Quakerism arose as a form of Christianity in England in the mid-1600s. George Fox – an uneducated shoemaker and son of a weaver, not a trained minister – came to an unusual conclusion for the times: that God lives within and talks directly to people. This was revealed to him during a mystical experience which he described in his journal: “Great things did the Lord lead me into, and wonderful depths were opened unto me, beyond what can by words be declared.” * It became apparent to Fox that something of the Divine exists with each of us. He became an itinerant evangelist and made it his life’s work to direct people to “the Spirit that gave forth the Scriptures, by which they might be led into all truth.” *
England was ready for Fox’s message. In the throes of the Reformation, people in England were challenging the rituals, tithing, and worldly, materialistic habits of the Church of England. The Bible printed in English was newly available, allowing people for the first time to read the Scriptures for themselves without priestly interpretation. There was an explosion of fervor for the basic teachings of Jesus. This primed the populace for Fox. By the end of his life in 1691, approximately 20 percent of the English had become Quakers. Quaker forms of worship developed which focused on the group encounter with the Divine, rather than on dogma or creed.
One of Quakerism’s early converts was the son of a leading British admiral. Accustomed to a life of privilege, this young aristocrat found himself thrust into confrontation with authorities who joined the clergy in opposing the Quakers. This young Quaker was accused of sedition for preaching in the street to a meeting of Quakers who had been locked out of their assembly hall by the police. Acquitted by a jury, William Penn became a public hero in England. Subsequently, he was able to persuade friends in high places to consider alternatives to persecuting Quakers. Eventually, he worked out a deal with the Duke of York, the brother of the king, to open a colony for Quakers in North America. In 1681, Penn was granted the charter for what became Pennsylvania.
It has often been said that Quakers came to Pennsylvania to do good, and they did very well. Indeed, in the new colony, many Quakers flourished in the secular realm, succeeding in professions and business, which seemed to some at odds with living by Quaker principles. Other Quakers stood out for their principled leadership.
One New Jersey Quaker was moved to devote his life to resisting the worst aspect of commerce in the colonies: the enslavement of Africans. John Woolman led a struggle during the mid-1700s to wean Quakers away from this unchristian practice. He walked thousands of miles up and down the East Coast, using his gentle powers of persuasion on all who would listen. His efforts succeeded in uniting Quakers throughout the colonies to oppose slavery. The Quaker example soon spread to other principled people, and by 1800 the anti-slavery movement in America was well underway.
In the 1820s Lucretia Mott, a Quaker mother of six, organized a women’s anti-slavery society in Philadelphia. Sent to England as a delegate to an anti-slavery conference, she was refused a seat because of her gender. This rejection led to the women’s rights movement in America when Lucretia and her friend Elizabeth Cady Stanton, whom she had met in England at the conference, organized the Seneca Falls Woman’s Rights Convention in 1848. This marked the birth of a movement that in 1920 gained women the right to vote with the ratification of the 19th Amendment. These two women and their protégé Susan B. Anthony were honored by life-sized busts in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington.
Quakers believe that God may be “pleased to make use of thee as an instrument,” * as Fox put it. In other words, Spirit needs to express itself in action, not just words and prayers. The lives of William Penn, John Woolman, and Lucretia Mott testify to that. Quakers believe that the “spirit that gave forth the Scriptures” * guides each of us in our everyday life and brings us together as a community of Friends.
*Quoted from Fox’s Journal. Fox dictated this and other works to his assistants late in his life.
