3 The Quakers in America Quiz

PDF page 228: During the 1640s, a new, radical Protestant sect emerged in England. Led by George Fox, the Society of Friends saw religion as a personal matter since the Holy Spirit instructed every person in matters of faith. As did the Puritans, the Friends distrusted the hierarchy and authority of the Church of England. However, they took their criticism even farther than the Puritans. The Friends rejected all sacraments, liturgies, and paid ministers. Instead, they met twice a week and sat in quiet contemplation until the Holy Spirit moved a member to share his or her spiritual experience. The Friends also refused to pay tithes, bear arms, take oaths, or subscribe to the markers of social hierarchy. One sign of their attempt to achieve social harmony and to eliminate hierarchy was that men and women possessed the same rights in the church. By the mid-1660s, the Friends numbered about eighty thousand. Most of the members worked as small farmers, traders, and shopkeepers. The Friends faced significant persecution from their opponents, who called them the Quakers for their propensity to tremble at God’s word. The English government, both during the Commonwealth and the Restoration periods, objected to the Friends’ tendency to shun church and secular authority. It also disapproved of the Friends’ tendency to interrupt Anglican and Puritan services. Quakers faced stiff penalties for their unwillingness to conform to such conventional social and political norms, with penalties including fines, public whippings, and imprisonment. Some Friends sought refuge in the New World, but there too Puritan and Anglican communities were less than welcoming. Massachusetts strictly forbade Quakers from living in their colony and fined Puritans for even entertaining them. Thus, George Fox concluded that the Friends needed their own colony. Quaker investment in West Jersey, and later East Jersey, was the first step in their attempt to create a safe haven in the New World. William Penn, who invested in West and East Jersey, then approached the Stuarts for help in forming a

PDF page 228: During the 1640s, a new, radical Protestant sect emerged in England. Led by George Fox, the Society of Friends saw religion as a personal matter since the Holy Spirit instructed every person in matters of faith. As did the Puritans, the Friends distrusted the hierarchy and authority of the Church of England. However, they took their criticism even farther than the Puritans. The Friends rejected all sacraments, liturgies, and paid ministers. Instead, they met twice a week and sat in quiet contemplation until the Holy Spirit moved a member to share his or her spiritual experience. The Friends also refused to pay tithes, bear arms, take oaths, or subscribe to the markers of social hierarchy. One sign of their attempt to achieve social harmony and to eliminate hierarchy was that men and women possessed the same rights in the church. By the mid-1660s, the Friends numbered about eighty thousand. Most of the members worked as small farmers, traders, and shopkeepers. The Friends faced significant persecution from their opponents, who called them the Quakers for their propensity to tremble at God’s word. The English government, both during the Commonwealth and the Restoration periods, objected to the Friends’ tendency to shun church and secular authority. It also disapproved of the Friends’ tendency to interrupt Anglican and Puritan services. Quakers faced stiff penalties for their unwillingness to conform to such conventional social and political norms, with penalties including fines, public whippings, and imprisonment. Some Friends sought refuge in the New World, but there too Puritan and Anglican communities were less than welcoming. Massachusetts strictly forbade Quakers from living in their colony and fined Puritans for even entertaining them. Thus, George Fox concluded that the Friends needed their own colony. Quaker investment in West Jersey, and later East Jersey, was the first step in their attempt to create a safe haven in the New World. William Penn, who invested in West and East Jersey, then approached the Stuarts for help in forming a

PDF page 228: During the 1640s, a new, radical Protestant sect emerged in England. Led by George Fox, the Society of Friends saw religion as a personal matter since the Holy Spirit instructed every person in matters of faith. As did the Puritans, the Friends distrusted the hierarchy and authority of the Church of England. However, they took their criticism even farther than the Puritans. The Friends rejected all sacraments, liturgies, and paid ministers. Instead, they met twice a week and sat in quiet contemplation until the Holy Spirit moved a member to share his or her spiritual experience. The Friends also refused to pay tithes, bear arms, take oaths, or subscribe to the markers of social hierarchy. One sign of their attempt to achieve social harmony and to eliminate hierarchy was that men and women possessed the same rights in the church. By the mid-1660s, the Friends numbered about eighty thousand. Most of the members worked as small farmers, traders, and shopkeepers. The Friends faced significant persecution from their opponents, who called them the Quakers for their propensity to tremble at God’s word. The English government, both during the Commonwealth and the Restoration periods, objected to the Friends’ tendency to shun church and secular authority. It also disapproved of the Friends’ tendency to interrupt Anglican and Puritan services. Quakers faced stiff penalties for their unwillingness to conform to such conventional social and political norms, with penalties including fines, public whippings, and imprisonment. Some Friends sought refuge in the New World, but there too Puritan and Anglican communities were less than welcoming. Massachusetts strictly forbade Quakers from living in their colony and fined Puritans for even entertaining them. Thus, George Fox concluded that the Friends needed their own colony. Quaker investment in West Jersey, and later East Jersey, was the first step in their attempt to create a safe haven in the New World. William Penn, who invested in West and East Jersey, then approached the Stuarts for help in forming a

