Some Contributions of Quakers to the World Leonard S. Kenworthy Quaker Publications Box 726 Kennett Square, Pennsylvania 19348 Typesetting, Friends Journal Design, Joy Martin © Leonard S. Kenworthy 1986 About the Author Leonard S. Kenworthy has been closely associated throughout his life with the Religious Society of Friends in the United States and abroad. Born into a Quaker family with roots going back to colonial times, he was educated at Westtown School and Earlham College-both Quaker institutions. He taught at Friends Select and Friends Central Schools in Philadelphia and has served on the boards of Oakwood School, Friends Seminary, and the Brook­ lyn Friends School. During World War II he was in Quaker Civilian Public Service Camps and units. In 1940-1941 he was the Director of the Quaker Inter­ national Center in Berlin and after the war a member of the secretariat of UNESCO. For most of his life he was a professor of social studies education at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. He has written widely for teachers, children, and Quakers. Among his recent books for Friends are: Quakerism: A Study Guide on the Religious Society of Friends, Quaker Quotations on Faith and Practice, and two volumes on Living in the Light: Some Quaker Pioneers of the 20th Century. Contents About the Author .......................... 3 Preface ................................... 7 Chapter 1. Introduction ................... 11 Chapter 2. Some Possible Reasons for the Influence of Quakers ........ 14 Chapter 3. The Quaker Concern for Education ................... 18 Chapter 4. The Quaker Concern for Minorities ................... 22 Chapter 5. The Quaker Concern for Peace ....................... 28 Chapter 6. The Quaker Concern for the Equality of Women ......... 35 Chapter 7. The Quaker Concern for Prisons and Prisoners .......... 40 Chapter 8. The Quaker Concern for Science and Medicine .......... 43 Chapter 9. The Quaker Concern for Govenunent ................. 49 Chapter 10. The Quaker Concern for the Aged .................... 55 Chapter 11. The Quaker Concern for the Economic and Social Order ... 59 Chapter 12. The Quaker Concern for the Written Word ............. 65 Chapter 13. The Quaker Concern for An Authentic Religion ......... 73 Preface Despite the fact that the Religious Society of Friends (better known as Quakers) is a very small group, it has made significant contributions to the United States and the world in the more than 300 years of its existence. Some aspects of that remarkable record have ap­ peared in books, pamphlets, and articles. But, so far as this writer is aware, only one person has prepared a montage of those gifts for the public to ponder. That is Elizabeth Gray (Vining) who wrote a small volume in 1939 entitled Contributions of the Quakers, a book which was later reprinted as a Pen­ die Hill pamphlet. However, that was nearly 50 years ago and much has happened since that time. Also, that book was intended primarily for high school students in United States history courses and as such included much historical background and concentrated on contribu­ tions in the U.S.A. An invitation in 1985 from the historical society of Southeast Chester County, Pennsylvania, to speak on Some Contributions of the Quakers provided me with the incentive to bring together in one place material that I had collected over many years and in 8 Some Contributions of Quakers various books, pamphlets, and articles. Hence this small volume. Several considerations have gone into the prepara­ tion of this book. One was that it should be brief, as there is so much to read these days that one can be inundated by printed materials. Second, I wanted to concentrate on the major fields in which Friends have made their greatest contributions; hence the in­ clusion of the word "some" in the title. Third, I wanted to comment especially on Quaker contribu­ tions in the United States, but to include some references to similar contributions in England and in a few other parts of the world. Fourth, I wanted it to be a relatively popular account; therefore foot­ notes and other marks of the historical scholar are omitted. Inasmuch as this is a story of contributions, the accent is on achievements. But here and there I have referred to some of the shortcomings of Quakers. Friends should be proud of their rich heritage but humbled by their lack of far-reaching solutions to some complex and baffling problems. It is my hope that this short account will prove in­ teresting and helpful to a wide range of readers. Many may be Quakers who need to claim or reclaim their past in order to extend their contributions into the present and future. Others may be students of history who need to know about the gifts Quakers have made to the history of the Untied States and that of a few