Quakers and Indians in Colonial America Author(s): Max L. Carter Reviewed work(s): Source: OAH Magazine of History, Vol.

8, No. 3, Peacemaking in American History (Spring, 1994), pp. 42-44 Published by: Organization of American Historians Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25162965 . Accessed: 28/02/2013 02:12
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Lesson

Plan

Max

L. Carter

Quakers in Colonial

and

Indians America

Introduction The record of relations between the Europeans who settled in colonies and the indigenous peoples is mixed at the American best. Through much of the seventeenth century the Puritans of New England enjoyed relatively harmonious relationships with the Indians. Sentiments changed, however, with King Philip's War at the end of the century and with small success in converting or "civilizing" the Indians. The Puritan divine Solomon Stoddard could even call in the early 1700s for "Indians to be hunted by dogs as they do wild animals." Many religious individuals and organizations were complicit in extinguishing Indian claims to their lands and even in extermi nating Indians. One of record of Christendom's gious Society of Friends story and offers some of different approach to the to the generally sorry the exceptions to Indian culture is the Reli response This lesson presents their (Quakers). the reasons that Quakers developed a natives of the American continent.

additional

class periods. Grade Level and Middle School

High

School

Activities Day One It is recommended that the teacher begin with a role play of lore as "Fierce Feathers." the event known in Quaker See
"Teacher's Notes," below.

Days Two and Three Students might be encouraged to discuss the role play for a while, and then to summarize their assumptions about Quakers, Indians, and conflict. The fuller historical section, "Background on the Response of Eastern Friends," might be introduced either at the end of this day or at the beginning of the next, followed by in the light of this new discussion of earlier student conclusions
information.

Overview/Outcomes Students are asked to engage in a role play to illustrate an historical event inwhich Quakers responded to Indian "unrest" in a manner significantly different from their neighbors. The role to the reacted about should raise why Quakers questions play threat of Indian attack in the way they did and it can open up a discussion of the reasons for the Quakers' harmonious relations with Indian people. Should the teacher desire, parallels can be made to contem porary relationships between dominant and subordinate or hostile
elements of society: who are today's "Indians"?

Assessment the students reflect on why much of Christendom viewed the Indians as savages while the Quakers did not. Are there lessons to be learned from this for today? Who are the alienated people in contemporary society? Who are the misun derstood ones today? Is it wise for people voluntarily to make themselves as vulnerable today as Friends did in the eighteenth they achieve the same results? century? Would Have Selected Bibliography The Quakers in the American Colonies. London: 1911. Macmillan, Philadel Kelsey, Rayner. Friends and the Indians, 1655-1917. on of The Associated Executive Committee Friends phia: Indian Affairs, 1917. Put Yourself in the Baker, Wanda Coffin and Barbara Mays. Ind.: Friends United Meeting, Picture. 1985. Richmond, Jones, Rufus. Quakers Role Valley and Indians in Colonial America: Teacher's Notes It is the summer of 1777 in the Upper River of Easton, NY. Only a few months before the community Situation:

to the Curriculum Connections the This lesson can be used when students are considering civilization's of track records response European generally sorry in world to North American Indians, either with exploration or in U.S. colonial history. history Time Period The role play can be accomplished easily in a forty-minute role the play through discussion of standard period. Processing to from Indians responses Europeans and the different approach of Quakers (and Indian responses to that) could take one or two

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Revolutionary

War

battles

of Saratoga,

settlers

around

Easton

are

In addition to the threat of an of impending danger. American-British confrontation, raiding parties of Mohawks, allied with the British, are in the area, attacking homesteads and warned
taking scalps.

Processing the Role Play: Discuss how people felt about their given positions and about the direction of the meeting for busi ness. Compare the decision (or lack thereof!) with that made by the Easton Quaker community. Background The actual response of Easton Friends might surprise students. Faced with a clear and present danger, aware of alternatives to their pacifist position, theQuakers chose to continue their normal routine,
taking no particular precautions against possible attack.

settlers decide to leave the area and wait out the Many unsettled times with friends and relatives in safer locales. Others retreat to blockhouses built nearby, where thick walls and locally Still others wait it out with offer security. trained militia doors and windows. behind of fortified weapons stockpiles The Quaker community at Easton must make a decision about how to respond to the crisis. Typical of Quakers (also known as Friends) of that era, the community must decide on a course of similar to the action by gathering a "sense of the Meeting," are consensus of whether At issues of process question building. to continue the Friends' for silent, unprogrammed meetings to to tradi remain faithful the whether worship twice-weekly; tional Quaker peace testimony in this dangerous time; or whether to adopt a less traditional course of action to assure safety. statements that reflect possible responses Roles: Distribute to their situation. Have students adopt Friends the Easton among the attitude reflected by the statement given them.
1. We shouldn't take up weapons, but we can at least secure our

17 September 1777, the small Friends community gath ered unarmed, for their silent meeting for worship. During the a band of Indians, led by the Mohawk chief Fierce meeting,
Feathers, came into the meetinghouse. Their weapons were

On

in drawn; fresh scalps hung from their belts. Seeing no weapons the room and the distinctive bonnets and hats of the Quakers, however, the Indians recognized the worshipers as "children of Onas" (an Indian name for William Penn). They lowered their weapons and were invited by the clerk of the meeting to join in worship. For a short time they did and then milled about outside until the Quakers' silent waiting was over. When the Friends came outside, the clerk of the meeting invited the Indians to his home to share ameal from the family's meager supply of bread and cheese, the family's larders having been depleted by two recent forays of British troops through the
area.