PDF page 228: During the 1640s, a new, radical Protestant sect emerged in England. Led by George Fox, the Society of Friends saw religion as a personal matter since the Holy Spirit instructed every person in matters of faith. As did the Puritans, the Friends distrusted the hierarchy and authority of the Church of England. However, they took their criticism even farther than the Puritans. The Friends rejected all sacraments, liturgies, and paid ministers. Instead, they met twice a week and sat in quiet contemplation until the Holy Spirit moved a member to share his or her spiritual experience. The Friends also refused to pay tithes, bear arms, take oaths, or subscribe to the markers of social hierarchy. One sign of their attempt to achieve social harmony and to eliminate hierarchy was that men and women possessed the same rights in the church. By the mid-1660s, the Friends numbered about eighty thousand. Most of the members worked as small farmers, traders, and shopkeepers. The Friends faced significant persecution from their opponents, who called them the Quakers for their propensity to tremble at God’s word. The English government, both during the Commonwealth and the Restoration periods, objected to the Friends’ tendency to shun church and secular authority. It also disapproved of the Friends’ tendency to interrupt Anglican and Puritan services. Quakers faced stiff penalties for their unwillingness to conform to such conventional social and political norms, with penalties including fines, public whippings, and imprisonment. Some Friends sought refuge in the New World, but there too Puritan and Anglican communities were less than welcoming. Massachusetts strictly forbade Quakers from living in their colony and fined Puritans for even entertaining them. Thus, George Fox concluded that the Friends needed their own colony. Quaker investment in West Jersey, and later East Jersey, was the first step in their attempt to create a safe haven in the New World. William Penn, who invested in West and East Jersey, then approached the Stuarts for help in forming a

PDF page 228: During the 1640s, a new, radical Protestant sect emerged in England. Led by George Fox, the Society of Friends saw religion as a personal matter since the Holy Spirit instructed every person in matters of faith. As did the Puritans, the Friends distrusted the hierarchy and authority of the Church of England. However, they took their criticism even farther than the Puritans. The Friends rejected all sacraments, liturgies, and paid ministers. Instead, they met twice a week and sat in quiet contemplation until the Holy Spirit moved a member to share his or her spiritual experience. The Friends also refused to pay tithes, bear arms, take oaths, or subscribe to the markers of social hierarchy. One sign of their attempt to achieve social harmony and to eliminate hierarchy was that men and women possessed the same rights in the church. By the mid-1660s, the Friends numbered about eighty thousand. Most of the members worked as small farmers, traders, and shopkeepers. The Friends faced significant persecution from their opponents, who called them the Quakers for their propensity to tremble at God’s word. The English government, both during the Commonwealth and the Restoration periods, objected to the Friends’ tendency to shun church and secular authority. It also disapproved of the Friends’ tendency to interrupt Anglican and Puritan services. Quakers faced stiff penalties for their unwillingness to conform to such conventional social and political norms, with penalties including fines, public whippings, and imprisonment. Some Friends sought refuge in the New World, but there too Puritan and Anglican communities were less than welcoming. Massachusetts strictly forbade Quakers from living in their colony and fined Puritans for even entertaining them. Thus, George Fox concluded that the Friends needed their own colony. Quaker investment in West Jersey, and later East Jersey, was the first step in their attempt to create a safe haven in the New World. William Penn, who invested in West and East Jersey, then approached the Stuarts for help in forming a

PDF page 228: The Founding of Pennsylvania William Penn joined the Society of Friends in 1667. According to historians Oscar Theodore Barck and Hugh Talmadge Lefler, Penn served as “one of the foremost exponents of Quakerism,” but he was also “a paradoxical figure.” The son of a successful naval officer who owned an estate in Ireland and played a role in the restoration of Charles II, William Penn lived a privileged life. At the same time, he became very interested in religion especially after he met Thomas Loe, a Quaker missionary. His father tried to curb him of his Quaker ways by sending him to France to live among the nobility of Louis XIV’s court. Unimpressed by the French displays of wealth, when he

