Briefer Notices

Abstract

BOOK REVIEWS AND NOTES129 concern witíi social justice and the quality of urban life. Ryan's dissertation provides a needed corrective to the view that quietism led to inactivity and that the developing schism monopolized Quaker energies. O. R. Reuben's Peace Against Justice contains an analysis of the relationship between the peace testimony and antislavery before I860. While some attention is given to the writings of Jonathan Dymond on peace and Benjamin Lundy and John Parrish on slavery, the central focus is on John G. Whittier. Whittier added a strong humanitarian flavor based upon a belief in the dignity and value of each person to traditional Quaker arguments drawing upon the Bible or utilitarian considerations on war and slavery. When Southerners accused abolitionists of making war inevitable, Whittier retorted that slavery would cause a war and only emancipation could end the approaching conflict. Whittier believed that peace and abolition could be obtained through the normal workings of the political process. When the Civil War came, many Friends felt compelled to choose between pacifism and ending slavery. Believing that the carnage was a horrible way to end a social evil, Friends feared that the war would cost more and produce less good than a gradual and peaceful remedy. James H. Norton's Quakers West of the Alleghenies and in Ohio to 1861 is the first detailed account of the creation and early history of Ohio Yearly Meeting. Norton provides information on who came to western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio, a description of the communitarian nature of the migration and re-settlement, an index listing all the new Quaker meetings, a narrative of antislavery and Indian rights activities, and an analysis of the Hicksite and Wilburite divisions. In 1806 out of a population of 20,000 in Ohio, there were 800 families of Friends. By the 1820's the Quaker population stabilized around 18,000 with no additional growth before 1860. Norton shows that Quakers dominated the literary life of early Ohio, participated actively in politics, and worked for many reforms. This dissertation will be very helpful for those wishing information on education in early Ohio, the growth of midwestern Quakerism, and the effects of schisms on local meetings. Swarthmore CollegeJ. William Frost BRIEFER NOTICES Prepared by John and Barbara Curtis 631 Walnut Lane Haverford, PA 19041 Jane Zavitz, librarian at Pickering College, Newmarket, Ontario, Canada, reports that several articles about Quaker settlements in Ontario in the 19th century appeared in the magazine Families, vol. 19, no. 1 (1980). This issue of the publication of the Ontario Genealogical Society is available from Box 66, Station Q, Toronto, Ontario, M4T2L7 at a cost of $2.00.» » * The newsletter of the Canadian Friends Historical Association, Spring 1980 issue, reports the acquisition of the collection of Quaker books owned by the late Rendell Rhoades of Ohio for the library of Pickering College. 130QUAKER HISTORY Pickering has a long history of association widi the Society of Friends in Canada. Fund raising is currently in progress to provide a special Quaker room for the Rhoades collection as part of the library of Pickering College. Plans include provision for housing the manuscript records of Canadian Yearly Meeting, its predecessors and also the constituent mondily meetings which are currently on deposit at the University of Western Ontario at London. Jane Zavitz together with Edward Phelps, yearly meeting archivist at Western Ontario and Sheldon Clark, headmaster of Pickering College, are coordinating the plans for the archive reading room in the library at Pickering. * * * The firm of William Sessions, Ltd., of York, England, has announced the publication of a new biography of Caroline Fox, prominent 19th century English woman Friend. Robert Tod's Caroline Fox, 1819-1871 : Quaker Bluestocking is available at £ 3.30 postpaid from the Ebor Press, York, England Y03 9HS. Perceptive pen pictures of literary figures of the period such as Wordsworth, Tennyson, Kingsley, J. S. Mill and T. Carlyle emerge from Tod's study of Caroline Fox's Journal. * » * World Microfilms Publications, 62 Queen's Grove, London NW8 6ER, has completed publication of the microfilm of the issues of The Friend, 1843-1979. There are 96 reels of silver positive 35 mm. film available at...