Colonial Quakers: Enslavers to Abolitionists

  Colonial Quakers: Enslavers to Abolitionists The Religious Society of Friends, or more commonly known as, the Quakers, arrived in the colonies around the mid-1650s after the English Civil War to escape religious persecution. Upon arrival, the Quakers practiced their faith in God through admirable demonstrations of discipline, peace, and frugality. Compared to their Puritan counterparts, the Quakers believed that God lived in everyone. Moreover, Quakers had no clergy and did not require sacrament. These fundamental disagreements helped the Puritans justify the persecution of Quakers on moral and religious grounds. As such, Quaker resolve was tested, not only in England, but also in the colonies. As a result, these shared experiences informed and influenced much of early colonial American Quakerism. Yet, much less is understood of early Quaker abolitionism. While the Quakers remained divided on slavery in New England, numerous Quakers still emphatically expressed notions of a...