Research and Reference
- Quakers: Credo ReferenceA Credo Reference landing page on Quakers. This page includes links to reference works, articles, images, library resources, and related concepts.
- Quaker & Special Collections: Haverford College LibrariesQuaker & Special Collections contains Haverford College’s rare books, manuscripts, and the college archives. We seek to collect, preserve, and make available materials which serve the research and teaching needs of the Haverford community as well as the wider scholarly community.
Internet Resources
- Quakers: A Quick GuideWhile grounded in Quaker faith, FCNL’s relationship-based approach to advocacy attracts people with widely different understandings of the Quaker beliefs and values that are the foundation of FCNL’s work. In this publication, Carl Abbott endeavors to make the spiritual basis of FCNL’s work more accessible to all, covering topics such as what happens in Quaker worship, how Quakers make decisions, and the complex answer to the question of whether Quakers are Christian.
- What do Quakers believe?There are two fundamental aspects to Quaker faith. First, Friends believe that all people are capable of directly experiencing the divine nature of the universe—which is known by many names, God or the Holy Spirit or simply Spirit being among the most common. You don’t need a priest or any other kind of spiritual intercessor; you don’t need to perform any kind of ritual. When you need to hear from God, you will. When Spirit has a message for you to share, you should share it.
- What is a Quaker? A Brief History of QuakerismYou may recall learning something about the Quaker movement in school, as they were one of the many active and influential groups during the founding of our nation.
Streaming Media
- Three Quaker ActivistsMeet three important Quaker activists from the 17th and 18th centuries: a fiery hermit writer named Benjamin Lay, a shopkeeper and essayist named John Woolman, and a schoolteacher named Anthony Benezet, who set up Philadelphia's first Free African School. Reflect on the transformation in attitudes that was occurring during the 18th century.
- QuakerismIn this program, Dennis Wholey has a conversation about Quakerism with Deborra Sines Pancoe, a member of Abington Friends Meeting in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania. Topics of discussion include definitions of the terms Quaker and Friend, George Fox and the founding of Quakerism, William Penn and his “Holy Experiment,” unprogrammed and programmed worship among different denominations of Friends, the message of Quakerism, and key ideas that guide the Quaker life, such as simplicity, peace, equality, and integrity. In addition, Elizabeth Mosley, another member of AFM, explains some of the traditions and practices of unprogrammed Quaker meeting. (27 minutes)
Perspectives
The Light in Their Consciences
The Society of Friends, also known as the Quakers, originated in England during the civil wars of the mid-seventeenth century. Early Quakers have been variously described as founders of a fundamentally new form of spiritual practice, as the radical end of the Protestant Reformation, and as political revolutionaries. In The Light in Their Consciences, which recounts the earliest history of the Friends in England, Rosemary Moore suggests that all of these characterizations are accurate and can help us grasp the true significance of Quakerism. Moore offers compelling portraits of the leading figures of the Quaker movement, notably George Fox, James Nayler, and Margaret Fell. She shows their interrelationships and documents the emergence of George Fox as the leading Friend, relying not so much on Fox's own proclamations as on the perceptions of both his followers and his enemies as reflected in correspondence and printed pamphlets. Moore also charts the growth of a genuine denominational consciousness among Friends. This leads her to continue her account past the customary stopping point of 1660--the Restoration of Charles II--up through 1666. It was in that year that Fox initiated major organizational reforms that signaled the true dividing line between the early charismatic Quaker movement and the introverted sect of the later seventeenth century. The Light in Their Consciences combines a lively narrative with impeccable research. Moore draws upon unprecedented computer-based analysis of all the contemporary Quaker and anti-Quaker literature. Her account will interest historians, theologians, and members of the Society of Friends throughout the world.
Quakers and Abolition
This collection of fifteen insightful essays examines the complexity and diversity of Quaker antislavery attitudes across three centuries, from 1658 to 1890. Contributors from a range of disciplines, nations, and faith backgrounds show Quaker's beliefs to be far from monolithic. They often disagreed with one another and the larger antislavery movement about the morality of slaveholding and the best approach to abolition. Not surprisingly, contributors explain, this complicated and evolving antislavery sensibility left behind an equally complicated legacy. While Quaker antislavery was a powerful contemporary influence in both the United States and Europe, present-day scholars pay little substantive attention to the subject. This volume faithfully seeks to correct that oversight, offering accessible yet provocative new insights on a key chapter of religious, political, and cultural history. Contributors include Dee E. Andrews, Kristen Block, Brycchan Carey, Christopher Densmore, Andrew Diemer, J. William Frost, Thomas D. Hamm, Nancy A. Hewitt, Maurice Jackson, Anna Vaughan Kett, Emma Jones Lapsansky-Werner, Gary B. Nash, Geoffrey Plank, Ellen M. Ross, Marie-Jeanne Rossignol, James Emmett Ryan, and James Walvin.
Meeting House and Counting House
Treats everyday aspects of economic, social and intellectual life of the Quakers of Philadelphia.
The Quaker Colonies
A historical chronicle of the founding of Delaware and other early colonies by the Religious Society of Friends, otherwise known as the Quaker movement.
Quaker Constitutionalism and the Political Thought of John Dickinson
In the late-seventeenth century, Quakers originated a unique strain of constitutionalism, based on their theology and ecclesiology, which emphasized constitutional perpetuity and radical change through popular peaceful protest. While Whigs could imagine no other means of drastic constitutional reform except revolution, Quakers denied this as a legitimate option to governmental abuse of authority and advocated instead civil disobedience. This theory of a perpetual yet amendable constitution and its concomitant idea of popular sovereignty are things that most scholars believe did not exist until the American Founding. The most notable advocate of this theory was Founding Father John Dickinson, champion of American rights, but not revolution. His thought and action have been misunderstood until now, when they are placed within the Quaker tradition. This theory of Quaker constitutionalism can be traced in a clear and direct line from early Quakers through Dickinson to Martin Luther King, Jr.