Abstract
52Quaker History compilation ofpictures ofpeople and meeting houses followed by excerpts from references to Indiana meetings in the writings ofFriends who visited Indiana, from William Forster in 1824 to Thomas Kelly in 1915. The reader will have to look elsewhere to understand the important issues that concerned Indiana Friends and shaped the faith and practice of the yearly meeting. The discussions of the Hicksite, Anti-slavery, and Conservative separations are chronicles of events that offer very little explanation ofthe issues involved. Slightlymore explanation is given ofthe rise ofevangelicalism, but to satisfy the need or desire to know the how and why of these important developments the reader would want to look at Thomas Hamm's The Transformation ofAmerican Quakerism: Orthodox Friends, 1800-1907 (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1988; paperback ed., 1992). Indiana Friends Heritage updates an earlier anniversary history of Indiana Yearly Meeting, Our Special Heritage: The Sesquicentennial Publication ofIndiana Yearly Meeting ofFriends, written by Richard P. Ratcliff for the 1971 celebration [Indiana Yearly Meeting, 1970]. It proceeds at a more leisurely pace, exploring issues and events in brief essays generously illustrated. The institutions and churches are treated similarly to the newhistory. The new history adds morepictures and details to provide a very useful reference, one that I know will be used often in the Friends Historical Collection. Carole TreadwayGuilford College Friends Historical CollectionGreensboro, North Carolina Gentle Invaders: Quaker Women Educators and Racial Issues During the Civil War and Reconstruction. By Linda B. Selleck. Richmond, IN: Friends United Press, 1995. 312pp. Maps, illustrations, appendices, notes, glossary, bibliography, and index. Paper. It is well-known that Quakerism provided a fertile seedbed for women to grow away from the confining sphere of Victorian domesticity. Traditional Quakerwitness to the equal gifts ofwomen, combined with a concern for educating and aiding first slaves then freed Blacks, provided opportunities for some Quaker women to exercise courageous ministries. Selleck charts the rise of Quaker education for Blacks, beginning with Anthony Benezet in his home in 1750. By 1797 Philadelphia Friends supported seven schools for Blacks. Combined orphanage/schools continued to be established, such as "The Shelter" in 1814, and Cheyney in 1822. Schools were established in Virginia: Alexandria in 1764, Henrico County in 1782, Book Reviews53 and Gravelly Runin 1808. LevyandVestal Coffin taught a summersabbath school for slaves in North Carolina in 1 82 1 . But the harsh reaction to Nat Turner's rebellion in 1 83 1 brought laws forbidding Black education in the South and Black immigration to the North. This was the hostile climate in which Prudence Crandall opened her school for "young ladies and little "misses of color" in Connecticut in 1833. It was not until nearly two decades later that the work was actively resumed. Selleck recounts vignettes ofthe Friends women who, in increasing numbers, responded to the call to offer their services during and after the Civil War and Reconstruction. She also mentions Blackwomen, usually educated in Quaker schools, who became skilled teachers and administrators . Two longer stories are ofLaura Towne ofWilliam Penn School on St. Helena Island, South Carolina, and Alida and Calvin Clark of Southland College in Helena, Arkansas. The Claries opened an orphanage and school in partnership with the 56th Colored Infantry Regiment. Alida shared her faith as well as her learning, and soon names of prospective Black members were sent to her home meeting in Richmond, Indiana. In 1 868 seven were admitted, followed by eight the next year. In 1 868 Daniel Drew became the first Black recorded Friends minister. This wasn't what many Friends had in mind when they funded the mission. Indiana Yearly Meeting solved the delicate difficulty by making Southland a Monthly Meeting in 1873. Eventually it had over 500 African American and three white members. There had been eleven Black recorded ministers (all male) when the meeting was laid down at the school's closing in 1925. While some individual Friends were clear in their response to the plight of Blacks, the Religious Society of Friends as a whole remained ambivalent . Friends responded magnificently to pleas for relief funds, but remained mostly unwilling to encourage Blacks to join their meetings. Selleck raises some interesting issues, which are not explored...
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