Quakers in Delaware, 1672-1872
Date
1957
Authors
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Quaker colonists in Delaware have exerted an influence on the state in many ways. After the days of Penn this influence was not as discernible in the political field as it was in the development of industrial prosperity and the advancement of education and social welfare. Since the greatest concentration of Quakers was around Wilmington, it is in this area that we can most easily trace their actions. But each of the counties had at least a few members of The Society of Friends. ☐ Quaker influence is seen in the prosperity of the state and in the advantages enjoyed by individuals. The Quakers were a hard working, thrifty people, with a great deal of business ability coupled with a high regard for the dignity of the individual. Their interest in the welfare of others as an important factor in the progress of social reform, public welfare and education. ☐ Quakers were successful farmers, millers, merchants, and manufacturers. They used their wealth to improve general social conditions and to eliminate the causes of distress. They felt it a Christian duty to help the poor and to provide education for all, without regard to race, color, or condition of servitude. They attempted to have a just and merciful penal code established. The abolition of seemed to them an absolute necessity. Nowhere is there influence so easily discernible as the history of the freeing of the Negro in Delaware.