Encyclopedia

This interactive encyclopedia offers teachers and students access to terms, people, and events related to the history of Jim Crow. Many entries include reference material and some of the biographies on prominent figures contain suggestions for teaching as well as links to related sections of this site. The encyclopedia will continue to grow throughout the course of this project.

Quakers: A Protestant sect that originated in seventeenth-century England by the lay preacher George Fox who proclaimed that divine revelation could be experienced directly by the individual without the intervention of church or clergy. He spoke of knowing "Christ within" and of an "inner light." The pattern of shaking and trembling, which often accompanied the inner light experience, gave Fox's followers the popular name--Quakers. They dressed in plain clothing with no adornments and used the familiar "thee" and "thou" in speaking instead of the formal "you." Members of the Religious Society of Friends, as they called themselves, refused to bear arms, swear oaths, or pay tithes to the Church of England, causing them to be persecuted in England. Large numbers of Quakers migrated to the colony of Rhode Island, which was dedicated to Religions freedom. They also settled thereafter in several other colonies. In 1681, William Penn received a charter to set up a Colony as a sanctuary for Quakers, and by 1785, over 7000 Quakers lived in Pennsylvania. Committed to personal salvation and justice, the Quakers tried to relate to Native Americans as friends, worked for prison reform and improved care for the mentally ill, and vigorously protested against slavery. They held that slaveholding contradicted their belief in spiritual equality. Philadelphia Quakers organized the nation's first abolitionist or antislavery society in 1787, which attracted many non-Quakers such as Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. Although some Quaker merchants were slave traders at the time, even they began to give up the business in deference to their spiritual beliefs. By 1790, not a single Quaker owned slaves. Their zeal for abolitionism did not mean that Quakers advocated social equality. Indeed, most white Quakers avoided mixing socially with blacks; nor did they welcome at first African Americans to their meetings. Still, from 1790 to 1860, no voice spoke louder in England and the United States for the peaceful abolition of slavery than the Quaker voice. The wealthy black abolitionist Paul Cuffee joined the Friends in 1809, as did other African Americans. Historians note that black settlements in the North were often located close to Quaker communities. Quakers established schools for blacks, supported orphanages, and set up safe houses for blacks migrating to Canada. No group of people worked harder than the Quakers to end slavery by organizing abolitionist societies, supporting antislavery newspapers and speakers, and aiding escaped slaves.