Quakers

==History==
{{Main|History of the Quakers}}

===Beginnings in England===
{{see also|Britain Yearly Meeting#History}}
[[File:Fox by Lely 2.jpg|thumb|upright|George Fox, a leading early Quaker]]
During and after the [[English Civil War]] (1642–1651) many [[English Dissenters|dissenting Christian groups]] emerged, including the [[Seekers]] and others. A young man, [[George Fox]], was dissatisfied with the teachings of the [[Church of England]] and [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|nonconformists]]. He claimed to have received a revelation that "there is one, even Christ Jesus, who can speak to thy condition",<ref name=GeorgeFoxsJournal/> and became convinced that it was possible to have a direct experience of Christ without the aid of ordained clergy. In 1652 he had a [[vision (spirituality)|vision]] on [[Pendle Hill]] in Lancashire, England, in which he believed that "the Lord let me see in what places he had a great people to be gathered".<ref name=GeorgeFoxsJournal/> Following this he travelled around England, the Netherlands,<ref name="Netherlands">{{Cite journal |last=Nuttall |first=Geoffrey |title=Early Quakerism in the Netherlands: Its wider context |journal=The Bulletin of the Friends Historical Association |year=1955 |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=3–18 |doi=10.1353/qkh.1955.a395167 |url=http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/quaker_history/v044/44.1.nuttall.pdf |jstor=41944566 |s2cid=161640592 |access-date=21 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131016102656/http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=%2Fjournals%2Fquaker_history%2Fv044%2F44.1.nuttall.pdf |archive-date=16 October 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref> and [[Barbados]]<ref name=Barbados>{{Cite book |last=Gragg |first=Larry |title=The Quaker community on Barbados: challenging the culture of the planter class |year=2009 |publisher=University of Missouri Press |location=Columbia |isbn=9780826218476 |url=https://archive.org/details/quakercommunityo00grag_0 |url-access=registration |edition=[Online-Ausg.]}}</ref> preaching and teaching with the aim of converting new adherents to his faith. The central theme of his Gospel message was that Christ has come to teach his people himself.<ref name=GeorgeFoxsJournal/> Fox considered himself to be restoring a true, "pure" Christian church.<ref name="BBC Overview"/>

In 1650, Fox was brought before the [[Magistrates of England and Wales|magistrates]] [[Gervase Bennet]] and Nathaniel Barton, on a charge of religious [[blasphemy]]. According to Fox's autobiography, Bennet "was the first that called us Quakers, because I bade them tremble at the word of the Lord".<ref name=GeorgeFoxsJournal/>{{rp|125}} It is thought that Fox was referring to {{Bibleverse |Isaiah |66:2 |AKJV}} or {{Bibleverse |Ezra |9:4 |AKJV}}. Thus the name ''Quaker'' began as a way of ridiculing Fox's admonition, but became widely accepted and used by some Quakers.<ref>{{Cite book |author=Margery Post Abbott |title=Historical dictionary of the Friends (Quakers) |year=2003 |page=xxxi|display-authors=etal}}</ref> Quakers also described themselves using terms such as true Christianity, Saints, Children of the Light, and Friends of the Truth, reflecting terms used in the New Testament by members of the early Christian church.

[[File:JamesNayler-2.jpg|thumb|left|[[James Nayler]], a prominent Quaker leader, being pilloried and whipped]]
Quakerism gained a considerable following in England and Wales, not least among women. An address "To the Reader" by [[Mary Forster (Quaker)|Mary Forster]] accompanied a Petition to the [[Parliament of England]] presented on 20 May 1659, expressing the opposition of over 7000 women to "the oppression of Tithes".<ref name="Feminist">Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements and Isobel Grundy, eds, ''The Feminist Companion to Literature in English. Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present'' (London: Batsford, 1990), p. 388.</ref> The overall number of Quakers increased to a peak of 60,000 in England and Wales by 1680<ref name=PopulationHistory>{{Cite book |title=The population history of England, 1541–1871: a reconstruction |last1=Wrigley |first1=Edward Anthony |last2=Schofield |first2=Roger |last3=Schofield |first3=R. S. |year=1989 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, UK |isbn=0-521-35688-1 |page=93 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pV9SZS4WpjkC}}</ref> (1.15% of the population of England and Wales).<ref name=PopulationHistory/> But the dominant discourse of Protestantism viewed the Quakers as a blasphemous challenge to social and political order,<ref name="Levy 6">{{Cite book |last=Levy |first=Barry |title=Quakers and the American Family |pages=6}}</ref> leading to official persecution in England and Wales under the [[Quaker Act 1662]] and the [[Conventicle Act 1664]]. This persecution of Dissenters was relaxed after the [[Declaration of Indulgence (1687)|Declaration of Indulgence]] (1687–1688) and stopped under the [[Act of Toleration 1689]].

