Category Archives: Remarkable Friends

A Call for a New “Quaker World” [In “scholarly” publishing, and a sample thereof . . .

[NOTE: the essay below is one of 61 chapters in a new book, The Quaker World, published in November 2022 by Routledge. I am posting it here as a witness to the conviction that such Quaker scholarly and historical work should be widely and conveniently available. Unfortunately, in its present form, it is not. That’s because … Continue reading A Call for a New “Quaker World” [In “scholarly” publishing, and a sample thereof . . . →

Quaker Book Review: “The Living Remnant” Rides Again

The Living Remnant & Other Quaker Tales. By “KKK,” (Edith Florence O’Brien.) Published by Headley Brothers in UK, 1900. A Friend came across this book and passed along a link. It’s a series of four related stories about a tightly-knit (i. e., very insular) British Quaker meeting community, in about 1875. The “tales” portray, … Continue reading Quaker Book Review: “The Living Remnant” Rides Again →

William Penn Is Making a comeback — And Quakers Aren’t Going to Like It

[Note: the headline above needs some clarification: actually it’s liberal Quakers who aren’t likely to welcome Penn’s comeback; many others may cheer. More on that below.] May I have your attention, liberal Quakers? The effort among some of you to expunge William Penn from our Friendly pantheon because he owned slaves has in many ways … Continue reading William Penn Is Making a comeback — And Quakers Aren’t Going to Like It →

Heads Up: Willian Penn Followup Coming Soon

Was William Penn Punished Enough? (Partial List) Jailed: Cork Ireland, Sept. 1668, for attending meeting. Tower of London, Nov or Dec-1668 – 8 months; accused (but not tried) of blasphemy, wrote No Cross, No Crown. Again in August 1670, for preaching, tried with Quaker William Mead in Mead-Bushell case: established the right of juries to … Continue reading Heads Up: Willian Penn Followup Coming Soon →

Staughton Lynd, Remarkable Independent Quaker Radical, Historian and Quaker Activist Turned Labor Lawyer, Dies at 92

Staughton Lynd, a historian and lawyer who over a long and varied career organized schools for Black children in Mississippi, led antiwar protests in Washington and fought for labor rights in the industrial Midwest, died on Thursday in the town of Warren, in northeast Ohio. He was 92.