Progressive Friends
Martina Weitsch is inspired by two books by American Friend Chuck Fager that tell the story of Progressive Friends
Last year I spent three months at Pendle Hill near Philadelphia. One of the things that made that time special was encountering Chuck Fager, who was there undertaking research into a branch of American Quakerism called Progressive Friends.
Chuck is known as a prolific, if sometimes controversial, writer on a range of Quaker themes. Meeting him in person was a treat and witnessing his emerging research results proved to be one of the most intellectually stimulating aspects of my time at Pendle Hill.
He has now published two books arising from this research: Remaking Friends: How Progressive Friends Changed Quakerism & Helped Save America 1822-1940 and Angels of Progress: A Documentary History of the Progressive Friends 1822–1940.
Remaking Friends
Many people have not heard of Progressive Friends. I had not, despite having been associated with Friends on both sides of the Atlantic for many decades, though at least some of the key protagonists – such as Lucretia Mott – are Quaker heroines. So, where does the Progressive Quaker movement fit in?
We need to understand that in the early part of the century the unprogrammed branch of Quakerism in the US had turned rather quietist. In the opening story in the first chapter of Remaking Friends we find a Friend (George Fox White), who was resolutely opposed to Friends becoming involved in Abolitionist and Temperance organisations, railing against any kind of ‘activism’. He is then followed in ministry by a younger Friend who supports such ‘activism’. The latter is quite violently and unceremoniously ejected from the Meeting, taken to the major’s office, imprisoned and released later on payment of a $250 fine (this is 1843 and $250 was a lot of money in those days).
Remaking Friends tells the story of a split in American Quakerism that is really about the divide between activists and quietists. In many ways it is a divide that we find in other times and places of Quaker history, even in the present. At the time, the key political issues of the day were abolition, temperance, women’s rights and (at least during the actual American civil war) pacifism.
Friends and the abolition of slavery
We cling to the notion that Friends were an important force in the abolition of slavery; and, to an extent, this is true. Friends came to a position that led many of them, relatively early on, to set free their slaves (think of John Woolman); but, of course, the abolition of slavery (both in the UK and in the US) followed much later. One of the key issues that took Progressive Friends out of the unprogrammed branch of American Quakerism (Hicksites) was a reluctance of the Hicksite establishment to embrace abolition as a political aim.
There are different views as to why this was so. It may have had something to do with the fact that a number of prominent Friends’ businesses depended on dealing with slave owners. It may have had something to do with the view held by many Friends in the Hicksite branch of the day that political action was not for Quakers, that slavery would be abolished in ‘God’s time’ and that, as Friends, they had no need to get involved. To this activist Friend, this story is important and instructive.
Progressive Friends also felt that the internal structures of Hicksite Meetings and Yearly Meetings needed to be addressed. These structures were incredibly hierarchical. The Select Meetings, essentially of elders and recorded ministers, had significant power and were held in secret. Superior Meetings could ‘lay down’ inferior Meetings (and did so).
In the early decades of the Progressive movement there was a ‘great purge’ in several Yearly Meetings – including Philadelphia, Indiana, and others – where Meetings were laid down, Friends were disowned (for taking a progressive view on issues and saying so) and where some Progressive Friends disowned their Meetings (before the Meeting could disown them).
This hierarchical structure is a thing of the past in liberal Quaker structures of the twenty-first century and has been so since the early part of the twentieth century. We have Progressive Friends to thank for that.
The Peace Testimony
Another aspect of the story is one that especially interested me because the question ‘What does the Peace Testimony mean to Friends today?’ is as relevant in our time as it was then, even if at that time, because of the American civil war, it was closer and more personal to many individual Friends.
The story of how some Progressive Friends joined the armed forces of the North to defeat slavery is a very pertinent one: was abolition and the survival of the Union more important than pacifism? The story raises questions. What, for example, would be an appropriate reaction today to the many violent conflicts in the world in which we have an interest and in which, as citizens of our countries, we have complicity and culpability?
It is instructive to realise that the commitment to absolute pacifism has been a matter for debate in times of war at other times and in other places (for example in the war of independence, in the civil war, in world war one and world war two).
In the pages of Remaking Friends Chuck brings to life the people whose story he tells. He is partisan in some instances – there is a clear indication, for example, that Lucretia Mott is a heroine – but he tells all the stories in a way that makes you want to read right to the end.
The companion volume Angels of Progress, which contains many of the documents he uncovered, is a rich source of further study.
Why ‘progressive’?
So, why was the term ‘progressive’ used? It was, in the main, because of the spirit of the age. Scientific discoveries led to the belief that science would solve a lot of the social problems of the day. There was also the openness to new ideas that came from this scientific mindset. And this makes me think of the Manchester Conference in 1895: a moment in the history of British Friends when scientific discovery and modern ideas had a key impact on the development of Quakerism. It can, of course, be assumed that the Friends who were instrumental in organising the Manchester Conference had heard of Progressive Friends, had read some of what they wrote and had, maybe, even met some of them.
Over the longer term, the various Progressive Yearly Meetings found ways to come together and to work together. The establishment of Friends General Conference (FGC) is entirely down to them. And over time the rifts between the Hicksites and the Progressives were healed, with all of them coming together under the umbrella of the more congregational structure of Yearly Meetings affiliated with FGC. Indeed, many of the foremost leaders of FGC in the early days were Progressive Friends.
What is clear is this: if we want to understand where modern liberal Quakerism has at least some of its roots we need to understand this story and we need to own it. And we need to learn from the courage and commitment of the Friends whose story it is. They accepted pariah status in a community that many of them had been born into and were deeply rooted in. They risked everything to follow their Light. And they left behind a legacy that still has relevance for us today.
Remaking Friends: How Progressive Friends Changed Quakerism and Helped Save America 1822-1940 is available in Kindle format – £3.05 or paperback – £7.99
Angels of Progress: A Documentary History of the Progressive Friends 1822-1940 is available in Kindle format – £4.30 or paperback – £11.96
Comments
Where can one read about the Manchester Conference of 1885. I am interested to know about the issues that were discussed and the resolutions made. It would also be interesting to know about the Quakers who took a leading role at that time.
By Kenya Quaker on 6th September 2014 - 16:20
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