other countries, notably England. Still others may be students who are trying to understand the roots and fruits of American democracy, as Quakers have often cultivated those roots and been ... to the World 9 responsible for many of its fruits. And some may be seekers who are trying to find some answers to the riddle called life, as they may well find some clues in the Quaker Way and want to pursue its faith and practices in more detail elsewhere. To use a characteristically Quaker phrase, I hope that no matter who the readers are, this book will ''speak to their condition.'' In the writing of this volume I have drawn on some of my previous publications, especially Quakerism: A Study Guide on the Religious Society of Friends and the two volumes on Living in the Light: Some Quaker Pioneers of the 20th Century. I want to acknowledge with gratitude the helpful comments of Robert Berquist, Edwin Bronner, Helen Parker, and Elizabeth Vining on the original draft of this volume, even though I take full responsibili­ ty for what was finally included in this book. Leonard S. Kenworthy Kendal at Longwood Kennett Square, Pennsylvania 1986 1. Introduction The Religious Society of Friends (popularly known as Quakers) has always been a small group. Today it has approximately 210,000 members in the world, with 115,000 of them in the United States. Yet, despite its size, it has had a powerful impact throughout the 330 years of its history and has made valuable contributions to the world. Perhaps it is an example of the paradox that small is sometimes large. Founded in England in the middle of the 17th century, its membership and influence until recent times has been primarily in Great Britain and in the United States. But, largely because of the missionary movement of the 20th century, it has grown in several other parts of the globe. Thus the largest concentra­ tion of Quakers today is, in East Africa where there are over 40,000 members, plus many more attenders at their worship services. In the United States the largest concentration of Friends for a long time was in Pennsylvania and in New Jersey. Then, with the western migration, In­ diana became and remains the state with the most Quakers. However, the largest single yearly meeting (an organizational setup in a given geographical area), is in North Carolina, followed closely by the 12 Some Contributions of Quakers yearly meeting for eastern Pennsylvania and parts of New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. Despite differences in theology and in types of worship, Quakers everywhere are likely to be leaders in a wide variety of causes-peace and international relations, education, democracy and civil rights, con­ cern for minorities (or for majorities in some places), the rights of women, prison reform, and other movements. Every human group has some words that have special significance for it. For Quakers "concern" is such a word. Although used frequently by Friends for some passing whim or fancy, it should be reserved for a powerfully felt desire by an individual or group to bring about a needed improvement in society­ locally, nationally, or internationally. Hence Quakers have often felt moved by what they believed was a divinely-inspired concern. Usually they have acted upon that desire individually and have then attempted to enlist the support of other Quakers in that cause. Hence it has become a collective concern. An example of such a situation would be the protest which a small group of Friends in German­ town, Pennsylvania, made in 1688 against slavery. Slowly other Quakers became sensitive on that issue, and decades before the Civil War, all Friends in the United States had freed their slaves. Subsequently many Quakers participated in the Underground Rail­ road and other efforts to bring freedom to Negroes or Blacks, despite the fact that Friends sometimes had to break the laws of the United States to carry out their concern. The purpose of this essay is to consider in one ... to the World 13 small book several of the contributions to human bet­ terment Quakers have made in the nearly 350 years of their history. In some respects, therefore, it may seem like a litany of praise. Although it is intended to accent the positive, that does not mean that the writer is unaware of the chasm which often separates Quaker aspirations and Quaker actions. Certainly membership in the Religious Society of Friends brings with it no plaques for perfection, no halos, no passports to heaven. We have produced few, if any, saints. But we have been blessed with leaders and many more participants in a wide variety of causes for human betterment than one might expect from such a small group. The theme of this essay js positive; the author has written elsewhere about the shortcomings of the Religious Society of Friends.