The Quaker Hill Quill

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The Quaker Hill Quill August, 2015 The QuakerQuaker Hill QuillHill Quill Page 1 Quaker Hill Historic Preservation Foundation Vol. IV, Number 3, August, 2015 521 N. West Street 302-655-2500 Wilmington, DE 19810 www.quakerhillhistoric.org Elizabeth Montgomery Reminisces: Stories of 18th C. Quaker Patriarch--and Patriot--Joseph Tatnall by Mary Starkweather-White In 1851 Elizabeth Montgomery wrote Wilmington: related the incident with much zest as a remembrance Reminiscences of Familiar Village Tales, Ancient and of General Washington.” New. The book is a treasure trove of stories about old Once Tatnall met a soldier who had returned from Wilmingtonians, many of whom lived or worshiped seven years fighting in the American revolution to a on Quaker Hill. The book was a resource for famous dilapidated farm and many family responsibilities for Delaware author H.S. Canby and continues to be a re- aged relatives. Ailing and depressed, he was advised source today. In it, she describes, among other things, by his physician to take a trip to the West Indies, the patriarch Joseph Tatnall. which he could ill afford to Tatnall, she says, was a true patriot, the only do. Joseph Tatnall, hear- one who ground flour for the revolutionary army at ing of his need and having the risk of the destruction of his own mill. His house no ready funds himself at served as the home of General Lafayette during his the time, gave him flour sojourn here, and the latter remembered Tatnall for his worth $1200 to sell and kindness. On Lafayette’s thus financed the soldier’s return in 1825, he looked trip, which restored his for Joseph Tatnall, who health. was by that time deceased, In the winter of 1775 and stopped at Tatnall’s Robert Morris, financier son’s door to pay his re- for the Continental Con- spects. gress, chartered a brig When, as President, owned in part by Joseph Washington stopped Tatnall and piloted by at Tatnall’s home and Captain Montgomery. The mill, he was followed brig eluded British suspi- by a crowd of admirers. cion as it sailed for the Caribbean, taking on produce Elizabeth Montgomery and munitions, until American independence was paints the scene thus: declared. “Gen. Washington, and After the war, Tatnall presented the Old Town Hall other officers, received his (which was new then) with its bell. hospitality during their residence here; you will hear Elizabeth Montgomery presents an admiring and more of his patriotism in the sequel. When President, admirable portrait of Quaker Joseph Tatnall. once he alighted at Mr. Tatnall’s gate, entered the yard Also in this issue: and knocked. Mrs. T came to the door and wished to send for Mr. T, but the general preferred to go to the • “Quakers and the Education of African mill, and leave his chariot at the gate. These gentle- Americans in Delaware in the 18th-early men walked back to the house, followed by crowds of 19th Centuries,” by Bradley Skelcher, Ph.D. boys, rejoicing in the fine chance offered them to see the man whom the people delighted to honor. One of • “Rights in Common with Other Americans,” the joyous boys, lately deceased, an old gentleman, by Terence Maguire Page 2 Quaker Hill Quill August, 2015 Quakers and the Education of African Americans in Delaware during the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries by Bradley Skelcher, Ph.D., Associate Provost, Delaware State University The need for a large and stable labor force in There was a concern, however, among slave the American colonies brought about the reliance owners about the conversion of slaves to Christianity on imported African labor in the form of slavery, and their status following it. This concern was the beginning in the mid-seventeenth century in Virginia accepted practice in England-- and later within the and Maryland, where the demand for labor was United Kingdom and Great Britain-- that they could the highest. This demand was due to the labor not enslave Christians or fellow British citizens. This intensive production of tobacco. Other colonies, belief prevented the enslavement of the Irish and Scots too, became reliant upon an enslaved African labor when discussing what to do with the unemployed force to supplement and sometime replace indentured and poor within Ireland and Scotland during the servants from the British Isles. The legality of late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. enslavement came through a series of colonial laws Additionally slave owners in the English colonies beginning in Virginia in the 1660s, followed by believed that manumission must follow conversion to Maryland in the same period in the late seventeenth Christianity. Many also believed that Christianity century. Eventually, slavery spread throughout the would lead to rebellion among the enslaved English North American colonies. English slave Africans. Exodus was an important part of the owners included Quakers. William Penn, who Bible and religious instruction