Jeffrey A. Denman

"The Testimony of the People Called Quakers," January 24, 1775 The new year began as the old one had ended—with more controversy. Christopher Marshall recorded in his diary on January 2, 1775, that there were "meetings daily amongst the Quakers," and on January 5, the Meeting for Sufferings, effectively their executive council, issued an epistle from their meeting not only "to act agreeable to the peaceable principles and testimony we profess" but also because "some public re

Spanish privateers on the Delaware River As Pennsylvania was on the threshold of the 1740s, a dilemma emerged between the core Quaker principle of pacifism and the necessary defense of the colony. European conflicts between England and Spain and between France and England would find their way to Pennsylvania's front door. Quaker politicians, who controlled the colonial government, were divided. Some decided to forego their peace testimony in times of crisis, and early Quaker

Benjamin Brown French, who had often disagreed with Adams on matters of policy, and had made many caustic comments about him personally...

On the 25th Adams was prevented from reading the rest of his letter that was in his possession. Instead, he proceeded with petitions,...

For two sessions, Adams’s main thrust was the actions of the executive branch, although he certainly took slaveholders and the slave...

On the 28th, Adams noticed another advertisement for Allen and her children, and he made the fateful decision to go investigate himself....

On August 23, 1837, John Quincy Adams recorded in his diary something that caught his eye in the National Intelligencer, and his verbatim...

The events of February had greatly impacted Adams, and his diary indicated a more international frame of reference, with Great Britain’s...

Adams stood and noted that he would remain silent until the House acted on one of the resolutions. He restated the facts, and then...

February 6, 1837 began with Adams presenting two petitions, the first from nine women from Fredericksburg, Virginia, praying not for the...

The next day, Henry Wise, alluding to Adams’s remarks, reasserted that Congress had no right to abolish slavery in the District of...

Those days in Congress in December brought to the fore two very important constitutional questions that needed resolution before a crisis...

As the abolition movement increased its petitions to Congress after the suppression of the mailings, an even stickier problem faced Adams...

The British had abolished slavery in 1833 in the West Indies, Canada, Mauritius, and the Cape of Good Hope as part of the Slavery...

The new year just brought more angst to Adams. The Missouri question engulfed Adams to such an extent that he found “his ideas connected...

The Missouri crisis pitted Adams against himself, weighing the coexisting factions of his antislavery convictions and his firm commitment...

His assignments overseas prevented him from being involved in domestic politics for most of the 1810s, but as he became engaged with the...

For such a young man, Adams had greater life experiences than most of his contemporaries. As a boy in Europe, he had observed abject...

On November 6, 1804, Adams published his fifth essay in a series entitled Publius Valerius. This title was derived from the man who...

While in Europe, Adams served as Minister to Prussia from 1797 to 1801. But Adams was concerned about what was happening in several...