Let Freedom Ring! A Biography of Moses Brown (review)

54Bulletin of Friends Historical Association Yardley Warner, the Friedman's Friend: His Life and Times with His Journal and Letters Reproduced in an Appendix. By Stafford Allen Warner. Introduction by Janet Whitney. Didcot, England: The Wessex Press. 1957. xvii, 331 pages. 25/In her introduction Janet Whitney wrote, "The book itself is an act of filial devotion, being a record of the author's adventures in search of his father, in a spiritual sense." Unfortunately the search was not a success, and the fragmentary evidence that the author located enabled him only to hint at the significance of his father's life and work. Throughout most of his life Yardley Warner (1815-1885) was an educator. Before the Civil War he taught school at Westtown and in Ohio, and after the war he devoted his life to the education of the freedmen. He founded schools, taught classes, trained teachers, and raised money for the work of freedmen's1 education. During two trips to England he continued to interest people in the cause of Negro education. At the time of his death he held a teaching post in a small private school for Negroes in Bush Hill, North Carolina. Perhaps because of a lack of essential documents, the author published much of his source material in the body of the book. These include newspaper clippings, extracts from pamphlets and meeting records, and letters. Additional source material including a portion of Yardley Warner's journal is relegated to seven appendices. Scraps of information provided for the reader would undoubtedly be of value to genealogical researchers interested in finding out more about the Warner family or Yardley Warner's acquaintances . The raw materials are printed in entirety and the work lacks continuity and organization. It is difficult to read as a whole and adds little to our knowledge of nineteenth-century Quakerism or of Negro education. Grove City, PennsylvaniaLarry Gara Let Freedom Ring! A Biography of Moses Brown. By Robert Morton Hazelton. Introduction by Rufus M. Jones. New York: New Voices Publishing Company. 1957. xx, 262 pages. $3.95. There has long been a need for a biography of Moses Brown of Providence , Rhode Island. From the time he became active in business during the French and Indian War until his death over three-quarters of a century later in 1836, he participated directly or indirectly in almost every important event of the colony and state. The record of his long and productive life Brown carefully preserved—a habit he inherited from his uncle and brothers. His remarkable collection of business and personal papers now resides in the libraries of the Rhode Island Historical Society and the Moses Brown School in Providence. From it the energetic biographer has an excellent opportunity to reconstruct the life and times of this interesting man. Mr. Hazelton has divided his work into two parts. Book I, "Freedom in Truth," deals in a roughly chronological order with certain aspects of Book Reviews55 Brown's life, beginning with his conversion to Quakerism when he was already in his mid-thirties and ending with his third marriage at the end of the century. Book II, "Friendship for the Truth," is arranged topically. Themes such as "Harmony," "Humanity," "Disinterestedness," are treated in single chapters; five chapters tell the story of Brown's interest and contributions in the fields of public health, sanitation, and yellow fever epidemics ; two chapters are concerned with Brown's development of firefighting equipment and his promotion of Jenner's method of smallpox immunization, introduced into this country by Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse; then there is a chapter in which the growing tensions within the Society of Friends that eventually led to the Hicksite separation are discussed; and eight chapters—the remainder of the book—are devoted to the struggle to reopen the New England Yearly Meeting School. This organization of the book is unfortunate. Brown passed through several phases of development during his long life. Mr. Hazelton's decision to begin with Brown's conversion to Quakerism, when his character and ideas have already been developed, means that, despite frequent references to the events of Brown's formative years, the reader is left with no clear picture of...