Joseph Nichols and the Nicholites: A Look at the "New Quakers" of Maryland, Delaware, North and South Carolina (review)

42Quaker History The last chapters of the book describe some of the new humanitarian programs. The work of Friends among the Oneida Indians, beginning in 1798, reminds one of present day Peace Corps or VISA programs. It was quite different from the evangelical work carried on among the Indians by an earlier generation. Petitions to government which aimed at improving the laws and reforming society are reminiscent of the Friends Committee on National Legislation today. Interest in prison reform and adult education also increased as well as a continued opposition to slavery and concern for the Negro. This is a stimulating book, based upon solid research. Some of the theories and conclusions may seem unusual, but the book does represent an effort to look at a rather neglected period of Quaker history in a new way. Perhaps someone will now be stimulated to study Quaker humanitarian practices in the nineteenth century, when different branches of the Society followed separate paths and there was no pattern which could be described as THE Quaker way. Quaker Collection Haverford College Edwin B.Bronner Joseph Nichols and the Nicholites: A Look at the "New Quakers" of Maryland, Delaware, North and South Carolina. By Kenneth- L. Carroll. Easton, Maryland: The Easton Publishing Co. 1962. 116 pages. $3.75. They would take no part in war, were opposed to slavery, preached against "hireling ministers," would not take oaths, held "select" meetings, allowed women as important a place in their society as men, pleaded for simplicity, developed a custom of marriage in which the young people said their vows without benefit of clergy, developed a Book of Discipline, answered Queries, prohibited their members from marrying those of other religious bodies—and yet they were not Quakers ! These are the Nicholites. In some respects they out-Quakered the Quakers. Men and women among the Nicholites joined in a single business session while Friends of the period held separate Men's and Women's meetings. In the matter of simplicity—as far as dress was concerned—the Nicholites went further than their Quaker neighbors. Males in this body wore undyed garments and hats (as did John Woolman) and the women "gave up all ornamentation , refusing to wear flowered or striped apparel." Their Eighth Query read: "Are Friends [Nicholites] careful to keep from making or buying any dyed, striped, flowered, corded or mixed stuff, and from all needless cuts and fashions, and bear a faithful testimony against the pernicious sin of pride?" Joseph Nichols (1730-1770) followed a pattern repeated in many of the Friends' Journals of the period. He was lively and humorous, becoming the center of a crowd of young people. During a dance which the group help, one of Joseph's companions became ill and died suddenly. This made a remarkable transformation in the life and thinking of Joseph Nichols. He undertook a spiritual pilgrimage, which was to make him the leader of Book Reviews43 a religious body that developed in Maryland and Delaware, and, after his death, migrated into North and South Carolina. John Woolman, Job Scott, Elias Hicks, and other traveling Quaker ministers visited among the Nicholites, who frequently attended Quaker gatherings. When Elias Hicks was at Third Haven Meeting on the Eastern Shore in 1793, some Nicholites already had asked for membership in the Society of Friends. Hicks approved this, but hoped "they would not be hurt by the great and prevailing deficiencies manifested" by those Quakers who did not live up to the requirements of the Discipline. One happy item in the joining of the Nicholites to the Friends was that, though portions of the Nicholite groups did not make the move, no ill feelings existed between the separating parts. Most of the cautious ones eventually applied for membership in the larger society, and by about 1820 they were all absorbed and had disappeared as an organized religious communion. Kenneth Carroll has done a thorough piece of research in many outof -the-way places. He has written an interesting account of a minor religious body, filled in a pleasant niche in the development of American Church History, and also added much to the rather scarce historical material concerning Dorchester and Caroline Counties in...