A Different Set of Folks
The Quakers, also known as Society of Friends, were an offshoot of the Puritan movement in England. They were different, however, from most Puritans and other Christian churches in that they held to no specific creed. There were no set beliefs to which the Quakers subscribed. They had no professional clergy and no sacraments or liturgy. Rather than emphasizing the outward aspect of Christianity they looked to the inward relationship with God and their religion.
A Peaceful People
In the view of the Quaker the outward forms of religion virtually meant nothing. The Quakers were pacifists and were probably looked down upon by non-Quakers as afraid to stand up and fight, thus forfeiting any respect they might gain otherwise.
Penn to the Rescue
In 1681 William Penn , a Quaker, desired and was granted a vast tract of land in Colonial America that became Pennsylvania . There, Quakers could find religious freedom and refuge, such as the first The Lords of Baltimore had done in 1632 for the Catholics in Maryland .
Trading One Persecution for Another
In England, the Quakers had been persecuted, especially from about 1660 to 1689. The so-called crimes they had committed ranged from holding meetings that were against the law, for refusing to take oaths, and for their failure to support the established church.
When the Quakers came in considerable numbers to America they at first found their lives, in relationship to being Quakers, very little different than it had been in England. In Salem, Massachusetts in 1658, the Puritans, of all people, were the ones who were doing their pious best to persecute the Quakers.
