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The Background and Resolution of the Eunice Ross Controversy by Kristi Kraemer NANTUCKET, LONG KNOWN for its anti-slavery attitudes and acceptance of blacks as part of the community, was under stress during the mid-1840's that controversey raged over whether or not to allow Eunice Ross, a black girl, to enter the only high school on the island, which had, theretofore, been attended only by whites. The Quakers were the majority in Nantucket, and, while they had a history of fighting against the establishment and expansion of public schools, they had also been the first religious group in America to publicly decry slavery and had endeavored not only to help free slaves, but to accept blacks into their community, according them full rights as citizens. There had been an established Black community in Nantucket, which included people from all walks of life and a variety of origins. It was a "separate but accepted" community, sharing its people and skills freely with the whites and en joying rights accorded blacks few places in the United States. An equilibrium had been reached. At the time of the Eunice Ross controversey, however, the Quakers and Nantucket itself were facing attacks from without and within on basic religious and economic issues, and were splintered and fragmented in their attitudes and approaches to the problem. Unlike the Puritans, who believed that all men were sinners and could be saved by strict adherence to acomplex mixture of Biblical law and clerical rule, the Quakers believed that each individual had a divine communication with God and, through individual meditation and prayer, could ascertain for himself the proper modes of behavior, speech, and life. The Puritans believed in hard work, a strong clergy and the Bible. The Quakers agreed only with the concept of hard work, feeling that by having an established clergy, there was an implication that some men were more in favor with God than others, which did not fit with their belief that all men were equal and at one with the Divine. Because of this belief, they also used the Bible only as a last resort in solving problems, preferring instead to trust the Inner Light that burns in all men. Thus was the Quaker tradition established on Nantucket, and a
