| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.2

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 89.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Walking in the Way of Peace: Quaker Pacifism in the Seventeenth Century. By Meredith Baldwin Weddle. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. xvi, 348 pp. $49.95, ISBN 0-19-513138-X.)

Quakers and pacifism are so often associated with one another that it frequently seems pacifism must have sprung full-blown from the head of George Fox. Meredith Baldwin Weddle's Walking in the Way of Peace offers a valuable reminder that this was not the case. Focusing on the behavior of Rhode Island Quakers during King Philip's War (1675–1676), she set out "to identify issues relating to the peace testimony, to discern motivations, and [to] discover actual practice." The result is a convincing demonstration of the confusing and confused origins of Quaker pacifism. 1

Weddle opens with a brief discussion of the theory and practice of English Quakerism during the English Civil War and Restoration. While acknowledging the prominence of the Quakers' Declaration of 1660, she reminds readers that some Friends adopted pacifism well before 1660 and that others struggled for years afterwards to decide exactly what pacifism required of them. Equally important, she identifies two factors that she believes help to explain the range of Quaker responses. First, pacifism among early Quakers was largely motivated by a concern for the welfare of the individual refraining from violence rather than that of the victim of such violence. Second, early Quakers believed no individual or meeting should pass judgment on what was acceptable behavior by another. Thus it was possible for individual Friends to refrain from violence themselves while sanctioning violence by others—even by other Friends. . . .

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