Quakers and Slavery in America (review)

Book Reviews Quakers and Slavery in America. By Thomas E. Drake. New Haven: Yale University Press. 1950. x, 245 pages. $3.75. 'T1 HE PARTS played in die history of the United States by die workings of conscience and the hatred of sin have been extremely significant and it is well worth an attempt to understand diem in a day when both conscience and sin seem to be concepts unknown to so many. When these motives are associated with the need of asserting the dignity of man and the equality of men as children of God there is a union of forces capable of mighty power, a power much needed in this troubled time. Professor Drake has revealed to us with insight and richness of detail the story of the wrestling of the Quaker conscience with sin, the sin of slavery. When the Society of Friends was first conceived by its founders in the seventeenth century, Negro slavery was an established institution. At first the concern of the Friends was to ameliorate the institution and use it as an opportunity to preach Christ to these ignorant people forced to migrate from their native Africa. Then their eyes were opened to the horrors of the slave trade and finally they were led to question die institution of slavery itself. This latter searching of spirit caused much mental anguish, because many had large investments in slaves and if slavery were abolished their economic sacrifice would be great. The struggle was difficult and it was not until the Colonial period was practically over that a consensus began to emerge among the Society of Friends. First came the determination that the slave trade was wrong and then that human slavery must go. In conformity with their beliefs the Friends undertook by written and oral testimonies to work for abolition. Some were active in establishing the routes to freedom, the "underground railroad" over which many a fugitive slave reached freedom. When the struggle for liberty incited more militant measures, those dedicated to the testimony of peace found difficulties which each resolved in his own way. In die Civil War many refused to fight but those who did were frequently not disowned as they had been in the days of the Revolution. Professor Drake has made comprehensive use of the great, though scattered, Quaker archives. He has read the manifold testimonies, the carefully kept records. Many long-forgotten laborers in the vineyard of truth are brought back to us. The result is very revealing, a book very satisfying in its method and its temper. For die author has been bodi sympathetic and objective. He understands the religious behavior of die Friends and their attitude toward the problems of life. He can analyze carefully and scientifically the patterns of,action which result 45 46Bulletin of Friends Historical Association and he gives a fair and candid picture of a complex situation. Not die least of the merits of the work are its comprehensive bibliographical notes covering thirty-six pages and offering a convenient key to the decentralized records of the Society of Friends. There is much more to diis book than its title implies; it is a valuable commentary on Quaker history down to 1865. University of PennsylvaniaRoy F. Nichols Quakers in Science and Industry: Being an Account of the Quaker Contributions to Science and Industry During the 17th and 18th Centuries. By Ardiur Raistrick. New York: Philosophical Library. 1950. 349 pages. 16 illustrations. 10 charts of family and business connections. $6.00. A RTHUR RAISTRICK is bodi a Friend and a scientist. For many years he has been lecturer in Applied Geology (Engineering and Mining) at King's College, Durham University. He has produced some fifty research papers on coal and coal technology and on glacial and post-glacial geology. He has received the Lyell Fund Award of the Geological Society. In 1938 he was president of the Friends Historical Society, and in 1945-46 he was a research Fellow at Woodbrooke. In turning to Quakers in Science and Industry, Friends will follow with great interest the course of Truth in the lives of the successful businessmen and scientists who emerged in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries...