The History of the Quakers in New World

Origins of Quakerism

George Fox started the Quakers, or the Religious Society of Friends, in England during the 1640s after he received a revelation that God resides in all people in the shape of an inner light. He taught that perfection was possible if only people would allow that inner light to guide all of their actions. The implication of these beliefs was that all humans are equal, so Quakers were known for eschewing symbols of hierarchy (for instance, refusing to tip their hats to those in higher classes.) Fox and his followers were persecuted in England for their beliefs, prompting immigration to North America. The origin of the word "Quaker" comes from a judge who, when sentencing Fox after his arrest for disrupting Anglican services, told him to tremble, or "quake," before God.

Quakers began immigrating to the English colonies in North America in the 1650s, but the Massachusetts Bay colony, begun by Puritans, was hostile to their presence. At first, the Massachusetts Bay leaders simply forced any Quakers out, but between 1659 and 1661, the colony hanged four Quakers for charges ranging from blasphemy to disturbing the peace. Their persecution in England and Massachusetts persuaded Quakers that they needed to establish their own colony. William Penn and other Quakers purchased a tract of land that would become New Jersey in the early 1680s, but so many non-Quakers moved in that the experiment there was abandoned. After Penn received a charter for a proprietary colony from the king, Quakers next established the colony known as Pennsylvania, which they successfully governed until the 1750s.

When Penn established Pennsylvania, he made sure the colony maintained peaceful relationships with nearby Native Americans. In part, this was out of respect for Native Americans, who, like all people, had inner lights, but also because Quakers were pacifists. As a colony, Pennsylvania was known for its toleration both of varying religious beliefs and multiple ethnic groups, and had a liberal suffrage policy that gave voting rights to all free men. The experience of Pennsylvania's religious liberty policy led the Founding Fathers to include a similar provision of religious freedom in the Constitution's First Amendment.

Quakers were some of the earliest and strongest voices against slavery in the English colonies. Quaker preacher John Woolman toured Pennsylvania in the 1740s, calling on Quakers to free their slaves. Slavery, Woolman argued, is not only inhumane, but also an affront to God because slaves have the inner light of Christ just like everyone else. Quakers responded by declaring the slave trade immoral at their annual meeting in 1750 and forbade slaveholding at their annual meeting in 1774.

Quakers eventually pulled out of politics in Pennsylvania, as more non-Quakers moved in and urged leaders to fight in wars that conflicted with Quaker pacifism, such as the French and Indian War (1756-1763). More recently, in the 19th century, American Quakers underwent a series of divisions that led to different branches of Quakerism being established. For instance, in the 1820s, Quakers who wanted a more evangelical focus on redemption and biblical truth separated from more traditional Quakers. Toward the end of the 1800s, Quakers who wanted to work for social reform established still another branch. Today, in the United States, there are three annual meetings by three sects with differing emphases, but a desire for reunification has prompted most American Quakers to participate in the Friends World Committee for Consultation, which strives to find common ground among all the various Quaker groups in the world.