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How peace-loving Quakers helped win the Civil War
How some peace-loving Quakers helped win the Civil War
By Gene Pisasale Contributing Writer
Slavery existed for thousands of years around the world. This horrific practice was a stain on the human soul. Today some people think slavery started in the southern United States, but the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and many other civilizations practiced slavery. Some blacks held other blacks as slaves in Africa, selling them to the highest bidder. After rebels fired upon Fort Sumter in April 1861, President Lincoln was faced with a dilemma: fight against the secessionists who supported slavery—or allow them to fracture the nation.
As Washington, D.C. was surrounded by slaveholding states (Virginia, Maryland and Delaware), it was a difficult decision to make. Lincoln had to decide whether to fight against and kill American citizens, or allow them to kill the Union.
Quakers were the first organized group in America to openly criticize slavery. In 1688, Quakers from
The former Harriet Tubman mural in Kennett Square.
Germantown condemned the practice, sparking an active debate over the following decades. Their condemnation was a starting point for what became the abolitionist movement. Surprisingly, some Quakers owned slaves. In 1776, the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of Quakers instructed all chapters to disown anyone who refused to free their slaves. Several conduits existed for slaves to escape from the southern states into the north as far as Canada. The Eastern Corridor ran from South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia into Maryland, leading to southeastern Pennsylvania and Delaware.
The origin of the term Underground Railroad has never been definitively ascertained. In his book Just Over the Line: Chester County and the Underground Railroad, author William Kashatus describes one legend. Two slave owners lost track of their fugitive as they pursued him through Kentucky to the edge of the Ohio River. Bewildered, one of them supposedly said: “There must be an underground railroad here somewhere!” The Underground Railroad never
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The Underground Railroad in Kennett Square:
The Longwood Progressive Friends Meeting House.
The Underground Railroad in the United States, courtesy of National Geographic.
published a train schedule; routes were well kept secrets. There were clandestine pathways around the nation. The accompanying map shows one estimated route from southern Delaware up through Dover, Middletown and Wilmington on what is now called the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway.
The proximity of Kennett Square to Wilmington made the corridor between the two cities a perfect conduit for escaping slaves. Due to its preponderance of Quakers and position as the first town in Chester County just over the Mason-Dixon Line, the Kennett Square area was a hotbed of abolitionist activity. Several local buildings were “station stops,” including the homes of John and Hannah Cox, Isaac and Dinah Mendenhall, Eusebius Barnard and others.
Thomas Garrett was born on Aug. 21, 1789 in Upper Darby into a Quaker family, and later moved to Wilmington, Del. Kashatus’ book describes Garrett’s transformation to the abolitionist cause. Garrett helped release a free black woman from bondage — and had a spiritual revelation about the “utter sinfulness of slavery.” He became actively involved in the abolitionist movement; it is estimated Garrett helped more than 2,300 slaves escape to freedom.
The Longwood Progressive Friends were an offshoot of the Kennett Monthly Meeting which split away in 1853. Chris Densmore, who worked at the Friends Library at Swarthmore College for many years and wrote extensively on Quakers, stated: “Many of those who affiliated with the Progressive Friends were among the most active abolitionists and Underground Railroad agents in Chester County.” Their meeting house hosted many well-known players
Thomas Garrett
Harriet Tubman Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway in Delaware.
in this drama, including Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison.
Kashatus stated: “Quakers formed a significant part of the abolitionist minority that elected Lincoln to the presidency in 1860, expecting that he would further the anti-slavery cause.”
Text from the Progressive Friends in 1862 shows a passage: “By refusing to employ the army and navy against the rebellious South… the government would assuredly hinder the progress of peace, and strengthen the hands of lawless violence.”
This was a dramatic shift from what most Quakers believed: the Progressives thought war would help achieve their goal.
On June 20, 1862, President Lincoln met at the White House with six members of the Longwood Progressive Friends, including Thomas Garrett. Oliver Johnson led the delegation, telling Lincoln “…We are convinced that the abolition of slavery is indispensable to your success.”
This was an important recommendation: Johnson was linking emancipation with victory against the Confederates. The Progressive Friends appeared to have had a significant impact on Lincoln. Kashatus described their meeting: “Lincoln was deeply moved. He confided that he had sometimes thought that he might be an instrument in God’s hands of accomplishing a great work.”
With the war in its second year, Lincoln was searching desperately for a way to end the conflict. A carriage ride provided the opportunity. On July 13, 1862, Lincoln shared a coach with Secretary of State William Seward and Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles. The conversation they had changed everything. Lincoln’s grief for having lost his own son was compounded when he heard that the son of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton died just a few days before. Sorrow often allows people to find
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answers to problems through soul searching. In this conversation, something clearly had changed.
“He dwelt earnestly on the gravity, importance, and delicacy of… emancipating the slaves by proclamation,” Welles noted in his diary.
This was, according to Welles, “A new departure for the President, for until this time…he had been prompt and emphatic in denouncing any interference by the General Government with the subject.’”
After deep introspection, the President had a revelation. Lincoln said he had given it much thought and had come to the conclusion that it was a military necessity absolutely essential to the salvation of the Union, that we must free the slaves or be ourselves subdued. The country lawyer came up with an ingenious solution. Slaves were being used as tools by the rebels in their war effort. By freeing the slaves in areas of open rebellion, Lincoln disabled the tools of the Confederacy.
Lincoln’s ground-breaking conversation with Welles occurred just a few weeks after his meeting with the Longwood Progressives. It is likely his talk with the Quakers influenced his thinking, a catalyst which nudged him to action at a
Continued on Page 24 Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.
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critical time. Lincoln said: “If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it.” His war strategy was made more effective by freeing tens of thousands of additional men to fight for the Union.
The Emancipation Proclamation was issued on Sept. 22, 1862 and took effect on Jan. 1, 1863. The next month, Massachusetts Governor John A. Andrew issued the first official call for black soldiers in the Civil War and more than 1,000 men responded. They formed the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, depicted in the film “Glory.” By the end of the Civil War, approximately 179,000 black men (roughly 10 percent of all northern troops) served in the Union Army; another 19,000 were in the Navy. Nearly 40,000 black soldiers died over the course of the war.
Both former slaves and free blacks helped save the Union; this can never be forgotten. There were many heroes who were part of these events. This is their story, not often told—of men and women who stood up for what was right, how a beleaguered President overcame the greatest crisis in our nation’s history—and how some peace-loving Quakers helped win the Civil War.
Gene Pisasale is an historian and author based in Kennett Square. His ten books and lecture series focus on American history. His latest book is Forgotten Founding Fathers: Pennsylvania and Delaware in the American Revolution. His books are available on his website at www.GenePisasale.com and through www. Amazon.com. He can be reached via e-mail at Gene@GenePisasale.com.
Photograph of President Abraham Lincoln by Alexander Gardner.