One modern view of Quakerism at this time was that the direct relationship with Christ was encouraged through spiritualisation of human relations, and "the redefinition of the Quakers as a holy tribe, 'the family and household of God{{Single double}}.<ref name="Levy 13">{{Cite book |last=Levy |first=Barry |title=Quakers and the American Family |pages=13}}</ref> Together with [[Margaret Fell]], the wife of [[Thomas Fell]], who was the vice-chancellor of the [[Duchy of Lancaster]] and an eminent judge, Fox developed new conceptions of family and community that emphasised "holy conversation": speech and behaviour that reflected piety, faith, and love.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Levy |first=Barry |title=Quakers and the American Family |pages=53, 130}}</ref> With the restructuring of the family and household came new roles for women; Fox and Fell viewed the Quaker mother as essential to developing "holy conversation" in her children and husband.<ref name="Levy 13"/> Quaker women were also responsible for the spirituality of the larger community, coming together in "meetings" that regulated marriage and domestic behaviour.<ref name="Levy 78">{{Cite book |last=Levy |first=Barry |title=Quakers and the American Family |pages=78}}</ref>

===Migration to North America===
{{see also|History of the Quakers#William Penn and settlement in colonial Pennsylvania}}
The persecution of Quakers in North America began in July 1656 when English Quaker missionaries [[Mary Fisher (missionary)|Mary Fisher]] and [[Ann Austin]] began preaching in Boston.<ref name=EB1911>{{Cite EB1911 |wstitle=Friends, Society of |volume=11 |page=227 |first=Alfred |last=Brayshaw}}</ref> They were considered heretics because of their insistence on individual obedience to the [[Inner light]]. They were imprisoned for five weeks and banished<ref name=EB1911/> by the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]]. Their books were burned,<ref name=EB1911/> and most of their property confiscated. They were imprisoned in terrible conditions, then deported.<ref>Edward Digby Baltzell, ''Puritan Boston and Quaker Philadelphia'' (1996) p. 86.</ref>

[[File:Mary dyer being led.jpg|thumb|Quaker Mary Dyer led to execution on Boston Common, 1 June 1660.]]
In 1660, English Quaker [[Mary Dyer]] was hanged near<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.celebrateboston.com/ghost/boston-neck-executions.htm |title=Boston Neck Gallows, Colonial Execution Place for Quakers |website=www.celebrateboston.com |access-date=2020-01-03}}</ref> [[Boston Common]] for repeatedly defying a [[Puritan]] law banning Quakers from the colony.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rogers |first=Horatio |year=2009 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L5_5yIgpa-YC |title=Mary Dyer of Rhode Island: The Quaker Martyr That Was Hanged on Boston |pages=1–2 |publisher=BiblioBazaar, LLC |isbn=9781103801244}}</ref> She was one of the four executed Quakers known as the [[Boston martyrs]]. In 1661, [[Charles II of England|King Charles II]] forbade Massachusetts from executing anyone for professing Quakerism.<ref name=CHLS>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EzvHvEDPosQC&pg=PR41 |title=Puritans and Puritanism in Europe and America: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia |editor1-first=Francis J. |editor1-last=Bremer |editor2-first=Tom |editor2-last=Webster |year=2006 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |page=xli |isbn=9781576076781}}</ref> In 1684, England [[Massachusetts Bay Colony#Revocation of charter|revoked the Massachusetts charter]], sent over a royal governor to enforce English laws in 1686 and, in 1689, passed a broad Toleration Act.<ref name=CHLS/>

[[File:William Penn at 22 1666.jpg|thumb|left|upright|William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania and West Jersey, as a young man]]
Some Friends migrated to what is now the north-eastern region of the United States in the 1660s in search of economic opportunities and a more tolerant environment in which to build communities of "holy conversation".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Levy |first=Barry |title=Quakers and the American Family |pages=113}}</ref> In 1665 Quakers established a meeting in [[Shrewsbury Township, New Jersey|Shrewsbury, New Jersey]] (now Monmouth County), and built a meeting house in 1672 that was visited by George Fox in the same year.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.shrewsburyquakers.org/article/history |title=History of Shrewsbury Quakers|date=11 August 2014}}</ref> They were able to establish thriving communities in the [[Delaware Valley]], although they continued to experience persecution in some areas, such as [[New England]]. The three colonies that tolerated Quakers at this time were [[West Jersey]], [[Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations|Rhode Island]], and [[Province of Pennsylvania|Pennsylvania]], where Quakers established themselves politically. In Rhode Island, 36 governors in the first 100 years were Quakers. West Jersey and Pennsylvania were established by affluent Quaker [[William Penn]] in 1676 and 1682 respectively, with Pennsylvania as an American commonwealth run under Quaker principles. William Penn signed a peace treaty with [[Tamanend|Tammany]], leader of the Delaware tribe,<ref>{{Cite book |author=David Yount |year=2007 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pk7ycUq3cxsC&pg=PA82 |title=How the Quakers invented America |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |page=82 |isbn=978-0-7425-5833-5}}</ref> and other treaties followed between Quakers and Native Americans.<ref name="BBC Overview">{{Cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/subdivisions/quakers_1.shtml |publisher=BBC |work=Religions |title=Quakers |access-date=13 June 2017}}</ref> This peace endured almost a century, until the [[Penn's Creek Massacre]] of 1755.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.penntreatymuseum.org/treaty.php|title=Penn Treaty Museum|website=www.penntreatymuseum.org}}</ref> Early colonial Quakers also established communities and meeting houses in North Carolina and Maryland, after fleeing persecution by the Anglican Church in Virginia.<ref>[http://articles.dailypress.com/1989-01-15/news/8901100018_1_quakers-colonial-virginia-colonial-anglican-church "Quakers Often Fled Virginia"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151009051032/http://articles.dailypress.com/1989-01-15/news/8901100018_1_quakers-colonial-virginia-colonial-anglican-church |date=9 October 2015 }}, Rowlings, Virginia, ''Daily Press'', 15 January 1989</ref>

