Jeffrey A. Denman

Pennsylvania and western New Jersey Quakers had endured much for their cause. The men who were exiled to Virginia, for example, suffered deprivation, loneliness, and loss, as did the families they left behind. It was clear that the civil liberties of the exiles had been violated, but in times of extreme duress and fear of the unknown, democratic ideals are all too often tossed to the wind. Quakers paid a high price for their "liberty of conscience," while Pennsylvania's leade

Key Quaker diarist in Philadelphia On the day the British landed in Maryland, another event was revealing itself that would have catastrophic consequences for Quakers. On August 25, 1777, the Continental Congress received an unusual letter from Major General John Sullivan. Three days prior, while on Staten Island, Sullivan had searched the baggage of one of his officers whom he believed had defected to British lines. Sullivan reported that he “found a Number of papers of Inte

Paine's Attack on the Quakers in American Crisis II In the Second American Crisis, Paine led an unremitting attack on the Quakers, distorting their December 20 epistle to suit his needs and those of the revolutionary government. He attacked their alleged affinity with the British government, citing the epistle as "a publication evidently intended to promote sedition and treason," which was clearly not a sound portrayal of the document. The "happy constitution" that the Quaker

"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