Seeking the Light: Essays in Quaker History (review)

BOOK REVIEWS Edited by Edwin B. Bronner Seeking the Light: Essays in Quaker History. Edited by J. William Frost and John M. Moore. Wallingford, Pennsylvania; Pendle Hill Publications, 1986. 214 pp. $16.00. This collection of essays honors Edwin B. Bronner for his work as Curator of the Quaker Collection of Haverford College, general contributions to historical scholarship, and for significant leadership across the years in various groups, such as the Friends Historical Association, the Conference of Quaker Historians and Archivists, and the Friends World Committee. The well-deserved tribute is matched by quality essays appropriate to Bronner 's scholarly interests and abilities. John H. Moore's introduction offers readers a quick overview of the essays which are grouped into three parts, three relating to Quakers in seventeenth century England, four dealing with colonial America, and three about modern Quakers. Moore's comments and interpretations establish historical and thematic contexts for the essays consonant with the title "Seeking the Light." Although helpful to some readers these summary digests may hinder others from their own interactive closure with the essays that follow. The brief biographic sketch by Barbara Curtis with attached list of publications relates Edwin Bronner's personal, family, and professional activities. This personal touch will be welcomed by those who know Bronner the scholar and public Friend but not Bronner the person. In my view this sketch understates his spiritual quest, his own "seeking the Light." Part I includes "Changing Attitudes Toward Legal Defense, the George Fox Case, 1673-75," by Craig Horle; "Quaker Prophetesses and Mothers in Israel," by Hugh Barbour; and "Thomas Loe, Friend of William Penn," by Kenneth L. Carroll. Each essay explicates the Quaker search for Spirit guidance in a tension between reason and intuition. Part II includes "Toleration Comes to Sandwich," by Arthur J. Worrall; "Growth of Quaker Self-Consciousness in Pennsylvania," by Jack D. Marietta ; "Secularization in Colonial Pennsylvania," by J. William Frost; and "The Women's Aid Society" by Alfred Skerpan. This fourth essay, an interesting study of a document from the freedman's movement, doesn't quite fit the format , being neither colonial nor modern; Moore puts it in Part Three. Light encountering darkness without and within could bind these essays into a common theme. Part III offers "The Road to Manchester, 1895," by Roger Wilson; "The Friends and Academic Freedom: Some Experiences and Thoughts of Henry J. Cadbury, by Margaret Hope Bacon; and "Thomas Kelly Encounters Nazi Germany," by Paul M. Kelly (a grandson). Kelly and Skerpan are graduate students who studied "Methods of Historical Research" at Haverford under Professor Bronner. Inclusion of their essays is a thoughtful editorial touch. Seeking the Light is an excellent contribution to Quaker thought. Different essays will appeal to different interests. I found most instructive Roger Wilson's account of the Manchester Conference of 1895 and Jerry Frost's account of secularization in Pennsylvania. I found most emotionally and spiritually moving Margaret Hope Bacon's account of Henry Cadbury's vigorous and institutionally embarassing pacifist activities prior to and during World War I. It is 66 Book Reviews67 a paradigm of the Quaker struggle to sustain spiritual convictions in times of cultural respectability. Not only academic freedom was at stake but also whether Christians who enjoy establishment status through their institutions can find both the courage and the means to sustain their central convictions. Reflecting upon goals of the Friends Association of Higher Education, to which organization Edwin Bronner has made significant contributions, I am prompted to recommend this book as a gift to presidents and trustees of our Quaker colleges with the account of Cadbury noted. George Fox CollegeArthur O. Roberts Toward Freedomfor All: North Carolina Quakers and Slavery. By Hiram H. Hilty. Richmond, Indiana: Friends United Press, 1984. x, 159 pp. $4.95. Slavery in its myriad forms of forceful social control has existed almost since the dawn of time. Its labels have changed — call it serfdom, peonage, involuntary servitude, indentured service, or work in the salt mines of Siberia or the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. But the hard fact remains that slave labor is labor obtained by and secured by force, without compensation except for minimum maintenance; American farmers and...