PDF page 228: The Founding of Pennsylvania William Penn joined the Society of Friends in 1667. According to historians Oscar Theodore Barck and Hugh Talmadge Lefler, Penn served as “one of the foremost exponents of Quakerism,” but he was also “a paradoxical figure.” The son of a successful naval officer who owned an estate in Ireland and played a role in the restoration of Charles II, William Penn lived a privileged life. At the same time, he became very interested in religion especially after he met Thomas Loe, a Quaker missionary. His father tried to curb him of his Quaker ways by sending him to France to live among the nobility of Louis XIV’s court. Unimpressed by the French displays of wealth, when he

PDF page 229: either in England or in the colonies. After Penn’s father died in 1670, he possessed the necessary financial resources to help establish a Quaker colony in America. In 1676, Penn assisted in trying to right the problems in West Jersey after the Quakers took over. To attract settlers, the West Jersey proprietors promised religious tolerance, which attracted a large number of non-Quakers to the region. However, Fox, Penn, and others struggled to govern the religiously and ethnically diverse colony. Therefore, Penn decided to take advantage of his father’s close relationship with the Stuarts. When his father died, Penn inherited a claim against the crown of approximately £16,000. In 1680, Penn petitioned the king for territory between New York and Maryland. For Charles II, it was a convenient way to settle his debt. While short on cash, he had plenty of land in America. Nevertheless, the king seemed reluctant to follow through with the plan. Granting a large tract of land to a Quaker would counter his policy of persecution at home; furthermore, it might undermine his plans to consolidate royal power in the colonies. In the end, Charles II, at the urging of his brother James, granted Penn a charter in 1681. Although he disapproved of Quakerism, the Duke of York personally liked Penn and thought granting Quakers more

PDF page 229: either in England or in the colonies. After Penn’s father died in 1670, he possessed the necessary financial resources to help establish a Quaker colony in America. In 1676, Penn assisted in trying to right the problems in West Jersey after the Quakers took over. To attract settlers, the West Jersey proprietors promised religious tolerance, which attracted a large number of non-Quakers to the region. However, Fox, Penn, and others struggled to govern the religiously and ethnically diverse colony. Therefore, Penn decided to take advantage of his father’s close relationship with the Stuarts. When his father died, Penn inherited a claim against the crown of approximately £16,000. In 1680, Penn petitioned the king for territory between New York and Maryland. For Charles II, it was a convenient way to settle his debt. While short on cash, he had plenty of land in America. Nevertheless, the king seemed reluctant to follow through with the plan. Granting a large tract of land to a Quaker would counter his policy of persecution at home; furthermore, it might undermine his plans to consolidate royal power in the colonies. In the end, Charles II, at the urging of his brother James, granted Penn a charter in 1681. Although he disapproved of Quakerism, the Duke of York personally liked Penn and thought granting Quakers more

PDF page 230: Under the terms of the charter, Penn took control of approximately 45,000 acres of land. However, the vagueness of the charter regarding the new colony’s northern and southern borders led to disputes with New York and Maryland, disputes which lasted until the end of the colonial period. The charter also gave Penn the ability to govern his land as he saw fit so long as he upheld the Navigations Acts, allowed colonial court decisions to be appealed in England, and maintained an agent in London. Charles II called the new colony Pennsylvania in honor of Penn’s late father for his loyal service to the crown, much to the new proprietor’s dismay, as such

PDF page 230: Under the terms of the charter, Penn took control of approximately 45,000 acres of land. However, the vagueness of the charter regarding the new colony’s northern and southern borders led to disputes with New York and Maryland, disputes which lasted until the end of the colonial period. The charter also gave Penn the ability to govern his land as he saw fit so long as he upheld the Navigations Acts, allowed colonial court decisions to be appealed in England, and maintained an agent in London. Charles II called the new colony Pennsylvania in honor of Penn’s late father for his loyal service to the crown, much to the new proprietor’s dismay, as such

PDF page 230: Settling and Governing the Quaker Colony William Penn looked at his new colony as a holy experiment, which would serve as an example to other nations. At the same time, he viewed the colony as a commercial venture, recognizing the value of the land on which he settled. Therefore, his choices about governing the colony and settling the colony reflected both desires. According to Alan Taylor, Penn put a “Quaker twist on the Puritan concept of a colony as a ‘City upon a Hill.’” He made religious toleration a priority, and not just for the Friends; he welcomed all persecuted people. The colony never supported a church,