In a 2007 interview, author David Yount (''How the Quakers Invented America'') said that Quakers first introduced many ideas that later became mainstream, such as democracy in the Pennsylvania legislature, the [[United States Bill of Rights|Bill of Rights]] to the [[United States Constitution|U.S. Constitution]] from Rhode Island Quakers, trial by jury, equal rights for men and women, and public education. The [[Liberty Bell]] was cast by Quakers in [[Philadelphia]], Pennsylvania.<ref>[https://www.c-span.org/video/?202202-17/quakers-invented-america How the Quakers Invented America], a five-minute interview with David Yount by Peter Slen, C-SPAN, 1 November 2007.</ref>

===Quietism===
{{see also|Quietism (Christian philosophy)}}
Early Quakerism tolerated boisterous behaviour that challenged conventional etiquette, but by 1700, its adherents no longer supported disruptive and unruly behaviour.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Levy |first=Barry |title=Quakers and the American Family |pages=58}}</ref> During the 18th century, Quakers entered the ''Quietist'' period in the history of their church, becoming more inward-looking spiritually and less active in converting others. Marrying outside the Society was cause for having one's membership revoked. Numbers dwindled, dropping to 19,800 in England and Wales by 1800 (0.21% of the population),<ref name="PopulationHistory"/> and 13,859 by 1860 (0.07% of population).<ref name=PopulationHistory/> The formal name "Religious Society of Friends" dates from this period and was probably derived from the appellations "Friends of the Light" and "Friends of the Truth".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Maurer |first=Johan |title=The Publishers of Truth and the Enemy of Truth: Evangelical Friends Consider Good and Evil |url=https://www.academia.edu/4737865 |journal=Good and Evil: Quaker Perspectives, ed. Jackie Leach Scully and Pink Dandelion |date=January 2007 |language=en}}</ref><!-- Woolman and others used the term "Friends" much earlier-->

{{cladogram|title=Divisions of the Religious Society of Friends
|caption=Showing the divisions of Quakers occurring in the 19th and 20th centuries
|clades={{clade
|1={{clade
|label1=Orthodox
|1={{clade
|1={{clade
|1={{clade
|label1=Wilburite
|1=
{{clade
|label1=Conservative
|1=[[Conservative Friends]]
}}
|label2=Gurneyite
|2={{clade
|1={{clade
|label1=Gurneyite
|1=[[Friends United Meeting]]
|label2=Evangelical
|2=[[Evangelical Friends International]]
 }}
}}
 }}
}}
|2=Beaconite|state2=dashed}}
|label2=Hicksite
|2={{clade
|label1=Friends General Conference
|1=[[Friends General Conference]]
}}
}}
}}
}}

===Splits===
Around the time of the [[American Revolutionary War]], some American Quakers split from the main Society of Friends over issues such as support for the war, forming groups such as the [[Free Quakers]] and the [[Universal Friends]].<ref>Pink Dandelion (2007). ''An Introduction to Quakerism'' ({{ISBN|0521841119}}), p. 78.</ref> Later, in the 19th century, there was a diversification of theological beliefs in the Religious Society of Friends, and this led to several larger splits within the movement.

====Hicksite–Orthodox split====
The Hicksite–Orthodox split arose out of both ideological and socioeconomic tensions. Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Hicksites tended to be agrarian and poorer than the more urban, wealthier, Orthodox Quakers. With increasing financial success, Orthodox Quakers wanted to "make the Society a more respectable body – to transform their sect into a church – by adopting mainstream Protestant orthodoxy".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Crothers |first=Glenn |title=Quakers Living in the Lion's Mouth: The Society of Friends in Northern Virginia, 1730–1865 |year=2012 |publisher=University Press of Florida |location=Gainesville |pages=145}}</ref> Hicksites, though they held a variety of views, generally saw the market economy as corrupting, and believed Orthodox Quakers had sacrificed their orthodox Christian spirituality for material success. Hicksites viewed the Bible as secondary to the individual cultivation of God's light within.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Crothers |first=Glenn |title=Quakers Living in the Lion's Mouth |pages=145}}</ref>

With Gurneyite Quakers' shift toward Protestant principles and away from the spiritualisation of human relations, women's role as promoters of "holy conversation" started to decrease. Conversely, within the Hicksite movement the rejection of the market economy and the continuing focus on community and family bonds tended to encourage women to retain their role as powerful arbiters.

