In Light and Shadow: Friends and Slavery

By Paul Kriese

Paul Kriese, presented this message to members of the Quaker Youth Pilgrimage on July 19, 2006 at Wilmington College.

“I am the vine, you are the branches…now what fruit shall we bear?” (John 15)

“It is time for Friends to learn and understand our complete history” (Vanessa Julye)

 
Introduction

The vine is the knowledge that “there is that of God in everyone.” The branches demonstrate the various paths that this ‘knowledge’ takes. The fruit (witness, faith stance) will look different when it is presented to others.

Human experience lives in light and in shadow. The George Fox song suggests that “there is an “ocean of darkness” and an “ocean of light.” We need to look to both of these experiences to understand the different witnesses recorded and held. The history of the Religious Society of Friends is a compilation of different ‘branches’ bearing different harvests from the same ‘vine’. The experience of Friends in the United States is testimony to this reality.

The history of Friends and slavery is one example of this difference of insight. Friends in the United States have taken a route not entirely similar to Friends elsewhere. Friends, like others in the United States, share a political and cultural environment largely based on race and racist ideology. As far back as John Woolman, slavery created splits and spirited discussions in this part of our Religious Society. Yearly Meetings read members out of association for both owning and not owning other human beings. As Friend Vanessa Julye says, it is time for Friends to learn and understand our “complete history,” for only with the full tapestry displayed can we see where we have been and where we have yet to go. If we are serious about race relations within our Society we need to see the light as well as the dark of that continuing history of relations.

Slavery within the Religious Society of Friends in the United States

European American historian Gary Nash wrote that the “Quakers’ strong fear of interracial mingling burst into the open in 1795, when Hannah Burrows, a light-skinned woman,” who frequently attended meeting, sought membership in a Philadelphia Friends meeting. “‘The chief objection,’ in the assessment of one leading Quaker, was that if membership were granted, ‘the privilege of intermarriage with the whites could not be withheld,’ and ‘such mixtures are objectionable’.” (Gary B. Nash, Forging Freedom: The Formation of Philadelphia’s Black Community, p. 180)

In 1841 Indiana Yearly Meeting quoted the Bible to warn of the consequences of mingling by recalling that Ephraim of old “mixed himself among the people [and] strangers have devoured his strength and he knoweth it not.” The next year the Maryland Hicksites issued a “solemn warning” in that regard: Friends should avoid any involvement with the associations that promote abolition “by political or other means of a coercive nature, devised in the wisdom and contrivance of man.….” (Drake, p. 148; Errol Elliott, Quakers on the American Frontier: A History of the Westward Migrations, Settlements, and Developments of Friends on the American Continent. pp. 91-92. Walter Edgerton, a History of the Separation of Indiana Yearly Meeting, p. 48)

The pervasive fear of “amalgamation” influenced Friends as it did the general European-American population. Like other people of European descent, much of the European-American Quakers’ unwillingness to admit African Americans as members in the Society of Friends or as students in their schools and colleges, or, in fact to interact with them socially can be attributed to just one thing—a deep-seated aversion to the idea of mixing the races. The fear of “amalgamation,” to use the word of the nineteenth century, can, in turn, be attributed to the then commonly held view that African Americans were a lesser primitive race, innately ignorant and uncultured. We will see how this fear of amalgamation reveals itself in many aspects of Friends’ lives.

Friends only reluctantly opened their Religious Society to colored members, and they wished no more than other whites of their day and generation to associate with different races on terms of social intimacy.” In the Northern United States, fear of close social contact led to separate "colored benches" in Meetings. A few radicals—or shall we call them prophets?—complained of the "inconsistency of the Negro benches and waged a successful campaign in the late eighteenth century to admit Negroes…." Membership was then "possible, but not common." Drake, pp., 120-121)

Slavery as Normal and Justified Behavior

We point to early recognition that slavery was wrong, but Friends owned slaves, some continuing even after the Minute was passed. Additionally, early Minutes, such as the Germantown Minute of 1688, were turned down. There were Friends, who did not believe that they or their Quaker brethren were wrong to be enslavers. In the South, including Maryland and Virginia, enslavement was already well entrenched when Quakers arrived. Some Friends apparently justified the custom on the ground that unbaptized Africans were “not Christians and, therefore, could be held in bondage.” (J. Reaney Kelly, Quakers in the Founding of Anne Arundel County, Maryland, p. 87)

A majority of Friends of European descent had absorbed the societal view that African Americans were naturally ignorant. Thus, they could reason that it would be irresponsible to free people unable to survive on their own. Even meetings opposed to the practice were aware of the financial repercussions for those whose businesses depended on enslaved laborers, especially in the South. (Marietta, p. 276)

Friends differed in their belief of what their religion required of them as they struggled with the issue of enslavement. Friends’ views on enslavement in the 1700s were likely to fall into one of these four categories developed by Thomas Drake, a Quaker historian of European descent:

