Thomas Hamm, Department of History and Lilly Library, Earlham College, Richmond, IN
8/1/96Religion and Community: Quakerism in American Context I
Hamm is archivist, historian at Earlham. Quaker "insider," grew up in Q. family, longtime interest in Q. history. Feels that Q's are quite different now from what they used to be.Hamm's dissert. Indiana 1985, became book, Transformation of American Quakerism in 1988.
"How outsiders come insiders" or how Q. change over 19th c. is the focus of Hamm's research. He's interested in the nature of religious communities, in how a group that tried to be self-consciously different could become so influential, questions about how schism took place in early 19th c. And post-CW, how we Herbert Hoover and Richard Nixon (and A. Mitchell Palmer) could all be Quakers.
Quaker doctrine is based on a concept of "Inward light:" Divine Light in each of us, to which, if we are obedient, we will be led into a state of sanctification, in which they are perfect in the eyes of God.
Most evangelical groups looked at moment of conversion as the apex of their spiritual experience. Friends believed that the process of sanctification was the goal of Christians-or holiness theology.
The Inner Light metaphor was a guiding principle behind "plainness". Scripture was used as justification for plain living and speech. This protected them from the outside world. Music was viewed as a distraction and other worldly attractions. They banned novel reading.
Set themselves apart by marrying only endogamously. Even Q. way of death was an attempt to simplify: no tombstones, as tombstones are marks of vanity, distinguishing some among others, but in early 19th c., stones might have a use to show when the area was occupied. when allowed them, they were strictly controlled: 18" x 12" and only names and dates could be displayed.
Worship consists of waiting for God to speak through either men or women. Yet, by mid-18thc some were "recorded" ministers--though they had no authority or power over doctrine or practice.(Some meetings had no recorded ministers, and some had more than one. And some meetings could be utterly silent for years. ) And another thing: birthright membership for children born to Q. parents, to allow children to grow uninterrupted into the Light, but there were no sacramental requirements, and no conversion ritual, no attempt to evangelize. Conscientious Friends tried to avoid contact with non-Friends, and schools were set up to provide "guarded" education. But, unlike the Amish separatism, Q's do not eschew technology, or urban settings. Q's were involved in urban growth and were often leaders in the industrial revolution.
Yet, despite this separatism, they wanted to influence the world. Some peculiarities go with this: 1) women had right to speak and to conduct their own business meetings at every level, and a unified voice from both men and women groups had to occur before action could occur. (And in early 19thc, Q. women were, perhaps so influential in early feminism, because they have experience with leading meetings.)
2) peace testimonies: traditionally, Friends believed it is unacceptable, under any circumstances, to do violence to another human. How this impacts the larger peace movement in 1815-60 in America is an important part of the Quaker story, though not terribly many Q's are involved in this. But they WERE involved in abolition movement, and certainly were PERCEIVED as being strongly anti-slavery. (we need a synthesis of the scholarship on this subject over the past 30 years.) Anti-slavery was based upon a) slavery did not leave a person free to follow the call of God. b)) to be a slave-owner is to be less disciplined than God intended, c)peace testimony: slavery is a fruit of war, d) humanitarian: slavery brought about human suffering. But beyond this, Q's were perhaps not less prejudiced in the east, though, in the mid-west there is evidence that meetings and burying-grounds were not segregated.
Geography/region is part of the story of Quakerism: eastern seaboard: RI, Salem and Lynn, a few in NH and ME, few in CT., scattered all over New York state, PA, NJ, DE., MD, NC: Albermarle Co and in the Piedmont. After 1800, westward movement is all into the free states only: OH, IN, IL and there join folks from other denominations from northern states. Much debate among NC Friends in mid-18th c. but it too is geographic, with eastern friends keeping slaves and joining other protestant churches (though some purchased slaves to keep slaves from being reinslaved, then freeing them) and Piedmont, which is largely settled by northerners from PA being more actively anti-slavery.