homes better by locking doors and windows

any openings.

and boarding up

2. During this time of unrest on the frontier, we need to alter our customary habits. Let us suspend our meetings for worship, stay in our homes, and not put ourselves in the position of getting caught in dangerous situations. 3. Let us seek an opportunity to meet with the Indians to learn about their side of the issue. 4. God is our security. We should not depend on weapons
military protection.

this unusual response? For Quakers itwas not out of the but ordinary typical of an ethic formed by their understanding of truth and a common storehouse of mental images of how Friends respond to crisis and to such "strangers in the land" as the Indians. Out of their origins as a left-wing Puritan group in the Why that all century England, the Quakers emphasized or were a of creed race, persons, regardless enlightened by divine a shared belief that the Hebrew prophet (inward) light. They
Isaiah's vision of a "peaceful kingdom" was possible on earth.

seventeenth

or

5. The present crisis offers us the opportunity to test our beliefs If our principles of peace are true, they will and principles. see us through this difficult time.
6. We need to protect ourselves with weapons in this situation.

an English Revolution radicalism that stressed They a and restorationist egalitarianism, they practiced Christianity owned
that raised of the example peace, love, of Jesus' and "Sermon on the Mount"?and normative status. its teaching humility?to

Wartime calls for a different way of thinking and acting. 7. Let us head for the blockhouses until the Indian threat has passed! Role Play Procedure: Select a "clerk" (facilitator) for the mock Quaker meeting for business. The teacher may want to serve in this capacity. Instruct the students to portray their given roles initially, but advise that as opinions are expressed they may themselves to be convinced otherwise. Allow sufficient time for all points of view to be expressed; see if any consensus emerges as students change their positions. The clerk should draw the role play to a conclusion if a decision is agreed on by all present or end the exercise by recognizing that allow
no decision can be made at present time.

These impulses were incarnated in the actions of Friends in the American colonies who exercised political power or chose to seek relations with Native Americans. Their examples and experiences became models of Quaker behavior for later genera tions of Friends such as those at Easton, New York. William Penn, the Quaker proprietor of Pennsylvania, recog nized the Indian as the true owner of the land granted him by Charles II. Writing to the them that although the King part of the world, he desired ... that we may always Indians in America in 1681, he told had given him the great estate in their to enjoy itwith their love and consent, live together as neighbors and friends; else what would the great God do to us who hath made us not to devour and destroy one another, but to live soberly and kindly together in the world. OAH Magazine of History 1994 43

Spring

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in 1682, Penn confirmed his peace Arriving in Philadelphia able intentions in the famous (and semi-legendary) "Treaty of in numerous "Peaceable King immortalized Shackamaxon," The dom" prints by primitivist Quaker painter Edward Hicks. French philosopher Voltaire described Penn's agreement with the
Indians as the only treaty never sworn to and never broken.

until Friends The "Quaker Peace" remained in Pennsylvania left the government of the colony in 1756 in protest over bounties placed on Indian lives and the pressure to raise amilitia to protect frontier settlements from Indian attack. Similar peaceable relations were enjoyed in other colonies where Quakers were a significant presence in the government. John Archdale, Quaker governor of the Carolinas in the 1690s, forbade the enslaving of Indians, drafted legislation to prevent the sale of liquor, and assured that legal cases involving Indians and whites would be tried by juries made up of both parties. Many Quakers on the frontier "left the latch-string out" rather than securing their homes during times of Indian unrest. The best known story involved a Pennsylvania Quaker family at the time of the French and Indian War. Retiring for the night amid reports that Indian raiding parties were in the area, the father decided to draw the latch-string in for security. His conscience bothered by that act and unable to sleep, he went back downstairs and put the
latch-string out.

dertook an unarmed journey through two hundred miles of into central Pennsylvania wilderness the French and during IndianWar to visit a village of Indians. His motivation? Love and desire to see if they might have something to teach him. and Woolman served as models for later Penn, Archdale, Quaker relations with the Indians. The actions of frontier Quaker men and women who chose to live unarmed among the Indians provided powerful example of fidelity to the Quaker peace With all of these mental images firmly planted in the testimony. wider Quaker community, it is little surprise that the Easton Friends chose to respond to crisis the way they did. Quakers continued this pattern of peaceful relations with the Indians through the succeeding century, as well. Friends inter vened on their behalf with the government, disciplined fellow Quakers for settling on disputed Indian lands, and wrote tracts and books defending the nobility of Indians in their "natural state." As Quakers followed the expanding frontier, Indians recog nized the "broadbrims" as the children of Onas, William Penn,
and weapons were never needed for their safety.

the family awoke safe and secure even The next morning Indians indeed, had, swept through the area during the though devastated and neighboring homesteads. The Quaker father night later met one of the Indian raiders at a peace conference and was told that when the Indians had seen the unsecured home, even though they had intended to destroy the house, they passed it by in the realization that those people posed no threat to them. un Well-known eighteenth century Quaker John Woolman

Endnotes 1. The source for the "Fierce Feathers" incident is Wanda Coffin Barker and Barbara Mays, Put Yourself in the Picture (Rich mond, Ind.: Friends United Meeting, 1985), 14-17. 2. The source of theWilliam Penn quotation is "William Penn's Letter to the Indians," a copy in the handwriting of John Kendall, Quaker Collections, MS Collection #853, Haverford College. Max L. Carter earned his Ph.D. from Temple University in American Religious History. He is currently director of Friends Center at Guilford College, where he also teaches.

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