Friends Among Us
We are fortunate to count among our citizens in Tiffin, two members of the Religious Society of Friends, Mathilde Navias and her husband, Dan Bell. They came to our community from Harrisonburg, Virginia three years ago. Since that time they have been active in sharing their religious beliefs with us. They travel one hour to attend meeting in Bluffton. There are also Societies of Friends in Toledo, Findlay and Sidney.
In the interest of sharing a little of the history and beliefs of this small but influential religious group, this article will deal with that and acquaint our readers with Mathilde, her husband Dan Bell and their daughter, Eliza.
George Fox was dissatisfied with the Church of England, the only Protestant choice of his time. King Henry the 8th established The Church of England so that he could divorce his wife and marry another. The government levied a tax on all citizens to support this official church.
After some years of reading the Bible, wandering, and searching for the truth, George Fox had a spiritual awakening. He was convinced that Christianity should be a direct relationship between the individual and God. Further, he believed that all people were endowed with an “Inward Light” that would guide them if they paid close attention to it. He believed that people could open themselves to the spiritual example of Jesus Christ and live a true Christian life.
George Fox preached that the sacraments, and ordained clergy were unnecessary. He felt strongly that the presence of God in every person makes us all equal. He infuriated the judges and others in his society who expected to be treated better than common people by not removing his hat in their presence. The Society of Friends even allowed women to preach, which was unheard of in that time.
The Society of Friends are also known as Quakers because they were observed to be trembling, or quaking as they rose to speak in meeting. At first it was a derogatory term, but in time it became accepted by most Quakers as another name.
George Fox and his followers spent much time in prison in the early years. Their meetings for worship were outlawed and forcibly disrupted. Their property was confiscated and they were whipped in public and tortured.
He made a convert and a powerful friend in William Penn, who was rich, educated and, depending on who was on the throne, was a friend of the King. In 1680 William Penn persuaded King Charles II to grant him land in North America in repayment for debts owed his father. This was to become the state of Pennsylvania.
Following the example of Roger Williams in Rhode Island, William Penn paid the Indians for their land as the settlers came. By 1682 he had sold a half a million acres and founded the city of brotherly love, Philadelphia. The Quakers flourished in the New World. They valued education, established lending libraries, and were excellent farmers and businessmen. They established reputations for honesty, plain living, religious tolerance, and peaceful relations with their Indian neighbors.
During the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War, Quakers ’ pacifist beliefs about seeking nonviolent solutions to political problems were controversial. Some regarded them as traitors. Since Quakers believed that all people- Americans, Indians, or British soldiers- were equally endowed with God’s Inward Light, to them killing in war was murder. Some Quakers left the society and supported the Revolutionary War and were disowned by their meetings. They formed the Society of Free Quakers. Among them were Betsey Ross and General Nathanael Green.
Quakers wrestled with the issue of slavery throughout the 1700s. Many Quakers in the South who owned slaves freed them and sold their land and migrated west and north. Quakers in the North counted among their numbers many members who became famous in the Abolitionist movement.
Joan Woolman, born in 1719, was a Quaker whose inner light convinced him slavery was wrong. He traveled throughout the South, visiting Quaker slaveholders, and noting in his journals the conditions of slavery. These were published after his death in 1772, and many Quakers and other Christians became active in the antislavery movement.
The poet, John Greenleaf Whittier, helped make slavery a national issue. Another Quaker from England, Joseph John Gurney, compared slavery in the Carolinas to life in the British Carribean islands where slavery was outlawed. His conclusion was that freed blacks lived more stable lives and worked harder for their employers, thus earning more profits for their employers. He met with politicians in Washington to push his point of view.
Lucretia Mott was one Quaker woman who began to speak in public against slavery even though she was strongly criticized. Prudence Crandall was the head mistress of a Female Seminary for Girls in Connecticut. She admitted Sarah Harris, a local black girl, and caused an uproar. The parents withdrew their girls and she restarted the school for black girls. The state government then passed a law outlawing schools for blacks, and she was arrested and jailed for breaking the new law. Later her school was burned and she was forced to move to Kansas.
Quakers were divided about breaking the law and helping slaves escape. One who was active in the Underground Railroad movement was Levi Coffin, who lived in Cincinnati. It is estimated that Levi and his wife Catherine helped 2,000 slaves escape to freedom.
In the next article I will bring our readers through Quaker history to the present time and share information about the Navias-Bell family
– Mary