Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Quaker History - period ended 6a.1.2006

Quaker History/War/American Revolution/Greene, Nathanael/Greene's story, Day 3: With gun in hand, Quaker's son readies for .../Providence Journal/Providence/RI/USA/30-May-06/... When the votes for officers were tallied, Nathanael Greene lost out. His fellow members of the Kentish Guards did not have confidence that this asthmatic, gimpy, bookish son of a Quaker preacher had the stuff to lead them. Greene was mortified, both by the vote and by some of the discussions afterward. He wrote to the new captain, his friend and lawyer James Varnum:

I was informd the Gentlemen of East Greenwich said that I was a blemish to the company. I confess it is the first stroke of mortification that I ever felt from being considered either in private or publick Life a blemish to those with whom I assosiateed. . . .

If I concieve right of the force of the Objection of the Gentlemen of the town it was not as an officer but as a soldier, for that my halting was a blemish to the rest. I confess it is my misfortune to limp a little but I did not concieve it to be so great: but we are not apt to discover our own defects.

Greene submitted his resignation from the Guards. He urged Varnum to stay on, and pledged his financial support of the militia. I would not have the company break and disband for fifty Dollars. It would be a disgrace upon the county and upon the town in particular. I feel more mortification than resentment, but I think it would manifested a more generous temper to have given me their Oppinions in private than to make proclomation of it in publick as a capital objection, for nobody loves to be the subject of ridicule however true the cause.

For some reason Greene quickly changed his mind about resigning; he swallowed his pride and stayed on with the Kentish Guards as a private. Through that winter and spring of 1775 he was one of the more faithful attendees as William Johnson drilled the Guards in military maneuvers. They drilled three days a week on the frozen parade field above East Greenwich, marching to the beat of the fife and the drum. ...

Quaker History/Disownment/Greene, Nathanael/A season of setbacks and thoughts of love/Providence Journal/Providence/RI/USA/29-May-06/... In July, Greene and his cousin, Griffin Greene, were suspended from the Quaker church where Nathanael's father had preached for going to "a place in Conecticut of Publick Resort where they had No Proper Business."

Greene's temporary suspension from the Society of Friends has taken on a mythical quality; his first biographer, Judge William Johnson, interpreted a place of public resort to mean a military parade, which violated the Society of Friends' pacifist principles.

The first editor of the Greene Papers, Richard K. Showman, found that dictionaries of the day defined a public house as "a disorderly house or other place of questionable repute." Greene wasn't suspended from his Quaker church for an interest in military affairs; he was suspended for going to an ale house or brothel.

Greene was an irreverent, practical and funny man who was never much interested in the Society of Friends. He held the Society responsible for his own lack of an education, which is something he truly desired.

I lament the want of a liberal Education, Greene wrote to Sammy, who at 15 graduated from Rhode Island College, now known as Brown University. I feel the mist [of] Ignorance to surround me, for my own part I was Educated a Quaker, and amongst the most Supersticious sort, and that of its self is a sufficent Obstacle to cramp the best of Geniuses; much more mine.

Greene's brother, Christopher, remembered Nat studying in a little room above the kitchen at Potowomut. Greene puzzled over the geometry of Euclid while waiting for the forge fire to soften iron for the anchorsmiths; he used to become so absorbed in books while tending the gristmill that he'd keep reading while the mill stone ground round and round long after the last of the grist had been milled. Greene became so familiar with the novel Tristram Shandy that he could make his brothers laugh by mimicking a character, the "squat, uncourtly figure" of Dr. Slop.

The Society of Friends wasn't the only religion that Greene found suspect. He believed in God, but mistrusted overly pious people; he felt that the sanctimonious were not selfless do-gooders; rather, they acted out of self-interest to secure themselves a better seat in the afterlife.

For what can a man be Religious for but to recommend himself to the Favor of His God by which he expects (if he Succeeds) Everlasting Happiness? he wrote to Sammy Ward.

Despite his irreverence Greene still attended Quaker meeting occasionally, even after his father's death and his own suspension from the Society. He wrote to Sammy in 1773: I have been to Meeting today. Our silence was interrupted by a vain conceited Minister. . . . He began with asking us what could be said that had not been said. Much more, thinks I, than you ever thought off or ever will. ...

Quaker History/War/American Revolution/Greene, Nathanael/Historical society completes publication of Greene papers/Boston Globe/Boston/MA/USA/28-May-06/... Gen. Nathaniel Greene was born in Warwick to a pacifist Quaker father, walked with a limp and had little formal military training. But he became one of Gen. ...

Quaker History/Women/Christianity/Mott, Lucretia/See spirituality in ideals of feminism/Boston Globe/Boston/MA/USA/27-May-06/... But other female activists were moved by Christian conviction, Debold said, citing as one example Lucretia Mott, a Quaker minister who was active in ...

Quaker History/Slavery/Brown, Moses//In one family, two sides of Providence's slavery debate/Boston Globe/Boston/MA/USA/16-May-06/... Moses Brown (1738-1836) became a Quaker and adopted that group's somber dress, wide-brimmed hats, and modest lifestyle. Quaker beliefs in nonviolence led Moses to urge restraint and compromise as the Colonies moved toward open conflict with England. Later, as the Quakers became leaders in the nascent abolitionist movement, those beliefs would prompt him initially to withhold support for ratification of the Constitution because it acknowledged slave-holding.

But while Moses won moral victories, even legal ones, against the slave trade, his brother invariably trumped him. During John's single term as a congressman, he was defeated in his efforts to scuttle an anti-slave trade bill but won passage of a bill establishing a new customs district at Bristol -- the effect of which, writes Rappleye, was to hand ''a deepwater port to a band of notorious slavers."

