Quakers and Slavery, 1657-1865: An International Interdisciplinary Conference — Conference Draft Program —

This page contains an archive of the program of the Quakers and Slavery conference. If you registered for the conference and would like to download and read the conference papers, click here and enter the username and password you were given when you registered (opens in a new window). Day 1: Thursday 4 November McNeil Center for Early American Studies 2.30 – 3.30pm: Registration 3.30 – 3.45pm: Introductions (a) Brief welcome to the conference by Brycchan Carey (Kingston University London) and Geoff Plank (University of East Anglia) (b) Official welcome to the McNeil Center for Early American Studies (c) Housekeeping announcements 3.45 – 5.15pm: Panel 1 “The Early Years of Debate” Chair: Sarah Crabtree (Fairleigh Dickinson University) Kristen Block (Florida Atlantic University) “Quaker Evangelization in Early Barbados: Forging a Path towards the Unknowable” Katharine Gerbner (Harvard University) “Antislavery in Print: George Keith, the Christian Quakers, and the Exhortation and Caution to Friends Concerning Buying or Keeping of Negroes” Brycchan Carey (Kingston University, London) “Charting the origins of the discourse of antislavery: Quaker debate in the 1690s” 5.30pm – 6.30pm: Keynote Lecture Gary Nash (UCLA) “Why Has the Story of Quakers and Slavery Been Unnoticed?” Chair: Geoff Plank (University of East Anglia) 6.30pm – 8.00: Reception Day 2: Friday 5 November Swarthmore College 9:00 – 10:00: Registration and Coffee 10:00 – 11:00: Introductions [Venue: Lang Performing Arts Center] (a) Official welcome to Swarthmore by Rebecca Chopp, President of Swarthmore College (b) Presentation by Brycchan Carey (Kingston University London) and Geoff Plank (University of East Anglia) on the significance of the conference (c) Introduction to the Friends Historical Library and the Quakers and Slavery Website by Christopher Densmore (Swarthmore College) (d) housekeeping announcements. 11:00 – 11:15: Coffee 11:15 – 12:45: Panel 2 “Atlantic Abolitionism” [Venue: Lang Performing Arts Center] Chair: Liam Riordan (University of Maine) Elizabeth Cazden (Independent Scholar) “‘Our Elder Brother’: The Role of London Yearly Meeting in the American Turn against Slavery” Maurice Jackson (Georgetown University) “Anthony Benezet and the Founding of the Atlantic Abolitionist Movement in the Eighteenth Century” Jonathan D. Sassi (College of Staten Island and The Graduate Center, CUNY) “With a Little Help from the Friends: The Quaker and Tactical Contexts of Anthony Benezet’s Abolitionist Publishing” 12:45 – 2:00: Lunch 2:00 – 3:30: Parallel sessions – Panels 3 and 4 [Venue: Lang Performing Arts Center]   Panel 3: “Keeping Slaveholders at a Distance” Chair: A. Glenn Crothers (University of Louisville / The Filson Historical Society) Michael J. Crawford (Naval History and Heritage Command), “The Pace of Manumission in Revolutionary-Era North Carolina” Kate Freedman (University of Massachusetts, Amherst) “The Good Quaker: Abraham Redwood and the Problem of Slavery in Rhode Island’s Quaker Community” Anna P. Vaughan Kett (University of Brighton) “Wearing Belief: Quaker Women, Dress and Antislavery Activism, 1853-1858”   Panel 4: “Reform and Division within Quakerism, the Hicksites and Slavery” Chair: Nancy A. Hewitt (Rutgers University) Ellen M. Ross (Swarthmore College) “‘Liberation is Coming Soon’: The Radical Reformation of Joshua Evans (1731-1798)” Carol Faulkner (Syracuse University) “‘I Know of No Religious Association I would Prefer’: Lucretia Mott, Radical Abolition, and the Society of Friends” Thomas D. Hamm (Earlham College) “George F. White and the Hicksite Argument against Abolition, 1835-1847”   3:45 – 5:15: Panel 5 “Quakers and Former Slaves” [Venue: Lang Performing Arts Center] Chair: Jonathan D. Sassi (College of Staten Island and The Graduate Center, CUNY) Kirsten Sword (Indiana University) “Redrafting Thomas Clarkson’s Map: Quaker Networks, Antislavery Litigation and the Promise of Digital History” Andrew Diemer (Temple University) “The Quaker and the Colonist: Moses Sheppard, Samuel F. McGill, and Transatlantic Antislavery” Christopher Densmore (Swarthmore College) “Aim for a Free State and Settle Among Quakers: African-American and Quaker Parallel Communities” 5:30 – 6:30: Keynote Lecture [Venue: Lang Performing Arts Center] Jerry Frost (Swarthmore College) “Why Quakers and Slavery? Why not more Quakers?” Chair: Ellen M. Ross (Swarthmore College) From 6:30: Reception [Venue T.B.A.] and dinner [Clothier Hall] Day 3: Saturday 6 November Haverford College 9:00 – 10:00: Registration and Coffee [Venue: Stokes Auditorium Lobby] 10:00 – 10:30: Introductions [Venue: Stokes Auditorium] (a) Official welcome to Haverford by Stephen Emerson, President of Haverford College (b) Introduction to Haverford Quaker and Special Collections by John Anderies (Haverford College) (c) Housekeeping announcements. 10:30 – 11:30: Roundtable Session “Quakers and Slavery: New Questions? New Answers?” [Venue: Stokes Auditorium] Chair: Emma Lapsansky-Werner (Haverford College) Participants: Dee E. Andrews (California State University, East Bay); Kristen Block (Florida Atlantic University); Thomas D. Hamm (Earlham College); Maurice Jackson (Georgetown University); Marie-Jeanne Rossignol (Université Paris-Diderot). 11:30 – 11:45: Coffee [Venue: Stokes Auditorium Lobby] 11:45 – 1:15: Panel 6 “Varieties of Female Power” [Venue: Stokes Auditorium] Chair: Carol Faulkner (Syracuse University) Nancy A. Hewitt (Rutgers University) “The Spiritual Journeys of an Abolitionist: Amy Post, 1803-1889” Holly M. Kent (Lehigh University) “‘Obeying the Voice of Duty, and the Dictates of Justice’: Female Quaker Authors of Antislavery Literature, 1829-1859” A. Glenn Crothers (University of Louisville / The Filson Historical Society) “‘The Union Forever’: Antislavery Quaker Women of Virginia in the American Civil War” 1:15 – 2:15: Lunch [Venue: Stokes CPGC Cafe] 2:15 – 3:45: Panel 7 “Literary Approaches” [Venue: Stokes Auditorium] Chair: Brycchan Carey (Kingston University, London) Marie-Jeanne Rossignol (Université Paris-Diderot) “Tracing the Influence and Transformation of Quaker Antislavery Ideals in France through the Crévecoeur-Brissot Friendship” Dee E. Andrews (California State University, East Bay) and Emma Lapsansky-Werner (Haverford College) “Thomas Clarkson’s Quaker Trilogy: Abolitionist Narrative as Transformative History” Michael C. Cohen (Louisiana State University) “Whittier in Philadelphia: Poetry, Reform, and a Society of Friends” 3:45 – 4:00: Coffee [Venue: Stokes Auditorium Lobby] 4:00 – 5:30: Panel 8 “Travel and Biography” [Venue: Stokes Auditorium] Chair: Geoff Plank (University of East Anglia) Sarah Crabtree (Fairleigh Dickinson University) ‘Beams of Benevolence’: The Contributions of the Transatlantic Quaker Ministry to Eighteenth-century Abolitionism” James Emmett Ryan (Auburn University) “A Friend on the American Frontier: Charles Pancoast’s ‘A Quaker Forty-Niner’ and the Problem of Slavery” Liam Riordan (University of Maine) “Quaker Antislavery and the American Revolution: Biography as a Bridge between Social and Atlantic History” 5:45 – 6:45: Keynote Lecture [Venue: Stokes Auditorium] James Walvin (University of York) “Practical people: slavery, Quakers and the problem of freedom” Chair: Brycchan Carey (Kingston University, London) From 6:45: Closing Reception [Venue: Magill Library Quaker Collection]