Introduction xxiv
conflicted with the demands of the established national and religious powers.
New England Quakers often faced persecution from Puritan authorities in the 17th
century—through confiscation of property, imprisonment, or even execution—for
their unwillingness to fully engage with civil life, including a refusal to serve in the
militia or pay taxes to support war.
William Penn established the Quaker-dominated but religiously tolerant colony
of Pennsylvania in 1681. Relations between Eu ro pean immigrants and Native Amer-
ican tribes remained remarkably peaceful and based on mutual respect and careful
negotiation. Anabaptists and other sectarians found Pennsylvania to be a welcom-
ing home, but their combined influence challenged government authority, especially
in matters of war. The Pennsylvania assembly refused to provide physical or financial
support for colonial wars in the late 17th century, but Quaker political dominance
ended with the French and Indian War in 1755. Caught between personal convic-
tions and frontier demands of non-Quaker Germans and Scotch-Irish to provide
military defense, many Quakers resigned from the assembly and privately contin-
ued their resistance to war. While the colonial government abandoned nonviolence,
Quakers created the Friendly Association for Regaining and Preserving Peace with
the Indians in 1756 as an extralegal means for mediation. John Woolman’s com-
mitment to pacifism and social justice—revealed in his extensive journal—represents
the Quaker commitment to not only living their faith privately but also influencing
their society. In the decade before the American Revolution, Great Britain’s North
American colonies contained perhaps 60,000 sectarians—generally Quakers and
Anabaptists—who formed the heart of the American peace movement. This reli-
gious motivation would dominate American peace activism until well after the
Civil War.
Peace advocates in the Revolutionary Era combined religious arguments with
those of Enlightenment thinkers who argued that peace came through trade with
like-minded states. Americans recognized the financial and political costs of war and
threats that a standing army posed to republican government. States that imposed
draft laws faced significant opposition. Some revolutionaries tried to accommo-
date pacifist views by providing legal avenues to avoid military service. Still, because
the faith-based pacifism of most Quakers led to their neutrality during the Ameri-
can Revolution, revolutionaries frequently punished them by confiscating their
property or committing acts of violence against them. Anabaptist sects were more
likely to buy exemptions from the armed forces, but they too faced persecution.
During the early republic, U.S. leaders pursued neutrality in foreign affairs, fearing
that a uniquely close relationship with Great Britain would lead to war with its
Eu ro pean enemies. Concerns over a standing army remained in the new nation, but
the peaceful transition of power from the Federalists to the Democratic-Republicans
in 1800 reduced those anxieties. That, along with the growing reverence associ-
ated with the Revolution and escalating warfare with frontier Indian tribes, led to a
growing acceptance of greater militarization.
This did not translate, however, into easy public acceptance of government-
sanctioned wars. The War of 1812 was as unpopular as any in American history.