[[Elias Hicks]]'s religious views were claimed to be [[universalist]] and to contradict Quakers' historical orthodox Christian beliefs and practices. Hicks' Gospel preaching and teaching precipitated the ''Great Separation'' of 1827, which resulted in a parallel system of Yearly Meetings in America, joined by Friends from Philadelphia, New York, Ohio, Indiana, and Baltimore. They were referred to by opponents as Hicksites and by others and sometimes themselves as Orthodox. Quakers in Britain recognised only the Orthodox Quakers and refused to correspond with the Hicksites.

====Beaconite controversy====
[[Isaac Crewdson]] was a [[Recorded Minister]] in [[Manchester]]. His 1835 book ''A Beacon to the Society of Friends'' insisted that the inner light was at odds with a religious belief in [[Salvation (Christianity)|salvation]] by the [[Atonement in Christianity|atonement]] of Christ.<ref name=Bebbington>{{Cite book |last=Bebbington |first=David William |title=Evangelicalism in modern Britain: a history from the 1730s to the 1980s |url=https://archive.org/details/evangelicalismin0000bebb |url-access=registration |year=1989 |publisher=Unwin Hyman Ltd |location=London |isbn=0-415-10464-5}}</ref>{{rp|page=155}} This Christian controversy led to Crewdson's resignation from the Religious Society of Friends, along with 48 fellow members of Manchester Meeting and about 250 other British Quakers in 1836–1837. Some of these joined the [[Plymouth Brethren]].

====Rise of Gurneyite Quakerism, and the Gurneyite–Conservative split====
[[File:Joseph John Gurney.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Joseph John Gurney was a prominent 19th-century British Friend and a strong proponent of evangelical views.]]
''Orthodox'' Friends became more [[evangelicalism|evangelical]] during the 19th century<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bronner |first=Edwin B. |title=Moderates in London Yearly Meeting, 1857–1873: Precursors of Quaker Liberals |journal=Church History |year=1990 |volume=59 |issue=3 |pages=356–371 |doi=10.2307/3167744 |jstor=3167744|s2cid=163077764 }}</ref> and were influenced by the [[Second Great Awakening]]. This movement was led by British Quaker [[Joseph John Gurney]]. Christian Friends held [[Revival meeting]]s in America and became involved in the [[Holiness movement]] of churches. Quakers such as [[Hannah Whitall Smith]] and [[Robert Pearsall Smith]] became speakers in the religious movement and introduced Quaker phrases and practices to it.<ref name=Bebbington/>{{rp|page=157}} British Friends became involved with the [[Higher Life movement]], with Robert Wilson from [[Cockermouth]] meeting founding the [[Keswick Convention]].<ref name=Bebbington/>{{rp|page=157}} From the 1870s it became common in Britain to have "home mission meetings" on Sunday evening with Christian hymns and a Bible-based sermon, alongside the silent meetings for worship on Sunday morning.<ref name=Bebbington/>{{rp|page=155}}

The Quaker Yearly Meetings supporting the religious beliefs of Joseph John Gurney were known as ''Gurneyite'' yearly meetings. Many eventually collectively became the Five Years Meeting and then the [[Friends United Meeting]], although [[London Yearly Meeting]], which had been strongly Gurneyite in the 19th century, did not join either of these. Such Quaker yearly meetings make up the largest proportion of Quakers in the world today.

Some Orthodox Quakers in America disliked the move towards evangelical Christianity and saw it as a dilution of Friends' traditional orthodox Christian belief in being inwardly led by the [[Holy Spirit]]. These Friends were headed by [[John Wilbur (Quaker minister)|John Wilbur]], who was expelled from his yearly meeting in 1842. He and his supporters formed their own Conservative Friends Yearly Meeting. Some UK Friends broke away from the [[London Yearly Meeting]] for the same reason in 1865. They formed a separate body of Friends called [[Britain Yearly Meeting#Fritchley General Meeting|Fritchley General Meeting]], which remained distinct and separate from London Yearly Meeting until 1968. Similar splits took place in Canada. The Yearly Meetings that supported John Wilbur's religious beliefs were known there as Conservative Friends.

===Richmond Declaration===
In 1887, a Gurneyite Quaker of British descent, [[Joseph Bevan Braithwaite]], proposed to Friends a statement of faith known as the [[Richmond Declaration]]. This statement of faith was agreed to by 95 of the representatives at a meeting of [[Friends United Meeting|Five Years Meeting]] Friends, but unexpectedly the Richmond Declaration was not adopted by London Yearly Meeting because a vocal minority, including [[Edward Grubb (Quaker)|Edward Grubb]], opposed it.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kennedy |first=Thomas C. |title=British Quakerism 1860–1920: The Transformation of a Religious Community |year=2001 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York}}</ref>

===Missions to Asia and Africa===
[[File:BrummanaMissionHouse.jpg|thumb|Friends' Syrian Mission, 1874, built this mission house in [[Ramallah]].]]
Following the [[Christian revival]]s in the mid-19th century, Friends in Great Britain sought also to start missionary activity overseas. The first missionaries were sent to [[Benares]] ([[Varanasi]]), in India, in 1866. The Friends Foreign Mission Association was formed in 1868 and sent missionaries to [[Madhya Pradesh]], India, forming what is now the Mid-India Yearly Meeting. Later it spread to [[Madagascar]] from 1867, China from 1896, [[Sri Lanka]] from 1896, and [[Pemba Island]] from 1897.<ref name="mundus"/>