Harvey and Hamm and Gallien, get into the question of the brands of abolitionism: gradualism v. immediatism. Best work: diss. at Univ of Houston, Howard Beeth, "Outside Agitators in Southern ", Hiram Hilty, By Land and Sea is another place to look for this material.
Splintering occurred 1820-1850. First great split came in 1827-28: the Hicksite split: doctrine, power and authority, geographic lines, responses to social change (urbanization, industrialization, the market revolution). Hicksites= liberals, conservatives, and Friends along the theological spectrum in between. What held them together was their heavy focus on obedience to the primacy of the Inward Light, and on their concern that Friends were being overly influenced by connections to outside world reform organizations (e.g., Presbyterian and other religious reform groups). The goal then, is to reform Q's so that they return to purity of Q. But in Phila, the Orthodox have the greatest power/wealth, and Hicksites tend to be of smaller artisans/farmers who are being displaced by rapid economic growth. Virtually no Hicksites in N.Eng, few in IN, NC, OH. Orthodox define themselves as mostly being against Hicksites, but also more interested in primacy of Bible and divinity of Christ, but also "order" which means more deference to "weighty Q's". By 1830, larger Orthodox group, recognized as the legitimate group in London, and a smaller body of Hicksite Q's. Then another series of separations, /Congregational or Progressive Friends who split off from Hicksites in pursuit of a church with NO structure or government (so they kept few records). And Hamm is working on a new book about what happens to the Hicksites AFTER the separation.
Orthodox also split: one group follows Joseph John Gurney, British Q who came to US 1837-40 and takes one group closer to the larger evangelical movement: sees Q. faith as being attached to a single conversion experience, which is attached to understanding Christ on the cross, then one should go on to grow into holiness over time.
Another group, led by John Wilbur of New Eng., were disturbed by idea of a one-time conversion--too much like Methodism, so he becomes leader of another group, which is concerned not to get too involved in public non/Q reform. Gurney has a social-reform background (brother of Elizabeth Fry): antislavery, bible, prison reform--should join with any other group/church which is going social-reform. Wilburites, for their part, are even nervous about voting. 1844-45 the Wilburites split from the Gurneyites and separate into two yearly meetings. By 1850, a given neighborhood could have as many as 5 different groups of Orthodox Q's Gurneyites, Hicksites, Wilburites, Progressives and Cole-ites. Greatest number of American Q's (80, 000) : about 15,000 Wilbruites, about 25% Hicksites, about 45% Gurneyites, concentrated in Ohio, Indiana, Ill. and their style is to be very open to outside alliances on evangelical reform movements and political action (solidly Republican.)
Gurneyites, especially trans-Appalachian, but also NY, want to "renew" Friends by making some changes in plain-life discipline: not measure by a "uniform" but just go to genial "simplicity", and do away with sanctions against marrying-out. Also want to change speaking of ministers to be a bit more Bible-oriented and maybe some education for ministers. But this vision was swept away by Revival
After break:
Kanda: can you comment on the California Q.'s.
Ans: California Yearly Meeting has Gurneyite Friends, from Iowa in 1880s, and laid out Whittier as a Q. community for KS, IA which was revival style of worship, pastoral, evangelical, paid pastor, choir, much more like mainstream protestantism, Republicanism and some observance of outward sacraments.
Gallien: where do outmarriages fit in here?
Greider: Where does Nixon's commitment to war during Vietnam years fit in this paradigm?
Hamm: evangelical/fundamentalists begin to move away from peace testimony, feeling that atonement, and supremacy of scriptures is more important. Some roots of this come in the Civil War--the confederacy was the epitome of evil, and so some young Q's began to feel that this was the one righteous war--and, in a few cases, their meetings did not sanction them. Later, the holiness movement accepted some of these soldiers as religious leaders
Piar: where does Indian-relations in settling the west come into this non-violent doctrine?
