Conscientious Objectors in the Confederacy: The Quakers of North Carolina

CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS IN THE CONFEDERACY: THE QUAKERS OF NORTH CAROLINA By Richard L. Zuber* The years of the Civil War were a time of soul searching, mental anguish, and some physical suffering for the southern members of the Society of Friends, almost all of whom were concentrated in North Carolina.1 The same thing is true of other southerners too, but the peculiar beliefs, practices, and attitudes of the Quakers made them especially vulnerable to the ravages of war. One of them summarized their position and explained the main sources of their difficulties by saying, "We had been a Uttle band of believers in peace in the midst of war, of antislavery abolitionists in the heart of slave territory, of hearts almost to a unit loyal to the union in the midst of secession. The way had not been strewn with flowers."2 An inquiry into the wartime experience of this small but significant "band of believers" ought to yield some insight into the nature of conscientious objection, as well as a better understanding of some of the manpower problems and policies of the Confederate government . The most important question the Quakers faced at the beginning of the war was what the policy of the state of North Carolina would be towards conscientious objectors. This question was soon answered when the state legislature extended the previous exemption of Quakers from militia duty just after the fighting started in the summer of 1861. This law did not require the payment of an exemption tax but stated clearly that the Friends might later become subject to taxation. The basic state policy which emerged in this legislation of September, 1861, was that if it became necessary the *Department of History, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. 1.Minutes, North Carolina Yearly Meeting, p. 50; Fernando G. Cartland, Southern Heroes, or the Friends in War Time (Cambridge, 1895), p. 117; "Religious Reconstruction in Nordi Carolina After the Civil War," no author or date, Quaker Room, Guilford College; Stephen B. Weeks, Southern Quakers and Slavery (Baltimore, 1896), pp. 244-286, 295-302. The work of Cartland will be cited hereafter as Cartland, Southern Heroes. 2.Allen Jay, Autobiography of Allen Jay (Philadelphia, 1910), p. 168. 1 2 QUAKER HISTORY Quakers would be expected "to furnish their quota of men or pay an equivalent."3 After the state started organizing its military forces, the Quakers made their position clear to the state authorities, who then passed a new exemption act. This measure freed from state military service those Friends who would pay a hundred dollars into the state treasury.4 The state secession convention, which remained active throughout 1861, authorized the governor to send all Quakers who were not able to pay the hundred dollars to work in the manufacture of salt; they could also be detailed to serve in the state's hospitals.5 Gradually the state evolved less formal procedures for handling manpower problems that helped the Quakers to avoid both military service and the salt works. The state salt commissioner, for example, allowed men who normally would have been sent to the salt works to hire substitutes, or if they preferred and could afford it they might pay a commutation fee of eleven dollars a month and stay at home. At first the Quakers were reluctant to go to the salt works, but when they were told that there was little danger, that the sea breezes were healthy, and that the possibilities for escaping were relatively good, several of them went.6 It is uncertain bow many Quakers were at the salt works throughout the period they operated, but in September of 1862 there were between sixty and seventy.7 They worked primarily at cutting and hauling wood for the ravenous boilers. The presence of the Quakers resulted in charges by the Confederate military authorities around Wilmington that the men at the salt works were disloyal and that they had been in communication with the union army which occupied parts of the coast. W. H. C. Whiting, the Confederate general in command of the Wilmington area, began to interfere with the manufacture of salt and tried to move the works to what...