The Friends Syrian Mission was established in 1874, which among other institutions ran the [[Ramallah Friends Schools]], which still exist today. The Swiss missionary [[Theophilus Waldmeier]] founded [[Brummana High School]] in [[Lebanon]] in 1873,<ref name=mundus>{{Cite web |title=Gateway to missionary collections in the United Kingdom |url=http://www.mundus.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search?coll_id=235&inst_id=7 |publisher=MUNDUS |access-date=6 December 2011 |archive-date=15 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110615101530/http://www.mundus.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search?coll_id=235&inst_id=7 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Evangelical Friends Churches from [[Ohio Yearly Meeting]] sent missionaries to India in 1896,<ref name="Century of Planting">{{Cite book |last=Nixon |first=Eva Anna |title=A Century of Planting: A history of the American Friends' mission in India |publisher=Barclay Press |location=Newburg, OR, US |year=1985 |isbn=0-913342-55-6 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/centuryofplantin00nixo}}</ref> forming what is now [[Bundelkhand Yearly Meeting]]. Cleveland Friends went to [[Mombasa]], [[Kenya]], and started what became the most successful Friends' mission. Their Quakerism spread within [[Kenya]] and to [[Uganda]], [[Tanzania]], [[Burundi]], and [[Rwanda]].

===Theory of evolution===
{{Main|Quakers in science}}
The [[theory of evolution]] as described in [[Charles Darwin|Charles Darwin's]] ''[[On the Origin of Species]]'' (1859) was opposed by many Quakers in the 19th century,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Britain Yearly Meeting |title=Quakers and Science |url=http://www.quaker.org.uk/quakers-and-science |access-date=17 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130113071213/http://www.quaker.org.uk/quakers-and-science |archive-date=13 January 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref> particularly by older evangelical Quakers who dominated the Religious Society of Friends in Great Britain. These older Quakers were suspicious of Darwin's theory and believed that [[natural selection]] could not explain life on its own.<ref name="Quakers & Evolution">{{Cite book |last=Cantor |first=Geoffrey |title=Quakers, Jews, and science religious responses to modernity and the sciences in Britain, 1650–1900 |year=2005 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=9780199276684 |url=http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/0199276684.001.0001/acprof-9780199276684-chapter-7 |chapter=Quaker Responses to Evolution|doi=10.1093/0199276684.001.0001 }}</ref> The influential Quaker scientist [[Edward Newman (entomologist)|Edward Newman]]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Britain Yearly Meeting |title=Edward Newman (1801–1876) |url=http://www.quaker.org.uk/edward-newman-1801-1876 |access-date=17 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130207081241/http://www.quaker.org.uk/edward-newman-1801-1876 |archive-date=7 February 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref> said that the theory was "not compatible with our notions of creation as delivered from the hands of a Creator".

However, some young Friends such as [[John Wilhelm Rowntree]] and [[Edward Grubb (Quaker)|Edward Grubb]] supported Darwin's theories, using the doctrine of progressive revelation.<ref name="Quakers & Evolution"/> In the United States, Joseph Moore taught the theory of evolution at the Quaker [[Earlham College]] as early as 1861.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cooper |first=William |title=Joseph Moore: Quaker Evolutionist |journal=Indiana Magazine of History |date=June 1976 |volume=72 |issue=2 |pages=123–137 |jstor=27790107}}</ref> This made him one of the first teachers to do so in the Midwest.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.earlham.edu/about/president/gallery/moore|title=Presidential Gallery: Joseph Moore|access-date=17 November 2012|archive-date=14 September 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120914170712/http://www.earlham.edu/about/president/gallery/moore|url-status=dead}}</ref> Acceptance of the theory of evolution became more widespread in Yearly Meetings who moved toward liberal Christianity in the 19th and 20th centuries.<ref>{{Cite book |editor1-last=Dandelion |editor1-first=Pink |editor2-last=Collins |editor2-first=Peter |date=March 26, 2009 |title=The Quaker Condition: The Sociology of a Liberal Religion |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |pages=2–3 |isbn=978-1847185655}}</ref> However, [[creationism]] predominates within evangelical Friends Churches, particularly in East Africa and parts of the United States.

===Quaker Renaissance===
In the late 19th century and early 20th century, the so-called Quaker Renaissance movement began within London Yearly Meeting. Young Friends in London Yearly Meeting at this time moved away from evangelicalism and towards liberal Christianity.<ref name=Packer>{{Cite journal |last=Packer |first=Ian |title=Religion and the New Liberalism: The Rowntree Family, Quakerism and Social Reform |journal=Journal of British Studies|date=1 April 2003 |volume=42 |issue=2 |pages=236–257 |doi=10.1086/345607 |jstor=10.1086/345607|issn=0021-9371}}</ref> This movement was particularly influenced by Rowntree, Grubb, and [[Rufus Jones (writer)|Rufus Jones]]. Such Liberal Friends promoted the theory of evolution, modern [[biblical criticism]], and the social meaning of Christ's teaching – encouraging Friends to follow the New Testament example of Christ by performing good works. These men downplayed the evangelical Quaker belief in the [[Atonement in Christianity|atonement]] of Christ on the Cross at [[Calvary]].<ref name=Packer/> After the Manchester Conference in England in 1895, one thousand British Friends met to consider the future of British Quakerism, and as a result, Liberal Quaker thought gradually increased within the London Yearly Meeting.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Blamires |first=David |title=The context and character of the 1895 Manchester Conference |journal=Friends Quarterly |year=1996 |volume=30 |page=50}}</ref>

