The Testimony of Peace is perhaps the best known tenet of The Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers. More than a belief, it describes the Quaker commitment to promote peace, refrain from confrontation and actively oppose participation in war.
…the threat of war posed a moral dilemma for wealthy Quakers like Humphry Marshall.
Peacable Kingdom by Pennsylvania born artist Edward Hicks, National Gallary of Art.
Meeting for Worship by Adrian Martinez
Photograph courtesy of Fred Weyman.
As the storm clouds of the American Revolution were brewing over the nation’s capital in Philadelphia, the threat of war posed a moral dilemma for wealthy Quakers like Humphry Marshall. They were aware they had much to lose: no place in America had a longer planting season, better wheat crops or larger cattle operations. They expected the British would take the Brandywine Valley for themselves, to supply food and materiel for the war effort. Would the Quakers have to fight to defend their homes and farms?