Quaker "Charity" Before the American Revolution

Abstract

QUAKER "CHARITY" BEFORE THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION By Sydney V. James* In the mid-twentieth century Quaker beliefs often attract a wider audience than the Society of Friends. The appeal frequently lies in the social consequences which the beliefs have had for at least a significant proportion of those who hold them. In addition to conscientious objection to war, work camps and the whole range of activities of the American Friends Service Committee seem to arise necessarily from the Quaker views. Yet, regardless of the debatable force of the necessity, such actions clearly derive their value from conditions of the world in the present. An ambulance corps or an experiment in starvation with conscientious objectors as guinea pigs "belongs" in an era of total war endowed with modern theories of physiology. The Quaker, willy-nilly, has to find seme relationship to his nation-state which will be mutually acceptable. But in earlier times the nature of the state or realm did not make appropriate the same social consequences of Quaker beliefs. Looking back to the eighteenth century with eyes trained in the twentieth, we see most readily precursors of the later years, the opening buds of the blossoms around us. The past seems to contain little more than hints of the present. To achieve a better understanding of the eighteenth century, it is necessary to examine it as itself an outcome of still earlier developments. Viewed in this way the social consequences of Quakers' beliefs may be evaluated in relation to the life of the community at large in which they operated . Above all, the limitations of Friends' concern for outsiders may be seen for what they were without embarrassment. The guiding concept for social duty to the eighteenth century Quaker was one which he usually called "charity." In the late seventeenth century and again from the time of the American Revolution on, charity shared the field with other ideals, but for most of the * Sydney James, Assistant Professor of History, Brown University, is the author of a forthcoming book on eighteenth-century Quaker humanitarianism. 82 Quaker "Charity" Before the Revolution83 time between 1690 and 1760 it stood alone, and for historically good reasons. Earlier, a period of confusion over the role of the church, following the onset of religious diversity in England, had allowed unrealistic hopes to thrive; later, the forming of a new kind of society in America elicited the ideal of humanitarianism. While obligations to the government were defined by an hereditary monarchy and its arms, the colonial authorities, Quakers could exist as an exceptional group of subjects favored by exemption from some of the usual requirements. As in early Pennsylvania, they could even have a special province in which the needs of their consciences could be met in full. Their chief responsibility was to avoid interfering in the conduct of the monarchy's affairs. When the American Revolution ushered in a regime firmly based on popular sovereignty, the citizens were expected to take a more positive approach to public life. The Quakers, barred by conscience from participating in the Revolution and holding virtually any public office, responded to the new order of things by endorsing a form of humanitarianism, a belief in an obligation to help any deserving fellow human, regardless of religion, and thereby rectify society in the light of morality. In the services which they and their religious Society could perform for the non-Quaker poor, the Negroes, and the Indians, Friends found a role for themselves in the community of Americans. Thus ended the predominance of charity and a confusion which had existed since the rise of Puritanism in England. When the English church broke its tie with Rome, it continued to be a virtually universal communion and carried on the institutional means for performing all sorts of social services from education to the relief of paupers. In the Elizabethan age these parts of church business fell under increasing regulation by the monarchy until the parish as a unit of local government became distinct from the parish as a community of churchgoers. Simultaneously, certain parts of the established church (such as universities and hospitals) became nearly autonomous corporations, and private benevolence gave them a...