===Conscientious objection===
[[File:Friends Ambulance Unit ambulance driver, with his vehicle in Wolfsburg, Germany.jpg|thumb|FAU ambulance and driver, Germany, 1945]]
During [[World War I]] and [[World War II]], Friends' opposition to war was put to the test. Many Friends became [[conscientious objectors]] and some formed the [[Friends Ambulance Unit]], aiming at "co-operating with others to build up a new world rather than fighting to destroy the old", as did the [[American Friends Service Committee]]. [[Birmingham]] in England had a strong Quaker community during the war.<ref name=Roberts>{{Cite book |last1=Roberts |first1=Sian |title=Birmingham Remembering 1914–18}}</ref> Many British Quakers were conscripted into the [[Non-Combatant Corps]] during both world wars.

===World Committee for Consultation===
After the two world wars had brought the different Quaker strands closer together, Friends from different yearly meetings – many having served together in the Friends Ambulance Unit or the American Friends Service Committee, or in other relief work – later held several Quaker World Conferences. This brought about a standing body of Friends: the [[Friends World Committee for Consultation]].

===Evangelical Friends===
A growing desire for a more fundamentalist approach among some Friends after the First World War began a split among [[Friends United Meeting|Five Years Meetings]]. In 1926, Oregon Yearly Meeting seceded from the [[Friends United Meeting|Five Years Meeting]], bringing together several other yearly meetings and scattered monthly meetings.

In 1947, the [[Association of Evangelical Friends]] was formed, with triennial meetings until 1970. In 1965, this was replaced by the Evangelical Friends Alliance, which in 1989 became [[Evangelical Friends Church International]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nwfriends.org/what-friends-believe/historical-statement/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080131215748/http://www.nwfriends.org/what-friends-believe/historical-statement/|url-status=dead |title=Northwest Yearly Meeting Historical Statement |archivedate=31 January 2008}}</ref>

===Role of women===
[[File:SugarGroveFriendsDivision.jpg|thumb|left|[[Sugar Grove Conservative Friends Meeting House]], built in 1870 in [[Indiana]], with an openable partition between male and female sections]]
{{Main|Quaker views on women}}
In the 1650s, individual Quaker women prophesied and preached publicly, developing charismatic personae and spreading the sect. This practice was bolstered by the movement's firm concept of spiritual equality for men and women.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Visionary Women: Ecstatic Prophecy in Seventeenth-Century England |last=Mack |first=Phyllis |publisher=University of California Press |year=1995 |location=Berkeley |pages=165–211}}</ref> Moreover, Quakerism initially was propelled by the nonconformist behaviours of its followers, especially women who broke from social norms.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Mack |first1=Phyllis |title=Visionary Women: Ecstatic Prophecy in Seventeenth-Century England |date=1995 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |page=3}}</ref> By the 1660s, the movement had gained a more structured organisation, which led to separate women's meetings.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Trevett |first1=Christine |title=Quaker Women Prophets in England and Wales, 1650–1700 |date=2000 |publisher=[[Edwin Mellen Press]] |location=[[Lewiston, New York]]|page=12}}</ref> Through the women's meetings, women oversaw domestic and community life, including marriage.<ref name="Levy 78" /> From the beginning, Quaker women, notably [[Margaret Fell]], played an important role in defining Quakerism.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Levy |first=Barry |title=Quakers and the American Family |pages=69, 221}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Bacon |first=Margaret |title=Mothers of Feminism |pages=24}}</ref> Others active in proselytising included [[Mary Penington]], [[Mary Mollineux]] and [[Barbara Blaugdone]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=Persecution and Pluralism: Calvinists and Religious Minorities in Early Modern Europe 1550–1700 |editor1-first=Richard |editor1-last=Bonney |editor2-first=David J. B. |editor2-last=Trim |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jQJuObBQerIC |publisher=Peter Lang |year=2006|isbn=9783039105700 }}</ref> Quaker women published at least 220 texts during the 17th century.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Gill |first1=Catie |title=Women in the Seventeenth-century Quaker Community: a Literary Study of Political Identities, 1650–1700 |date=2005 |publisher=Ashgate |location=Burlington, VT|page=1}}</ref> However, some Quakers resented the power of women in the community. In the early years of Quakerism, George Fox faced resistance in developing and establishing women's meetings. As controversy increased, Fox did not fully adhere to his agenda. For example, he established the London Six Weeks Meeting in 1671 as a regulatory body, led by 35 women and 49 men.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Mack |first1=Phyllis |title=Visionary Women: Ecstatic Prophecy in Seventeenth-Century England |date=1995 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley|page=289}}</ref> Even so, conflict culminated in the Wilkinson–Story split, in which a portion of the Quaker community left to worship independently in protest at women's meetings.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Janney |first=Samuel |title=History of the Religious Society of Friends, from its Rise to the Year 1828 |url=https://archive.org/details/historyreligiou07janngoog |year=1861 |publisher=Hayes & Zell |location=Philadelphia |pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyreligiou07janngoog/page/n303 298]}}</ref> After several years, this schism became largely resolved, testifying to the resistance of some within the Quaker community and to the spiritual role of women that Fox and Margaret Fell had encouraged. Particularly within the relatively prosperous Quaker communities of the eastern United States, the focus on the child and "holy conversation" gave women unusual community power, although they were largely excluded from the market economy. With the Hicksite–Orthodox split of 1827–1828, Orthodox women found their spiritual role decreased, while Hicksite women retained greater influence.

