Fit for Freedom, Not for Friendship: Quakers, African Americans, and the Myth of Racial JusticeThe Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) has been reputed to have opposed enslavement and later racial injustices. Many members, however, enslaved people of African descent, and Quaker attitudes toward African Americans since have generally reflected the culture at large. To some extent, then, the Quaker story has lessons for us all. Most Quakers did not become involved in the process of banning enslavement until 1760, after thirty years of taking only minimal steps to end Quaker participation in it. The process ultimately took another twenty years to complete. The Quaker stance against enslavement, however, was singular. No other Christian denomination of notable size at the time required its members to end the practice. Donna McDaniel and Vanessa Julye document three centuries of Quakers who were committed to ending racial injustices yet, with few exceptions, hesitated to invite African Americans into their Society. Addressing the insidious and complex racism among Quakers of yesterday and today, the authors believe, is the path toward a racially inclusive community. |
From inside the book
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... Women Impact the Movement As a rule , women were not permitted to be members of the national society , though such women as Lucretia Mott , one of four Quaker women to attend the society's first convention , were permitted to attend and ...
... women stay away that evening was read to the assembly by Lucretia Mott , who then suggested that the women of African descent should not " absent them- selves . " An African American woman from New York replied that it would be ...
... women should not be among the soci- ety's officers . Charles Stuart , a leading Canadian abolitionist of British descent , joined with Tappan because , he wrote , it was " an insane inno- vation " to think that women could do what is ...