The Quakers In Peace And War

This is a new release of the original 1923 edition.

Autobiography, including an account of travels in Australia.

Extracted from Pacifism in the United States, this work focuses on the significant contribution of the Quakers to the history of pacifism in the United States. Originally published in 1971. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Excerpt from Quaker Campaigns in Peace and War In offering this book of reminiscences to the public, it should be understood that it does not purport to be a complete autobiography. The main object attempted has been to gather up, at the pressing invitation of many personal friends, some fragments of my experiences at home and abroad, in connection with certain leading events in European history during the last half-century. Imperfect as these records are, it is hoped that they may be of interest, as a small contribution to the thoughtful consideration of some important questions, especially the subject of the modern ruinous armaments, which have of late obtained so generous a share of national and international attention and effort. If, in the narratives of travel, the allusions to the Society of Friends may appear to some readers to be rather too frequent, it must be remembered that it was mainly in connection with, and at the request of, that religious body that my journeys in America, and among our English-speaking kin dred at the Antipodes, as well as on behalf of suffering humanity in Europe, were undertaken. These gratuitous services, though often arduous, and at times perilous, were truly a labour of love, as well as of duty. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

This book investigates the historical context, meaning, and expression of early Quaker pacifism in England and its colonies. Weddle focuses primarily on one historical moment--King Philip's War, which broke out in 1675 between English settlers and Indians in New England. Among the settlers were Quakers, adherents of the movement that had gathered by 1652 out of the religious and social turmoil of the English Civil War. King Philip's War confronted the New England Quakers with the practical need to define the parameters of their peace testimony --to test their principles and to choose how they would respond to violence. The Quaker governors of Rhode Island, for example, had to reconcile their beliefs with the need to provide for the common defense. Others had to reconcile their peace principles with such concerns as seeking refuge in garrisons, collecting taxes for war, carrying guns for self-defense as they worked in the fields, and serving in the militia. Indeed, Weddle has uncovered records of many Quakers engaged in or abetting acts of violence, thus debunking the traditional historiography of Quakers as saintly pacifists. Weddle shows that Quaker pacifism existed as a doctrinal position before the 1660 crackdown on religious sectarians, but that it was a radical theological position rather than a pragmatic strategy. She thus convincingly refutes the Marxist argument that Quakers acted from economic and political, and not religious motives. She examines in detail how the Quakers' theology worked--how, for example, their interpretation of certain biblical passages affected their politics--and traces the evolution of the concept of pacifism from a doctrine that was essentially about protecting the state of one's own soul to one concerned with the consequences of violence to other human beings.