The Early Quaker Perception of the Indian

THE EARLY QUAKER PERCEPTION OF THE INDIAN Robert Daiutolo, Jr.* When Quakers arrived in Pennsylvania, they brought with them a number of beliefs quite different from those of their countrymen, beliefs which predisposed them toward a favorable view of the Indians. Among these beliefs was a basic conviction of the brotherhood of man. The Inner Light was a fundamental principle of Quakerism, and equality of man before God was its corollary. Quaker religious ideology, predicated upon the universality of the Inner Light, maintained that all men were potentially perfectable and emphasized the peaceful coexistence of peoples considered equal. Anglicans, on the other hand, were latitudinarian toward worldly inequities and enjoyments while Puritans asserted that God had selected only a small portion of mankind—the elect—for salvation . Ethnocentric Englishmen, the products of relative geographic isolation and the individualistic leanings of the Reformation, sailed about the world with a strong sense of racial superiority. Having made contact with black Africans and American Indians, seventeenth - and eighteenth-century Englishmen generally ranked the Indians as inferior to themselves but as superior to the black Africans whom they considered ape-like at best. Moreover these Englishmen perceived the Indians to be natural barriers to progress as the forests, rivers, and mountains were, and the black Africans to be natural laborers who were to be enslaved in the name of progress.1 In a society that entertained such views on human inequality and exploitation the Quakers stood as "peculiar" exceptions. Considering their beliefs, it was only natural that Quakers who traveled * Robert Daiutolo received his master's degree in history from Villanova University and is a history teacher. 1. For a brief but incisive description of Englishmen's attitudes toward red men and black men see Winthrop D. Jordan, White Over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro, 1550-1812 (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1979) pp. 239-252; see also Wilber R. Jacobs, "British-Colonial Attitudes and Policies Toward the Indians in the American Colonies," in Attitudes of Colonial Powers Toward the American Indian, ed. by Howard Peckham and Charles Gibson (Salt Lake City, 1969), p. 84. 103 104Quaker History and settled in Pennsylvania were predisposed toward a favorable view of the Indian as a fellow human being. There were, indeed, three clearly evident themes in Quaker writings concerning the Pennsylvania Indian: one was that the Indian, living pristinely, was inexplicably purer than the European; another was that the Indian enjoyed well-being and contentment because his way of life was idyllic; and another was that the European had corrupted the purer Indian and had partially destroyed his pastoral existence. Although Indian civilization had none of the comforts and advantages of a so-called advanced civilization, yet it also had none of the complexities and problems. Living in a crude state seemed to some Quakers hardly inferior to the moral dangers of "huckstering " and trade. John Richardson, an English Quaker who lodged at Pennsbury Manor for two or three days in 1701, well stated the essence of all Quaker perceptions of the Indian when he wrote: "I much desire that all Christians (whether they be such in reality or Profession only) may endeavour to imitate these People in those Things which are so commendable. . . ."2 What were some of these "commendable" things? Most obvious were courtesy, generosity , and kindness while another "commendable" thing concerned standards of morality. The pureness of the Indian was evident in his kindly behavior. As early as 1658 Josiah Coale, the famous English traveling minister, found himself the lucky recipient of good Indian hospitality . While traveling from Virginia to Long Island by way of Pennsylvania, Coale and his companions happened upon some "Susquehane's Indians" (Susquehannocks) who "courtiously Received " and "Entertayned" them "with much Respect." After three days the travelers, guided by several Susquehannocks, had covered about two hundred miles through the wilderness before their Susquehannock guides bade them good-by. After about three hundred additional miles Coale and his companions arrived at another Susquehannock camp where they were again "very kindly entertayned." Because one of their party had injured his leg the travelers remained for sixteen days. During this time the Susquehannocks dressed the injured man's festering leg wound and...