Photo: Cover of 'Quaker, Whaler, Traitor, Spy!'.
Quaker, Whaler, Traitor, Spy! The trials of William Rotch
Text by Sarah Crabtree, art by Melissa Philley
William Rotch was a Quaker from the island of Nantucket who got caught up in the US revolutionary wars, and then the French Revolution. Nantucket Quakers were whalers, and sold their shipping fleet’s whale oil to the British, which was the only market rich enough to pay for it. The Friends then bought supplies from the Americans with their profits. But Rotch’s pacifism made him a target to both sides in wartime, and eventually the Nantucket Quakers, faced with starvation through their loss of access to all their markets, emigrated to different colonies in the eastern seaboard of North America, and to Britain and France. By basing himself in France but refusing to side with the aristocrats or the revolutionaries, Rotch once again placed himself and his family in danger. He was threatened with violence, and had to escape once more. Back in the US he was once again accused of treachery to his native land – by John Adams no less – and wrote a memoir telling his story, defending his decisions, which he said held true to his Quaker faith.