Hamm: Q's tried to regulate this by having new folks who moved west check in with their home meeting to see if the land had been properly purchased from Native Americans
Bruce: where do lapsed Q's go?
Hamm: On the east coast, they often become Presbyterian. Once over the mountains, you get Methodism because that's what is nearby
Barnes: If you talk about a meeting that has five years of silence, does this set up the fertile ground for a meeting to be invaded by other religious energies?
Hamm: insiders would say, no, this is nice obedience to God. But, in reality, it probably is somewhat empty for some.
Lapsansky: How do people learn to be Q's (e.g., Sunday school, missionaries to outer world)
Ans: one of the outgrowths of the Hicksite separation was a worry of the Orthodox Friends that children were insufficiently taught about the Bible. So in 1830s, a number of Sunday schools grow up, using American Sunday school Association literature. Hicksites then created their own Sunday school literature. Typical Q. is a result of missionaries who come from that tradition, and is therefore a 28 yr. old Kenyan, or a Taiwanese person, brought into Quakerism by the Bible-focused Quaker missionaries
Gallien: where are the Q. missionaries coming from?
Ans: KS, OH, NC, IA, CA.
Gallien: and what vestiges of the traditional Q. remains in the missionizing?
Hamm: one factor is the personality of the missionaries: Central Yearly Meeting, which is so conservative that it has only about 200 members left in US. but thousands in Bolivia: a kind of Nazarene, plain-dress, women not cut hair, always long sleeves.. In Kenya, for example have a combination of social gospel and social reform
Sicius: curious that while from outside the movement one sees the most visible thing to be the peace testimony, yet it is curious that when you mention that is such a small segment of the entire Q. community
Hamm: during WWII, Indiana was more isolationist than peace, though it held to peace testimony, most Q's in Indiana went into the military
Sicius: how much of 19thc Hicksite anti-industrialism is actively environmentalism/anti-industrialist
Hamm: maybe environmentalism, maybe just suspicious of earthly gain.
Brady: there are two groups in CA: how about the folks who do not become evangelical?
Ans: Pacific Yearly Meeting: these are the folks who are chaining themselves to missiles to make a statement. Many of these are heirs to Hichksites, though the founder is a Gurneyite Q. named Joel Bean, from Iowa, 1850s, opposed to revival and instantaneous conversion, and in 1881 article made him visibly a pariah, than went to San Jose, and the Iowa Friends took this over. Finally, 1894, Iowa Friends sent out a questionnaire, and Joel Bean had some doubts about eternal punishment. Iowa Yearly meeting then stripped Bean of his recorded minister status. Eng. and Amer Friends came to his support. 1898 Iowa YM just releasing the Beans from membership, and Beans formed Pacific Assn of Friends, and other Hicksite folks moved in: social activists, pacifists, etc. which became Pacific Yearly Meeting, which is "Bean-ites"
Prejsnar: language and authority in religious groups. Japanese Buddhist distrust of flowery language, and yet there is a pull to more popular uses of language. What about cultural pull to drop plain speech? And how does scripture from other groups affect Q. language?
Hamm: not of evidence that Q's in 1830s are reading non-Q literature: books by Hannah Moore are in the Meeting libraries.
Elrod: Wulf's materials challenge some of the generalizations about the notions we have about prohibitions on belle lettres. I had assumed that this was a 19th c. phenomenon, e.g., Whittier etc. Is there a shift earlier?
Montgomery: How about attitudes toward medicine and health?
Hamm: Locked out of many professions, because they could not attend universities, medicine and science which could be studied outside the English university system, became important areas for growth
Brady: the liberal branch of Q's here in east is very open to other religions, but in the early focus (see Richard Bauman) there was prohibition against having fun with words
Hamm: yes, this is, today, one of the distinguishing elements of evangelical friends vs. liberal friends: the evangelical notion that the Bible is the ONLY scripture that is acceptable, vs. liberal friends' idea of being open to "truth" wherever it is to be found.
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This page updated 11/20/96.
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