"The answer for Friends is to deepen and broaden our sense of the presence of God as we have seen Him in Christ, until we are fully aware that love of God and love of men cannot be separated. In the measure that we become unsegregated from within, we shall desegregate outwardly."
—Errol Elliott, lecture to Indiana Yearly Meeting, 1968.
Fit for Freedom, Not for Friendship
Quakers, African Americans and the Myth of Racial Justice
BY DONNA McDANIEL and VANESSA JULYE
The Back Bench
A Novel
BY MARGARET HOPE-BACON
Black Hands, White Sails
The Story Of African-american Whalers
BY PATRICIA & FREDERICK MCKISSACK
Slavery And The Meetinghouse
The Quakers And The Abolitionist Dilemma, 1820-1865
BY RYAN P. JORDAN
"No slaves amongst us, and those few Blacks who have had their freedom secured are provided for as to food and raiment."
—Fairfax (Virginia) Quarterly Meeting, 1794
Use the form below to leave a comment about this quote:
Friends General Conference
1216 Arch St, #2B
Philadelphia, PA 19107
Tel: (215) 561-1700
Fax: (215) 561-0759
Contact us
The FGC Website by Friends General Conference is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.fgcquaker.org/contact.
It's interesting to see this
Meetings were to answer
Meetings were to answer queries on the state of society. The version in Baltimore Yearly Meeting read: "Are friends careful to bear a testimony against slavery? Do they provide, in a suitable manner, for those under their care who have had their freedom secured and are they instructed in useful learning" BYM Discipline, 1806 -- the wording in use in in Virginia in 1794 might slightly vary from this. "No slaves among us" should be read as no Quakers held slaves. There were undoubtedly many slaves in the area. Freeing slaves, for Quakers, meant an ongoing responsibility for their welfare and protection. Some formerly enslaved people would likely be able to find work in their trades and could care very well for themselves. Others-- the elderly, the young, the infirm-- might not be able to do so. Quakers were expected to investigate the status of the formerly enslaved, and provide support to those who could not supply themselves. As an editorial comment, this responsibility does not seem to have been regarded by Friends as a form of charity but rather a responsibility for those who had been enslaved and thus were denied the rightful benefits of their own labors.
What's the context of this
What's the context of this quote? I don't know quite what it's saying. That there are no slaves, and very few free blacks, and for some reason someone is feeding and clothing them as some form of charity?
I don't understand :(
Pam
Post new comment