1. A majority of Friends accepted slavery “without much qualm or question.”
2. Others were “perplexed, but did nothing.”
3. And others “agreed with Englishman George Fox” that slaves should be treated “kindly” and offered a Christian education, but would go no further.
4. Finally, a “sensitive few doubted Christians should be enslaving fellow men. (Thomas E. Drake, Quakers and Slavery, p. 9)

As far back as 1737, Benjamin Lay, one of many Friends who worked to free the Society of Friends of slaveholding, said that “Negroes were incapable of assimilation….” Even Anthony Benezet, a Friend who devoted his life to educating free African Americans, like most other eighteenth-century Quakers, “believed time and Providence would fit them for freedom, to be enjoyed in some other place than the South.’. West of the Alleghenies was his idea of ‘a suitable settlement.” (Drake, Quakers and Slavery, p. 121)

European-American Friend Nathan Shoemaker represented this belief when he wrote:

“When will this vexed question cease to agitate our Society? I had rather not hear it touched upon in our meetings for worship. I do not believe it is a part of gospel ministry. In the Lord’s own time this oppressed people will be delivered.” (Bliss Forbush, Moses Sheppard, p. 172)

New England Yearly Meeting disowned abolitionist [Arnold] Buffum, first president of the New England Anti-Slavery Society, ostensibly for reasons other than his anti-slavery entreaties to the Meeting. Buffum went on to Indiana where he joined other “agitators” who eventually were removed from the Yearly Meeting to become the “Indiana Yearly Meeting of Anti-Slavery Friends.” (Drake, pp. 162-165)

The Underground Railroad: “The Rest of the Story”

Here we also want to clarify the “courageous few” and the Underground Railroad.

Although known for their work for the fugitives, Friends did not all agree on the morality of supporting the Underground Railroad. Those who did support it cited a “higher law,” including Deuteronomy 23:15 —“Thou shalt not deliver unto his masters the servant who has escaped from his master unto thee.” Jacob Ferris, a Friend of European ancestry from Farmington Quarter, New York, expressed the more radical view in this 1843 statement:

“It is, to me, absurd that, at this day and age, Friends should talk about keeping to the quiet. Have they not, since the first rise of their society, been agitating the public? Their testimonies are calculated to do so, and, I believe, the agitation has been productive of great good to the world.” (Christopher Densmore, “The Dilemma of Quaker Anti-Slavery: The Case of Farmington Quarterly Meeting, 1836-1860,” Quaker History 82 (Fall 1993, No. 2), pp. 84-85)

But those who stood with Ferris were in the minority, and a number were disowned, usually with a “convenient excuse” for the disownment. (Drake, p.158)

We have been led to believe that white abolitionists generally and Quakers specifically extended all aid to runaway slaves. This involvement however, has been grossly exaggerated. “Only a minority of this religious community…participated in the struggle to transport slaves to freedom….The overemphasis on the Quakers’ role has led to ignorance about the participation of other religious groups, however. Wesleyan Methodists, Jews, Dunkers, Unitarians, Covenanters, and Roman Catholics probably have as legitimate a claim to consistent Railroad activities.” (McDaniel, Donna and Vanessa Julye, Fit For Freedom, Not for Friendship a work in Progress)

In the South, including Maryland and Virginia, enslavement was already well entrenched when Quakers arrived. Some Friends apparently justified the custom on the ground that unbaptized Africans were “not Christians and, therefore, could be held in bondage.” (Kelly, p. 87) Another difference concerned mingling with non-Friends. To some, this “mingling” compromised the basic principles of Quakerism. Thus it was unacceptable for Friends to join non-Quakers in abolition societies, groups that were based on the creaturely wisdom of the world.

The question then is: If just a few Friends were leading the way, why is it that we Quakers have such a good reputation for working on the Underground Railroad and being abolitionists? Like any other legend, there is both truth and exaggeration in this statement. As African American historian Charles Blockson explains it, Friends “early and consistent stand against slavery” did make them stand out compared to other denominations. Thus evolved the familiar image of “slaves seeking out men with broad-brimmed hats” who would “invariably aid them in their flight to freedom.…” (Larry Gara, The Liberty Line: The Legend of the Underground Railroad, pp. 5-6)

Some of the supposedly factual accounts of the Underground Railroad were actually highly fictionalized, often including unsubstantiated statements such as “many of the conductors were Quakers.” Feeding the myth was the fact that two of the characters in [Harriet Beecher Stowe’s] very popular novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, were Quaker. Philadelphia’s role as a hub for the Underground Railroad also encouraged the idea of heavy Quaker involvement. (Gara, p. 185)

Overemphasizing Friends’ involvement led to underemphasizing the role of the free people of African descent. What is true, in the words of African American Quaker historian Emma Lapsansky, is that “The Underground Railroad was fundamentally the entrepreneurial effort of African Americans, assisted by whatever array of white people they could muster to assist with some, or all of their escapades, or simply…to look the other way. The muscle and backbone of the Underground Railroad,” she says, “were black. “ (Emma Jones Lapsansky, lecture at Drexel University, January 17, 2002)