Still, Rappleye writes, the story of the Brown brothers reveals a ''mutual engagement" in the great issue of slavery, a ''quintessentially American" story. ''No other abolitionist," he writes, ''had to face the reality of the slave trade so close to the center of his identity; no other slave trader had to fend off so persistent and so intimate a challenge to his prerogative." ...

Quaker History/Sandy Spring Meeting//Former Students Remember Segregated Carver High/WTOP/Washington/DC/USA/18-May-06/... Growing up Marylah Clark Martin lived in the Quaker enclave of Sandy Spring. She remembers she couldn't go to nearby Sherwood High School, where her mother and grandmother worked in the cafeteria.e ...

Quaker History/Politics and Economics/Raised-a-Quaker/Murrow, Edward R./Tuning in to history/MaineToday.com/Portland/ME/USA/28-May-06/...For a description of Murrow I quote from the book "World War II On The Air,": "What was defining of Murrow's broadcast, was not their characteristics, but Murrow's character. He was not political. His Quaker upbringing made him a moralist. He was less concerned about advocating ideas than with ascertaining his conception of truth. He expected a great deal of people, including his reporters and himself.". ...

Quaker History/Politics and Economics/Perserverance/Nixon, Richard/"My Bad"-- from Mike Royko to Dan Rather/Editor & Publisher/New York/NY/USA/22-May-06/Still, my favorite Slansky piece is a parody he wrote for Crawdaddy when he imagined a new amusement park called “NixonWorld.” He also scripted Nixon’s last press conference, four months before it actually took place in 1974, including an exchange with Helen Thomas. “I am a Quaker, not a quitter,” Nixon said. “I can take it. I have what it takes to take it. There are those who say I’ve taken far too much.” He also denied any conversation with John Dean admitting that he "had cancer.”

Quaker History/Penn, William/Burton, Susan//Yesterday's news/Mobile Register/Mobile/AL/USA/30-May-06/... He married Miss Susan Burton of Philadelphia, a descendant of one of the Quaker families who came to this country with William Penn. She had died in 1902. ...

Quaker History/Fry, Elizabeth///I'M NO QUAKER FAKER/Crawley Observer/Crawley/England/UK/24-May-06/... Councillor Claire Denman – who also sits on the arts council – believes her home was once visited by Quaker prison reformer Elizabeth Fry, whose face ...

Quaker History/Friends Mission Church/Kirk, Auntie//Restoring A Big Part Of The Past/Tecumseh Countywide News/Tecumesh/OK/USA/26-May-06/.. Antoine was a leader among his people and helped Quaker missionaries Dr. and Auntie Kirk, who are buried in Tecumseh Mission Cemetery, build the Friends Mission Church. But it was Mary Ann who is perhaps best remembered. “Aunt Mary,” who was extremely well educated for that day, was “drafted” to become superintendent of a new Sunday School at the church — a job she tried to turn down.

“Of course I thought I was not fit, so declined,” she later wrote. “Those present insisted on it, I don’t know why unless they knew when I undertook anything, good or bad, I carried it through.” She held the job until 1900, eight years after her husband died. ...

Quaker History/Farnesworth, Thomas//Bordentown prepares for 325th birthday/Packet Online/Princeton/NJ/USA/18-May-06/... activities. There's no shortage of history to draw from in the mile-square city, settled in 1682 by Thomas Farnsworth, an English Quaker. ...

Quaker History/Bethany Meeting//Descendant of Wayne settler visits Waynesborough/Goldsboro News Argus/Goldsboro/NC/USA/17-May-06/A California woman convinced her tour bus driver Tuesday to veer off his scheduled route and stop in Goldsboro so she could visit the Quaker meeting house at ...

Quaker History/Bailey, Jonathan//Frozen in time/Whittier Daily News/Whittier/CA/USA/20-May-06/... In an animated voice, Bailey then told the story of her early years as a Quaker wife living with her husband Jonathan Bailey in a ranch house in Whittier. ...

Quaker History/Architecture/Newbold-White//Paying for keeps. Owner bought NC house to preserve, move it/Virginian Pilot,/Hampton Roads/VA/USA/22-May-06/... The county is also home to the state's oldest brick house, the Newbold-White House. A Quaker edifice, it was built in 1730 and, over the p ast several years, has been an important stop for tourists.

Nancy Bailer Muller, tourism and development officer for the North Carolina Department of Commerce, who is assigned to the Newbold-White House, said the interest in the Isaac White House "will help us. We love to see any historic home." ...

Quaker History/Abolition///Juneteenth celebration to focus on unity, history/Petersburg Progress Index/Petersburg/VA/USA/31-May-06/... Additionally, Richard Stewart, who is known as "The Master Storyteller," will speak about history in Dinwiddie and Pocahontas Island. Stewart said that he will speak about several topics, including Quaker abolitionists in Dinwiddie County and key figures in black history.
Stewart, who also has a museum on Pocahontas Island, will bring his mystery trunk to the celebratio. ...

Quaker History///Stroll the whole world in Queens/Press-Enterprise/Los Angeles/CA/USA/28-May-06/... Most of the dancers were older than 60. Also in Flushing, visitors can see the country's second-oldest Quaker meeting house. The ...

Quaker History///Church offers a real feel for the town of Marion/Salem Statesman Journal/Salem/OR/USA/16-May-06/... If you want to get a real feel for Marion, you should visit the small Quaker church that has been in this community for well over 100 years, or visit with the ...

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