Friends at Holly Spring: Meeting and Community (review)

62Quaker History Friends at Holly Spring: Meeting and Community. By Seth B. Hinshaw. North Carolina Friends Historical Society, North Carolina Yearly Meeting , and Holly Spring Meeting. 1982. 168 pages. $6.00. Seth Hinshaw tells a story with which all Friends should be familiar. In Friends at Holly Spring he describes the trials and tribulations of Friends in die Holly Spring Meeting and community in Piedmont North Carolina as for nearly a hundred years they bore faithful witness to Truth and Quaker testimonies in the midst of three wars, the desolation and destitution that followed in their wake, and a hostile slave-holding environment. At no period since the first forty years of the Quaker Movement have Friends been called upon to suffer so much as a people for their faith. First, there was the War of the Regulators in which Piedmont farmers squared off against die Royal Governor and his henchmen. Then the American Revolution came to the area with fighting between the local Loyalists and local Colonial sympathizers. The armies of General Nathaniel Greene and General George Cornwallis moved across die region engaging in a string of bloody encounters. Quaker livestock, crops and property were pillaged, and in die neighboring Cane Creek Community Friends' homes were actually commandeered for use by die British troops. Following die Revolution, Friends aroused the resentment of their neighbors by championing the cause of freedom for the slaves and at great risk endeavoring to help some of those slaves escape to die North along the routes of the Underground Railroad. Friends at Holly Spring suffered doubly during the Civil War—from die war-time conditions and the deprivations they brought, and, in addition, diey were persecuted for their nonparticipation in backing die war effort. The Confederacy conscripted 43 men from Holly Spring but not one member took a weapon in his hands. After some hair-raising adventures five escaped to Indiana. Others endured harsh torture and imprisonment. The toll was even heavier for women and children left at home as there were no men to help in the fields, and food and supplies ran short. The darkest days were in the last year of the war when starvation stalked the land and disease ran rampant. On top of this there was continuing harassment by supporters of the Confederate cause. Today the Friends of Holly Spring and other parts of Civil War-torn Carolina shine forth as a martyr people who suffered bravely in die face of tremendous odds in obediently following the Prince of Peace. Friends at Holly Spring throws a spotlight on Quaker ways and practices as they have been lived out in the experience of one meeting from die 1750s to die present. It points to the importance of the traveling ministers from both sides of die Atlantic in fanning die embers of faith. It brings to die fore die significant role of the Elders in looking after the spiritual health of the meeting and shows how they conscientiously carried out dieir responsibilities. They labored at great length with erring Friends in an attempt to restore them to full fellowship. The meticulous care of die mondily meeting in die oversight of marriages is called to attention. From generation to generation, Friends have regarded marriage to be a spiritual commitment and very much of a primary affair of the entire community of faith. It is surprising to learn that Friends' concern over the use of Book Reviews63 tobacco dates back as early as 1701 to Virginia and North Carolina. One of the fascinating aspects of Hinshaw's work is that it allows us to see some of our Quaker testimonies "grow up" across the years. One of the most valuable aspects of the book is that it brings vividly to life the era between 1870 and 1920 when so many changes were sweeping through the Quaker world in North America. This is one of the periods of our history that we least understand. Hinshaw knows the decades of the nineteenth century thoroughly through the oral tradition of his Holly Spring family and community, and he lived through some of the twentieth century portion in his boyhood. He has also carefully scrutinized all diat...