Quakers

Penn

The Society of Friends, or Quakers as they were commonly known, began as a small gathering of religious reformers during the English Civil War (1642-1646). Unlike other mainstream denominations, the Quakers abandoned all of the rituals and practices of the Roman Catholic Church.

They relied solely on an “Inner Light,” a spark of redemption within every man and woman. Their worship service was one of silence - waiting for someone, male or female, to share their religious feeling with others in the gathering. They had no paid clergy, no splendid cathedrals or church buildings - Quakers met in private homes or meeting halls. Protestant denominations in England (whether they were Anglican, Puritan, or Separatist) looked upon Quakers as dangerous fanatics who denied the primacy of scriptures. When they were a small insignificant sect they were simply ridiculed. In the 1650s, as Quakers began to actively seek converts, they were persecuted.

George Fox, founder of the Society of Friends, taught egalitarianism (a belief in human equality especially with respect to social, political, and economic affairs). Fox taught that in God’s sight no social distinctions existed. Quakers refused to observe customs of tipping one’s hat to a person because it indicated that person was your superior. They refused to pay tithes to the Anglican Church, to take oaths on the Bible, and renounced all forms of violence even in self-defense. They believed in the spiritual equality of the sexes and the right of women to participate in religious gatherings.

Of the 59 Quaker missionaries who came to America, 26 were women. These missionaries set out to convert people in the West Indies and in the English, Dutch, and Swedish colonies in North America. These missionaries were reviled, imprisoned, or deported. In the Puritan colony called Massachusetts Bay they were warned that their rights in the colony depended on their keeping “away from us” and to be gone as fast as they can – “the sooner the better.” Quakers kept coming and in 1659, two Quaker men were hanged on Boston Commons. An elderly Quaker woman, Mary Dyer, was threatened with execution and escorted out of the colony. When she later returned, she, too, was hanged.

William Penn joined the Society of Friends in 1666, he took up the cause of defending Quakers who had been arrested in England and Ireland for practicing their religion. When his father died, the younger Penn inherited a small fortune plus a claim for funds his father was owed by King Charles II. Below is a chronology of three attempts by the Quakers and Penn to establish a colony in America.

After England gained control of the Dutch colony of New Netherland in 1667 it was renamed New York in honor of the Duke of York (brother of King Charles II). In 1674 Penn and other Quakers tried to set up a colony between the Hudson River (yellow arrow in the map to your left) and Delaware River (blue arrow in the map) in the former Dutch New Netherlands area. Apparently it never materialized. The colonial lands south of what is now New York were divided into two parcels known as West Jersey (see white W on map) and East Jersey (see white E on map). There is a red line that shows roughly where the two were originally divided. Around 1676 the proprietor of West Jersey (white W) sold his rights to William Penn and to other Quakers who wanted to start a colony along the Delaware River. The colony failed to attract many settlers because of some legal claims regarding the sale of the land to the Quakers that made settlers wary of migrating. Penn was not willing to stop trying. In 1681 he won a charter from King Charles II for land west of the Delaware River (Pennsylvania) in return for canceling a royal debt owed to Penn’s father. Penn decided to make this a Quaker colony. His Pennsylvania was to be a place for people of all religions and national backgrounds. This colony became a “Holy Experiment” in which people would live together in peace. Penn, like John Winthrop of Massachusetts Bay, looked upon his colony as “a model of Christian charity.”

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