History Of Quakers: Yearly Meetings

The Society of Friends or as they were familiarly known “Quakers” were followers of Englishman George Fox. During the 1600s they fled England because leaders of the Quakers challenged the English class system. After arriving in America, they fled New England and migrated to the South and West escaping religious persecution. Quakers in North America were organized into six geographical areas called Yearly Meetings. The largest of these was located in Philadelphia. At the beginning of the American Revolution they were the 4th largest religious group in European colonies of North America. Quaker believed that men and women were equal in the eyes of God. They relied upon “Christ within” or an inner light. Their way of worship was waiting in silence
until inner light led members to share their religious concerns amongst each other.
In North America Quaker William Penn founded Pennsylvania in 1681. He wanted Pennsylvania to be a refuge for the persecuted peoples of England. Penn’s most fundamental principle was religious freedom. In Pennsylvania there were no established churches, high taxes, military service, or social elites. His vision for Pennsylvania came to be called a “Holy Experiment”. Although Penn felt that his experiment had failed, Pennsylvania and Quakers came to be a thriving colony and society. Pennsylvania paved the way for two major American values: the equality of women and the abolishment of slavery.
In Quaker society women were viewed as equals alongside men.
They were allowed to become ministers and preach in front of diverse audiences. Women were allowed to constantly travel without the company of men. Quaker women were allowed to supervise the the lives of other fellow Quaker women without male assistance, such as in the arrangement of marriage and in church discipline. In the 19th century 40% of Quaker women made up the number of female abolitionists.(www.History.com) One of the earliest suffragettes was Quaker minister Lucrecia Mott. She was a fierce abolitionist, who, frustrated by anti-slavery organizations that would not accept female members, set about establishing women’s abolitionist societies.( www.pbs.org) In 1848 she helped bring the first American women’s
rights Lares 2 meeting, the Seneca Falls Convention in New York. At this meeting the Declaration of Sentiments was written and signed which has been credited with initiating the first organized women’s rights and women’s suffrage movements in the United States. Another Quaker woman, Susan B. Anthony committed to attaining equal voting rights for women and was the founder of the American Equal Rights Association in 1866. Alice Paul Walker, Quaker as well, who was greatly recognized for helping deliver the vote for American women in the 1920s, credited her Quaker upbringing for her beliefs in women’s rights. Quaker’s primary belief that all humans are equal and worthy of respect in the eyes of God, led to the fight for human rights in other areas of society, specifically the area of slavery.(www.pbs.org) The Quaker society was the first to ban the the owning of slaves.
This ban was well underway in 1775 amongst the Quaker Yearly Meeting sectors. The first Yearly Meeting was that of Philadelphia. They approved a minute banning members from owning slaves in 1776. This approval for banning of slavery was a slower process in Yearly Meeting locations of Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, but eventually minutes were approved to abolish slavery within a decade. Responsible for spreading awareness of the immorality of slaveholding was John Woolman, a British-American Quaker. In 1743 he made frequent preaching journeys to Maryland, where he persuaded colonists to free their slaves, and to the coast of Rhode Island where he spoke to ship owners about being against slaveholding. Quakers became important members of the American Anti-Slavery Society, the Philadelphia Anti-Slavery Society and the Female Anti-Slavery Society. They were also fundamental role players in the underground railway in Pennsylvania and the Midwest. The Quaker society was very much supportive of slaves learning how to read and write. During the Reconstruction, 1865-1877, they raised large amounts of money to provide relief for slaves and to establish schools for freed
slaves.
Now with slavery abolishment and women granted the right to vote, Quaker organizations still continue the activist tradition by campaigning against violence and injustice around the world.(www.pbs.org) The success of Pennsylvania and it’s colonists made it possible for the beginning foundations of slavery abolishment and women’s equality. Quakers went on to preach their beliefs in North America and made great strides towards the acceptance of equality for all human beings.