Hypocrisy, Racism, and Self-Interest on the Path to Reparations: Quaker Complicity with Slavery (1657–1776) and White Supremacy

About this book

Many Quakers are grappling with leadings for racial reparations and a deeper commitment to anti-racist awareness and action. Reparations must begin with an adequate grasp of Quakers’ direct involvement in chattel slavery and white supremacy. From 1657 to 1758, Quakers did not act decisively to end the hypocrisy of valuing equality, plainness, and peace, while simultaneously profiting from the slave trade and human misery. What rationalizations did Friends use to justify the continuation of enslaving and slave trading? What racist thoughts undergirded resistance to manumission? In what ways did Quaker governance fail to end Quaker complicity with slavery? Integrating this erased history will aid our efforts at racial reparations and the development of anti-racist awareness and actions. Discussion questions are included.