Between Friends: Epistolary Correspondence among Quakers in the Emergent South

Abstract

BETWEEN FRIENDS: EPISTOLARY CORRESPONDENCE AMONG QUAKERS IN THE EMERGENT SOUTH Howard Beeth* From their earliest days Friends strove to maintain shared beliefs and a common way of life despite separation by wide distances of land and sea. Several factors promoted their unity and uniformity. The migration of Quakers from one place to another constantly homogenized the Society and served as a barrier to isolation and provincialism. The organization of the Society into a network of meetings helped to transform it from a loose and somewhat incoherent movement into a more well ordered sect. A shared discipline provided rules which all Quakers everywhere were expected to observe and follow if they were to remain Friends. A cadre of activists called public or traveling Friends circulated among far-flung Quaker settlements and performed a variety of unifying, linking functions. Likewise, the practice of writing regularly to each other assisted Friends in maintaining unity over distance. Epistolary correspondence among Quakers began early. George Fox, with his characteristic intensity and energy, wrote letters almost continuously, even from jail. His writings not only enlarged his influence but also provided some focus to the Quaker movement in its infancy. By the time of his death in 1691 the society had institutionalized regular communication among many of its scattered meetings.1 Epistolary correspondence served Friends and their society in several ways. It reiterated and reinforced the established tenets of Quakerism and introduced new applications of traditional ideology ?Howard Beeth is a member of the history department of Texas Southern University, did his doctoral research in southern Quaker history and is an authority in that field. 1 . For information about the early development of the Society in its historic homeland, see Hugh Barbour, The Quakers in Puritan England (New York: Yale University Press, 1964); William C. Braithwaite, The Beginnings of Quakerism (London; Macmillan and Company, 1919), Christopher Hill, Society and Puritanism in Pre-Revolutionary England (London: Seeker and Warburg 1964); Arnold Loyd, Quaker Social History, 1669-1738 (London: Longmans, Green and Company, 1950), and Richard T. Vann., The Social Development ofEnglish Quakerism, 1665-1755 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1969). For the evolution of the society in the emergent South, see Stephen B. Weeks Southern Quakers and Slavery: A Study in Institutional History (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 1896) and Howard Beeth, Outside Agitators in Southern History: The Society of Friends, 1656-1800 (Ph.D. diss., University of Houston, 1984). For local studies in the South, see Kenneth Lane Carroll , Quakerism on the Eastern Shore (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society , 1970) plus many essays he has published, mostly in Quaker History and 108 Epistolary Correspondence in the Emergent South 109 for consideration and discussion. By maintaining written contact Friends pooled their resources and provided each other with advice, guidance, and assistance. Epistles carried news and circulated information throughout the distant reaches of the society. In times of persecution letters from distant meetings conveyed inspiration, encouragement, and support to those who suffered. At the same time, knowledge that their brethren elsewhere endured hardship provided a useful reminder to Friends living in more tolerant climes that their mission to reform society could earn them the violent enmity of influential sections of that society. Sending and receiving epistles thus broadened the horizons of Quakers everywhere. Regular correspondence helped the society to maintain an international perspective that corresponded to its transcendent, international mission. Letters and epistles flowed in every direction within the society. Yearly meetings, at the highest administrative level of the society, were the principal authors and recipients of epistles. They sent general letters annually and on special occasions to their subordinate meetings. Their annual epistles summarized the answers to the queries supplied by the subordinate meetings and provided a composite overview of the state of the yearly meetings at large during the preceeding year. The annual epistles also contained news of larger, more general developments, including copies and extracts of epistles received from other yearly meetings, particularly those of London and Philadelphia. Standing committees, such as the meeting for sufferings established by yearly meetings during their annual sessions to administer the affairs of the society until the next annual session, likewise corresponded regularly with local meetings as well as with meetings in...