Quaker Education and Race Relations in the United States

In 1937 Media Friends School, near Philadelphia, one of the first to admit an African American student faced an enrollment drop from 93 to 62. The school survived thanks to the board and some “weighty” Friends who agreed to cover any loss in revenue and the school recovered within three years. The lesson for other Friends schools seemed to be to take great care in informing and involving parents of such a move. Less positively, the experience of Media Friends confirmed their worst fears—that enrolling African American students would bring decreased enrollment. (Sue Gold, “Bearing Witness to a Fresh Revelation of Truth: The Desegregation of Media Friends School in 1937” in Pat McPherson, Irene McHenry, and Sarah Sweeney-Denham, editors, Schooled in Diversity, Readings on Racial Diversity in Friends Schools, p. 65)

In the spring of 1952, Grace Cunningham, daughter of Clarence Cunningham, the first African American graduate of Earlham, announced her engagement to Robert McAllester, a student of European descent. The two seniors planned to marry after graduation, but European American college President Thomas Jones saw their “act of defiance” that showed no understanding of “the problem of the college."(Thomas Hamm, Earlham College: A History, 1847-1997, pp. 205-206) Administrators foresaw anxious parents withdrawing hundreds of students and alumni reacting adversely. McAllester was suspended for the last semester. They did marry (and, by the way, remain so to this day.) (Hamm, p. 206)

More recently in my own Monthly Meeting,Clear Creek, which is located on the Earlham College campus but affiliated not with Indiana Yearly Meeting (FUM) but Ohio Valley Yearly Meeting (FGC), several examples of ignorance about black/white relations have been in evidence. I have been informed by Indiana Friends that there are still members of our Religious Society who maintain close relations to groups like the Klan.

Conclusions: More Dark than Light?

We have often commented that Friends treated slaves well, without acknowledging the horror of the institution of slavery. We are recognized even by the African American community as allies in civil rights, but our schools were often segregated well into the mid-1900s.We are aware of the work of Friends on the Underground Railroad, but often forget the major role played, independently, by African Americans. We have minutes affirming equality, but our membership of African Americans remains very low

We have a history of not allowing even very faithful attenders of Color to become members. Sarah Mapps Douglass said in 1838 to another Friend of Color “as you request to know particularly about Arch Street Meeting, I may say that there is a bench set apart at that meeting for our people, that my mother and myself were told to sit there, and that a friend sat at either end of the bench to prevent white persons from sitting there. (Julye, Vanessa, “It is Time for Friends to Learn and Understand Our Complete History”, FGC Connections, spring, 2002) (Broadfield, Joan “Heart and Mind Together Act against Racism”, FGC Connection, spring, 2002)

“This work”, says Vanessa Julye “has transformed my understanding of where this country is in terms of racial justice and equality, namely that we have come nowhere near to achieving what we (say) we want for America. We have not had nor do I think we have today the political or moral will to pursue the promises we believe in.” I could not think of a more clearly Truthful way to conclude these remarks on The Religious Society of Friends in North America.

Bibliography of Works Cited

Broadfield, Joan “Heart and Mind Together Act against Racism”, FGC Connection, spring, 2002)

Christopher Densmore, “The Dilemma of Quaker Anti-Slavery: The Case of Farmington Quarterly Meeting, 1836-1860,” Quaker History 82 (Fall 1993, No. 2), pp. 84-85

Thomas E. Drake, Quakers and Slaver, Glouchter, Mass; P. Smith, 1965

Walter Edgerton, A History of the Separation of Indiana Yearly Meeting, Cincinnati, Ohio: A. Pugh, 1865

Errol Elliott, Quakers on the American Frontier: A History of the Westward Migrations, Settlements, and Developments of Friends on the American Continent, Richmond, Indiana: Friends United Press, 1969

Larry Gara, The Liberty Line: The Legend of the Underground Railroad, Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 1996

Sue Gold, “Bearing Witness to a Fresh Revelation of Truth: The Desegregation of Media Friends School in 1937” in Pat McPherson, Irene McHenry, and Sarah Sweeney-Denham, editors, Schooled in Diversity, Readings on Racial Diversity in Friends Schools, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Friends Council on Education, 2001

Thomas Hamm, Earlham College: A History, 1847-1997, Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1997

Julye, Vanessa, “It is Time for Friends to Learn and Understand Our Complete History”, FGC Connections, spring, 2002)

J. Reaney Kelly, Quakers in the Founding of Anne Arundel County, Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland: Maryland Historical Society, 1963

Lapsansky, Emma Jones, lecture at Drexel University, January 17, 2002

Jack Marietta, The Reformation of American Quakerism, 1748-1783, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1984

McDaniel, Donna and Vanessa Julye, Fit For Freedom, Not for Friendship (not yet published)

Gary B. Nash, Forging Freedom: The Formation of Philadelphia’s Black Community, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1991

About the Author(s)

Dr. Paul Kriese is Associate Professor of Political Science, Indiana University East, Richmond, Indiana.