Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by funnel101 on 8th mo. 22, 2010 at 5:27pm

Early 1800s, from "Fit for Freedom, not for Friendship".

Permalink Reply by N. Jeanne Burns on 8th mo. 22, 2010 at 9:02pm

Wrong on both counts, but don't check the book because I found the quote in the book. I posted it because I was struck at how relevant it is today.

Permalink Reply by Forrest Curo on 8th mo. 22, 2010 at 10:00pm

I was thinking late 19th Century because of the style & language-- but it doesn't look like anything guessable, and we don't do pools...

Permalink Reply by funnel101 on 8th mo. 22, 2010 at 10:45pm

Oops, I didn't notice the word "originally".

Permalink Reply by Cotswold Quaker on 2nd mo. 8, 2011 at 7:08pm

1800 and something?

Permalink Reply by Isabel Penraeth on 2nd mo. 25, 2011 at 2:46am

It doesn't say precisely who wrote the part of the quote that is quoted below, which I dare to presume means he or she wrote the entirety of it, only that the editor of the Friend Review wrote it . . .

http://www.qhpress.org/quakerpages/qwhp/hcjnh3.htm

from: NEGRO MEMBERSHIP IN THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS (1), Henry Cadbury (Part Three) Journal of Negro History, 21, 151-213. (1936) (Pages 180-209)

(133)Friends Review iii, 1850, p. 700, copied in the Friends Weekly Intelligencer, vii, p. 182, and The Non-Slaveholder, v, 1850, pp. 206ff.

 

"Miles Lassiter, a North Carolina slave, at the time of his master's death was only a child and he by will was left to the widow, for whom he came caretaker or manager. When she died he was about sixty-five and though he was offered for sale no one would bid for him as he was too feeble for work. His wife, an industrious free colored woman, whom he had married in early life there, bid for him at a low price and thus became his lawful owner. He died at his home in Randolph County, June 22, 1850, aged about 75. For the last six years of his life he was a member of Black Creek Monthly Meeting. An account of his life and last days and an appreciation of his character was published in Friends Review. (133) The editor of that paper reports on good authority that at the time of his death Lassiter was the only colored member of the Society of Friends within the limits of North Carolina and asks why the membership has been so few. "Is the religious of Friends unsuited to the coloured race? Or are thy kept at a distance by our neglect or repulsive conduct?""

Permalink Reply by Isabel Penraeth on 2nd mo. 25, 2011 at 6:12am

If Friends are interested, links to all the parts of Henry Cadbury's Negro Membership in the Society of Friends. (1936)

 

 

Permalink Reply by Cotswold Quaker on 4th mo. 19, 2011 at 12:43pm

Thankyou for this Isabel

Miriam

Permalink Reply by Cotswold Quaker on 12th mo. 29, 2011 at 5:16am

Henry Cadbury asked,

"Is the religious of Friends unsuited to the coloured race? Or are thy kept at a distance by our neglect or repulsive conduct?"

I should think that where institutional racism and other forms of discrimination flourish, black people and others, will speak with their feet and go where they feel welcomed, included and respected. I have heard many many white, middle class Friends (both christian and not) come out with all sorts of ignorant and unquestioned assumptions about people "not like them". 

Here are a few:

"Black people like to sing and make a noise"

"working class people don't have the education to cope with an hour of silence"

"Jewish people keep to themselves. Don't mix"

Time to get over yourselves and accept you are in the same world as the rest of us.