if our influence is not about to go away. |
