The Dilemma of Quaker Anti-Slavery: The Case of Farmington Quarterly Meeting, 1836-1860

The Dilemma of Quaker Anti-Slavery: The Case of Farmington Quarterly Meeting, 1836-18601 Christopher Densmore* Introduction In 1839, English Quaker and noted abolitionist Joseph John Gurney visitedFarmington,NewYork, duringhistwo-yeartourofNorthAmerica. He later wrote that he knew no district in America where the anti-slavery cause was more vigorously maintained, by Friends and others (Gurney 309). Thomas Drake's Quakers andSlavery in America also identified the Farmington region as a "stronghold of anti-slavery feeling" (150-51). Individual Quakers were well represented in the anti-slavery movement and other reforms in the "burned-over district" ofNew York State. Friends were anti-slavery lecturers, agents for the Liberator and National AntiSlavery Standard, and hosts of anti-slavery gatherings. Nancy Hewitt's Women's Activism and Social Change (1984) documents extensive involvementbyHicksite and Progressive Friends in the network of"ultraist" women in the abolitionist and women's rights movements in westernNew York. Two-thirds to three-fourths of leadership of the "ultraist" and women's rights organizations in the Rochester area between 1842 and 1 860 are identifiedbyHewitt aspresentor former Quakers (271 , Table 17). Yet inthe early 1840s, Quakers werebeing criticized in the anti-slavery press for opposing abolitionists. Eliab W. Capron of Williamson, New York, an anti-slavery lecturer and a member of Farmington Monthly Meeting, publiclyresigned fromthe Society ofFriends in aletterpublished in the March 15, 1844, issue of the Liberator. Capron charged that the Society ofFriends stood "directly in the way ofefforts now being made to liberate three millions ofour brethren, who are now being held in bondage as chattel slaves" ("To the Monthly Meeting"). Why were New York Friends, whose Discipline prohibited slave ownership or any involvement in the slave trade, and cautioned its members to "avoid any act by which the right of slavery is acknowledged" (NYYM, Discipline 49-50) being criticized by abolitionists? To attempt to understand the seeming contradiction between the antislavery professions ofthe Society ofFriends and the criticisms published in the abolitionist press, I will present an evaluation of the institutional response ofFarmington Quarterly Meeting to slavery in the twenty years before the Civil War. ?Christopher Densmore is Associate Archivist at the State University of New York at Buffalo. The Dilemma of Quaker Anti-Slavery81 Farmington Quarterly Meeting Farmington Quarterly Meeting encompassed the Quaker meetings in western New York from Seneca County in the east to Chautauqua County inthewest. The QuarterlyMeetingmet fourtimes ayearto reviewthe state ofthe Society and hear reports from its constituent monthly meetings. It prepared reports on the state ofthe Society in western New York for the YearlyMeeting. In 1828, the SocietyofFriends inNew York State divided into Hicksite and Orthodox branches. Farmington Quarterly Meeting (Orthodox) was part of New York Yearly Meeting (Orthodox) and Farmington Quarterly Meeting (Hicksite) was part of Genesee Yearly Meeting. The Quarterly Meetingtookits name fromthe Quaker settlement at Farmington, Ontario County, the location ofthe oldest Quaker meeting in westernNew York and the site ofthe annual sessions ofGenesee Yearly Meeting. The Quaker Dilemma The dominant religious outlook of New York Yearly Meeting in the early 19th century was quietism. Quakers emphasized a growth into holiness rather than a conversion experience, and de-emphasized external forms and "anything that might detract from the achievement of a total spiritual communion with God" (Hamm 1-2). Unlike some anabaptist groups, Quakers did not reject the world, but neither did they wish to be contaminatedbyworldlythings. Quakerswere expectedto maintainahigh standard ofpersonal morality. Frequenting taverns, going to the theater, serving in the militia orpaying a fine in lieu ofmilitary service, notpaying debts, or neglecting the Quaker forms of plain speech and dress were causes for disownment. Quaker pacifism not only excluded "carnal warfare" but was extended to all forms of conflict and disputation. Sunderland P. Gardner of Farmington cautioned young members of Genesee Yearly Meeting at the beginning ofthe Mexican Warthat "wrong may be wrongfully opposed, and war may be opposed in a warlike spirit" (Gardner, "Address" 177-9). Both Orthodox and Hicksites considered holdingpolitical officeun-Quakerly, andtheDisciplineofGenesee Yearly Meeting recommended that members take no part in elections, "believing that such participation in political contests is at variance with our principles ." (GYM, Discipline 24) Quakers also held that the gospel ministry was a divine gift, and...