that captured the founded the colony of Pennsylvania, was also a slave attention of enslaved Africans. owner. Philadelphia was a major trade center that Nonetheless, England encouraged the colonies in included the importation of slaves. Nonetheless, America to allow slaves to convert to Christianity. In when it came to conversion of slaves to Christianity, 1682, the Virginia House of Burgesses passed a law the Quakers held different views than their other that allowed the religious conversion to Christianity Christian counterparts. They also differed on the for enslaved Africans without losing their status purpose of education. They did not consider literacy as slaves. It also allowed those already converted an important part of the conversion process as did to remain slaves for life.1 Because of the growing others that believed the ability to read the Bible was concern about Quakers and other religious groups important. and their undue influence over religion among Native Americans and Africans in the colonies, the Church of England in 1701 created the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG). Anglicans were the only ones allowed to conduct missionary work, and the SPG supported the conversion of Native Americans and enslaved Africans to Christianity through religious instruction. Essential to the conversion to Christianity for the SPG was the necessity to read the Bible and understand it. Thus, they included education in the process of conversion.2 However, many continued to believe conversion would lead to disobedience and rebellion. The SPG in their religious instruction stressed obedience to their masters and acceptance of their enslavement, hoping to relieve reluctant slave owners who might believe otherwise. To relieve further fears of conversion, Edmund Gibson, Bishop of London, wrote in 1727: William Penn, Colony Founder August, 2015 Quaker Hill Quill Page 3 Conversion does not make the least alteration in True believers could communicate directly to Civil Property; that the freedom which Christianity God. Therefore, there was no need for the reliance gives, is a freedom from the Bondage of Sin and Satan, on the ability to read the Bible as a predicate to and from the Dominion of those Lusts and Passions conversion. One only had to believe. and inordinate Desires; but as to their outward Evidence of this belief was reflected by Fox during condition they remained as before even after baptism.3 and after his trip to Barbados 1671. Fox saw the need to expose enslaved Africans to Christianity in Even with this assurance, SPG missionary Barbados even though the slave owners did not. After Philip Reading complained about masters in his visit, so many enslaved Africans began attending Appoquinimink, Delaware, and their reluctance to Meeting, a law was passed forbidding them from allow religious instruction to their slaves as late as doing so in 1676; it was not repealed until 1810.5 In 1752. He wrote: his letter to the Governor of Barbados (1671), Fox responded to what he interpreted as slander “that we I have often both publickly and privately [Friends] teach the negroes to rebel.” Instead, he recommended it to Masters and Mistresses, as a duty wrote that Friends “exhort and admonish them [slaves] of the greatest importance, to forward as much as in to be sober, and to fear God; to love their masters them lies the instruction for the Slaves;...Some, even of and mistresses, and to be faithful and diligent in their our own church…are strongly prejudiced against their masters’ service and business.” He also insisted with slaves being instructed...4 this that their “masters and overseers would love them…”6 Increasingly, these efforts of religious conversion What Fox and other Quakers were addressing and their justification came to resemble those early was the fear that conversion would lead to rebellion. beliefs expounded by George Fox, founder of the Conversion in the Anglican sense would eventually Society of Friends in the mid-seventeenth century and mean literacy or the ability to read the Bible and those of his fellow Quakers. There was a significant understand it. Both were feared, especially when difference, however. Quakers believed in the “Inward many enslaved Africans came to favor Moses and Light” that was within everyone. There was no need Exodus and the implications of escape from slavery for ministers, priests, or other worldly guidance or --even worse-- slave rebellion once they were toward salvation. exposed to the more radical aspects of the Bible. Yet, conversion to Christianity relied in part on George Fox, Founder of the Society of Friends the ability to read and understand the Bible. Thus, initially, there was reluctance to convert or even expose slaves to Christianity in part because of these fears. Nonetheless, many Quakers and others still believed it was important to expose enslaved Africans to Christianity. However, for Quakers, education was not essential.
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