===Friends in business and education===
{{See also|List of Quaker businesses, organizations and charities|List of Friends schools}}[[File:John Cadbury.jpg|thumb|upright|English Quaker [[John Cadbury]] founded Cadbury in [[Birmingham]], England, in 1824, selling tea, coffee and drinking chocolate.]]
Described as "natural capitalists" by the [[BBC]], many Quakers were successful in a variety of industries.<ref name=Jackson2010/><ref name="King">{{Cite book |last1=King |first1=Mike |title=Quakernomics: An Ethical Capitalism |date=2014 |publisher=Anthem Press |isbn=9780857281128 |page=51}}</ref> Two notable examples were [[Abraham Darby I]] and [[Edward Pease (railway pioneer)|Edward Pease]]. Darby and his family played an important role in the British [[Industrial Revolution]] with their innovations in ironmaking.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Adams |first=Ryan |date=27 July 2012 |title=Danny Boyle's intro on Olympics programme |work=Awards Daily |url=http://www.awardsdaily.com/blog/2012/07/27/danny-boyles-intro-on-olympics-programme/ |url-status=dead |access-date=20 November 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130206135250/http://www.awardsdaily.com/blog/2012/07/27/danny-boyles-intro-on-olympics-programme/ |archive-date=6 February 2013}}</ref><ref name="Quaker Enterprise">{{Cite book|last=Burns Windsor|first=D|title=The Quaker Enterprise: Friends in Business |publisher=Frederick Muller Ltd |year=1980 |isbn=0-584-10257-7 |location=London}}</ref> Pease, a [[Darlington]] manufacturer, was the main promoter of the [[Stockton and Darlington Railway]], which was the world's first public railway to use steam locomotives.<ref name="King"/> Other industries with prominent Quaker businesses included banking ([[Lloyds Banking Group]] and [[Barclays PLC]]), pharmaceuticals ([[Allen & Hanburys]]), chocolate ([[Cadbury]] and [[J. S. Fry & Sons|Fry's]]), confectionery [[Rowntree's|(Rowntree]]), shoe manufacturing ([[C. & J. Clark|Clarks]]), and biscuit manufacturing ([[Huntley & Palmers]]).<ref name=Jackson2010/><ref name="Quaker Enterprise" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Palmer |first=M. |title=Made to Last: The Story of Britain's Best Known Shoe Firm |publisher=Profile Books |location=London |pages=19–20}}</ref>

Quakers have a long history of establishing educational institutions. Initially, Quakers had no ordained [[clergy]], and therefore needed no [[seminary|seminaries]] for theological training. In England, Quaker schools sprang up soon after the movement emerged, with [[Friends School Saffron Walden]] being the most prominent.<ref>On Quaker schools in Britain and Ireland, see [http://www.quaker.org.uk/subject-guides Quaker Schools in Great Britain and Ireland: A selective bibliography of histories and guide to records].</ref> Quaker schools in the UK and Ireland are supported by The Friends' Schools' Council.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Quaker Education {{!}} Discover Education in UK Quaker Schools |url=https://www.aquakereducation.co.uk/ |access-date=2019-06-13 |website=A Quaker Education |language=en-GB}}</ref> In Australia, [[Friends' School, Hobart]], founded in 1887, has grown into the largest Quaker school in the world. In Britain and the United States, friends have established a variety of institutions at a variety of [[Educational stage|educational levels]]. In Kenya, Quakers founded several primary and secondary schools in the first half of the 20th century before [[History of Kenya#Independence|the country's independence]] in 1963.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Quaker Schools/Friends Schools |url=https://www.quakersintheworld.org/quakers-in-action/66/Quaker-SchoolsFriends-Schools |access-date=18 October 2022 |website=Quakers in the World}}</ref>

===International development===
International volunteering organisations such as [[Service Civil International]] and [[International Voluntary Service]] were founded by leading Quakers. [[Eric Baker (activist)|Eric Baker]], a prominent Quaker, was one of the founders of [[Amnesty International]] and of the [[Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament]].<ref>T. Buchanan, (2002) [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3180761 The Truth Will Set You Free': The Making of Amnesty International.] ''Journal of Contemporary History'' 37(4) pp. 575–597</ref>

