For Emancipation and Education: Some Black and Quaker Efforts, 1680-1900 (review)

56Quaker History England between 1750 and 1900, especially those which advocated the rights ofthe "oppressed and defenceless." Ofcourse, such reforming zeal was founded on inculcating Quaker virtues in non-Friends. Workhouses, for example, would be places "where charity went hand in hand with selfimprovement ."Walvinconcludes withasprightlychapteronQuakers inthe chocolate business, surveys ofQuakers as industrial employers (focusing largely on a few firms like Cadbury, Rowntree, and Huntley and Palmer), and Seebohm Rowntree's pioneering studies of urban and industrial poverty . By 1914, Walvin sees fundamental change. Friends, once extraordinarily skeptical ofthe efficacy ofstate action, were now demanding that it safeguard the rights of working people. I confess that I finished this work with a sense ofvague disappointment. It does not contain much that will be new or surprising for those who are familiar with the last generation ofscholarship on Quakerism. But it is still worth reading as an able synthesis. Clearly written and sensibly argued, it is the best work we have on English Friends and their relationship with the larger society. Thomas D. HammEarlham College For Emancipation and Education: Some Black and Quaker Efforts, 1680-1900. Ed. by Eliza Cope Harrison. N.p.: Awbury Arboretum Association , 1997. iv + 52 pp. Bibliographies. Paper, $7.00. This 52 page book grew out ofa lecture series on Friends and AfricanAmericans . Their sponsor, the Awbury Arboretum, has roots in a midnineteenthcenturyPhiladelphiaQuakerfamilyhome , and todayreaches out with active programming to the local, mostly African-American community . Each ofthe eminent scholars addressed an aspect ofQuaker and Black efforts during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, mostly in Philadelphia , to end slavery and educate Black citizens. The papers have been shortened but remain an excellent summary of the complex issues presented . They neithergloss over the ambiguities with afacile filiopietism nor focus on debunking Friends. Emma Lapsansky explains the Quaker settlers' unfamiliarity with Black chattel slavery and their uneasy accommodation to it. She mentions early Quaker opponents of slavery, especially George Keith. Her essay perhaps indicates more of the editor's cuts. Lapsansky alludes to but does not describe the complicating factors that led Friends to reject Keith's exhortations , and to his rejection of Quakerism. She summarizes the range ofFriends' anti-slavery activities, concluding Book Reviews57 with the unspecifiedchallengeofferedinHenryCadbury's 1936piece inthe Journal ofNegro History. Jean Soderlund writes ofthe variety ofopinions among Friends over the issue of slavery both before the Yearly Meetings moved to make it a disownable offense, and afterwards when partisan passions in the United States escalated toward war. Margaret Hope Bacon turns her attention to Friends' efforts to provide education for Blacks, beginning with Anthony Benezet. She describes a variety of such schools in Philadelphia and, in the 1860s, in the South. Charles Blockson summarizes his vast knowledge ofthe Underground Railroad, giving credit to the major work carried on by Blacks, and the important assistance of a relatively few Friends. Roger Lane tells the story of the Institute for Colored Youth, which eventually became Cheyney University. Established by an 1832 Quaker bequest, the school hit its stride after it moved into Philadelphia in 1 852, hired an all-Black staff, and provided an excellent academic education. Under the leadership (1 871-1901) ofFanny Jackson Coppin it attracted and educated a galaxy of bright African-Americans. The school foundered toward the end ofthe nineteenth century when the introduction oftraining in skilled trades resulted in Black graduates who were unable to find employment, even in Quaker firms. The conservative Quaker Board of Managers undermined and eventually dismantled the strong academic programas theybecame increasinglyenamoredwithBookerT. Washington's philosophy of vocational education for the low-skilled and low-paid jobs Blacks could obtain. The book has a simplistic glossary of Quaker terms. More helpful are bibliographies at the end of each chapter. A small quibble is that they weren't updated since the lectures in 1994; possible additions could have been Linda B. Selleck, Gentle Invaders (1 995), and Salitan & Perera, eds., Virtuous Lives (1994). Scholars will not find new insights here; that is not its purpose. It does offer an excellent, succinct overview of the ambiguous relationship for some 200 years between Friends centered in Philadelphia and AfricanAmericans . Martha Paxson GrundyCleveland Heights, Ohio The Murrays ofMurray Hill. By Charles Monaghan...