Philadelphia Quakers and the American Revolution-Blog Post #4

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

Intelligence,” including a “paper of information from the Quakers at their

yearly meeting at Spank Town held the 19th instant giving an Account of

our Army where it Lay & the force in the Several Departments.” The next

day, he wrote to John Hancock, repeating his assertion of treasonous activity

but also fanning the propaganda flames. “I have often heard that Quakers…

collected Intelligence & forwarded to the Enemy,” wrote Sullivan. He

pronounced them to be “the most Dangerous Enemies America knows” and

claimed that they were “Covered with that Hypocritical Cloak of Religion

under which they have with Impunity So Long Acted the part of Inveterate

Enemies to their Country.” Sullivan’s letter to Congress ignited a firestorm of

paranoia, anger, and vengeance. With the British at their doorstep and deep

disdain for Quakers already, Congress neither took the time to substantiate Sullivan’s

claims nor ascertain the validity of the documents. Sullivan’s report was sent to a

Congressional committee composed of John Adams, William Duer, and Richard Henry

Lee, and they were tasked with deciding what further action needed to be taken.

On August 28, Congress instructed the Supreme Executive Council to

take into custody eleven men named by the Adams committee. Three days

later, going beyond Congress’s recommendation, the SEC decided to arrest

forty-one of the suspected turncoats. The principal targets were wealthy,

influential Quakers such as Joshua Fisher, Abel James, James Pemberton,

Henry Drinker, Israel Pemberton, John Pemberton, Samuel Pleasants,

Thomas Wharton Sr., Thomas Fisher, and Samuel Fisher. Gradually, the

suspects were gathered up and their homes searched for incriminating

evidence. Sarah Logan Fisher, Thomas Fisher’s wife, related that “our new-

made council sent some of their deputies to many of the inhabitants whom

they suspected of Toryism, & without any regular warrant or any written

paper mentioning their crime…committed them to the confinement.”

The authorities, especially Congress and the SEC, were gravely concerned

about a British attack on the city and were erroneously concerned that the

“weighty” Quakers might be in communication with the enemy. They were

confined in the Freemason’s Lodge in Philadelphia, located on Lodge Alley,

near Sansom Street, about three blocks from the Drinker home. While

detained, soldiers searched their personal papers, at times smashing desks

to find any possible evidence to implicate the Quakers in this allegedly

grievous crime. They confiscated Quaker meeting minutes and looked for

weapons but, of course, found none. Congress ordered twenty men to be exiled

to Virginia for an indefinite period of time.