The Quaker [[Edith Pye]] established a national Famine Relief Committee in May 1942, encouraging a network of local famine relief committees, among the most energetic of which was the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, [[Oxfam]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Black |first1=Maggie |title=A Cause for Our Times: Oxfam – The First Fifty Years |date=1992 |publisher=Oxfam |page=9}}</ref> [[Irving Stowe|Irving]] and [[Dorothy Stowe]] co-founded [[Greenpeace]] with many other environmental activists in 1971, shortly after becoming Quakers.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/about/history/amchitka-hunter/ |title=Greenpeace International: The History of Greenpeace |publisher=Greenpeace.org |date=2009-09-14 |access-date=2021-09-20 |archive-date=18 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121118030237/http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/about/history/amchitka-hunter/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Friends and slavery===
{{See also|Abolitionism in the United Kingdom|Abolitionism in the United States}}
Some Quakers in America and Britain became known for their involvement in the abolitionist movement. In the early history of [[Colonial America]], it was fairly common for Friends to own slaves, [[History of slavery in Pennsylvania#British colony|e.g. in Pennsylvania]]. During the early to mid-1700s, disquiet about this practice arose among Friends, best exemplified by the testimonies of [[Benjamin Lay]], [[Anthony Benezet]] and [[John Woolman]], and this resulted in an abolition movement among Friends. 

Nine of the twelve founding members of the [[Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade]], or The Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, were Quakers:<ref name=hoi>{{cite web | title=Foundation of the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade| website=History of Information | url=https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=3700  | access-date=20 December 2020}}</ref> [[John Barton (quaker)|John Barton]] (1755–1789); [[William Dillwyn]] (1743–1824); George Harrison (1747–1827); [[Samuel Hoare Jr]] (1751–1825); Joseph Hooper (1732–1789); John Lloyd; [[Joseph Woods (abolitionist)|Joseph Woods]] Sr (1738–1812); James Phillips (1745–1799); and Richard Phillips.<ref name =anjou>{{cite book |author=Leo D'Anjou |title=Social Movements and Cultural Change: The First Abolition Campaign |year=1996 |publisher=Aldine de Gruyter |isbn= 978-0-202-30522-6 |page=198}}</ref> Five of the Quakers had been amongst the informal group of six Quakers who had pioneered the movement in 1783, when the first petition against the slave trade was presented to Parliament. As Quakers could not serve as Members of Parliament, they relied on the help of Anglican men who could, such as [[William Wilberforce]] and his brother-in-law [[James Stephen (British politician)|James Stephen]].

By the beginning of the [[American Revolutionary War]], few Friends owned slaves. At the war's end in 1783, Yarnall family members along with fellow Meeting House Friends made a failed petition to the [[Continental Congress]] to abolish [[slavery in the United States]]. In 1790, the Society of Friends petitioned the [[United States Congress]] to abolish slavery.<ref>{{cite news |title=Quaker Petition on Slavery (1790)1 |url=https://iws.oupsupport.com/protected/files/content/file/1607148377342-quaker_petition_on_slavery.pdf |access-date=September 20, 2021 |agency=Oxford University Press}}</ref>

One example of a reversal in sentiment about slavery took place in the life of [[Moses Brown]], one of four Rhode Island brothers who, in 1764, organized and funded the tragic and fateful voyage of the [[slave ship]] ''Sally''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://cds.library.brown.edu/projects/sally/|title=The Voyage of the Slave Ship Sally: 1764–1765|website=cds.library.brown.edu}}</ref> Brown broke away from his three brothers, became an abolitionist, and converted to Christian Quakerism. During the 19th century, Quakers such as [[Levi Coffin]] and [[Isaac Hopper]] played a major role in helping enslaved people escape through the [[Underground Railroad]].<ref>Ralph Dannheiser, "[http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/article/2008/11/20081112170035abretnuh3.838748e-02.html Quakers Played Major Role in Ending Slavery in the U.S]", IIP Digital, 12 November 2008</ref> Black Quaker [[Paul Cuffe]], a sea captain and businessman, was active in the abolitionist and [[American Colonization Society|resettlement movement]] in the early part of that century.<ref>{{cite book|first =Rosland Cobb|last= Wiggins|chapter= Paul Cuffe: Early Pan-Africanist|title=Black Quakers, Brief Biographies|editor-first= Kenneth|editor-last= Ives|publisher= Progressive Publisher|date= 1995|isbn= 9780896700239}}</ref> Quaker [[Laura Smith Haviland]], with her husband, established the first station on the Underground Railroad in Michigan. Later, Haviland befriended [[Sojourner Truth]], who called her the Superintendent of the Underground Railroad.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/003936719 |title=A Quaker pioneer: Laura Haviland, Superintendent of the Underground |first=Mildred E. |last=Danforth |series=Exposition-banner book |publisher=Exposition Press |location=New York |date=1961}}</ref>

However, in the 1830s, the abolitionist [[Grimké sisters]] dissociated themselves from the Quakers "when they saw that Negro Quakers were segregated in separate pews in the Philadelphia meeting house".<ref>{{Cite news |title=Rebels against slavery |newspaper=[[Boston Globe]] |date=March 10, 1968 |page=358 |via=[[newspapers.com]] |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/38265245/the-boston-globe/}}</ref>