The Concept of Social Conscience - Essay Example

The Rise of Social Conscience In today’s world, the term ‘social conscience’ is used freely with littlethought given to what is meant. It can be used to refer to wrongs committed by the society in which one lives or it can be used to refer to an individual who takes on social issues as personal crusades in the sense that they have a ‘social conscience.’ However, a part of the understanding of this term, even today, includes its applicability to smaller groups only. When applied to larger populations or to issues in national politics, for instance, the idea of a social conscience is typically lacking. This is generally attributed to a widespread apathy of the population as a whole, with a large degree of the blame placed on the faceless, nameless many that did not care enough to take part. The benefit of this viewpoint is that no one can be held directly accountable for lapses in social conscience and there remains little chance that the issue will generate enough response to force it to be acted upon. However, to become the household word it is today, the concept of a social conscience had to have reached a critical mass at some point in history sufficient enough to initiate change. It did this with the involvement of a few radical groups of the 18th and 19th centuries who felt a need to respond to Britain’s involvement in the slave trade. Prior to this time, the idea of a social conscience had not really been discussed, after this period, it was a part of common vernacular. When it emerged, it was primarily associated with radical fringe religious groups such as the Quakers and the Methodists and other groups that had separated themselves from the Church of England. To understand why these ‘fringe’ groups felt it important to develop the concept and make it acceptable to the more general population, it is necessary to understand the depth of their devotion, for various reasons, to the eradication of slavery as it was being practiced at the time. It is hard for those of us living in the 21st century to imagine how life was different in the colonial period, but a great deal of the power and influence that was wielded by the Quakers and other non-conformist groups grew out of the traditions of the past. “During that time, religion was a generally more important feature of the social and political landscape than it became after the first World War, and those Protestants who dissented from the Church of England constituted an important interest group.”1 These groups had their differences with each other, but they all emerged from the same Puritan-inspired roots, giving them similar moral and ethical values that they extended into their communities. In addition, they all faced the same social conditions and political concerns. Although a great deal of the issues presented are generally related to the Quakers specifically, other groups such as the Methodists and other so-called Non-conformist group played a large role in the eventual abolition of slavery. An important aspect of the question to remember is inherent in the peaceful nature of the men and women who started the movement. The Civil War fought in America that finally and decisively placed anti-slavery laws in the legislation of the country was not fought at the instigation of these groups. In a declaration to the King of England dated 1660, George Fox and other Society of Friends leaders stated, “Our principle is, and our practices have always been, to seek peace and ensue it; to follow after righteousness and the knowledge of God; seeking the good and welfare, and doing that which tends to the peace of all.”2 Instead, it was their desire to lead by example, showing the world that the kingdom of Christ does not operate according to the rules of man and war and its objects are not suitable for a soul preparing itself for heaven. “… we can neither kill men, nor swear for or against them. This is both our principle and practice, and has been from the beginning; so that if we suffer, as suspected to take up arms, or make war against any, it is without any ground from us; for it neither is, nor ever was in our hearts, since we owned the truth of God; neither shall we ever do it, because it is contrary to the Spirit of Christ, his doctrine, and the practices of his apostles.”3 Despite their growing involvement in the anti-slavery issue and other social issues of the day, these groups continued to leave the physical brawl to the soldiers. When commissioned to take over the City Watch in New York in 1782, they regretfully refused the appointment, citing too few men to accomplish the task and a foundational religious principle that withdrew “support or contribute directly or indirectly to the Practice or Business of War.”4 The progress made by the Quakers in sensitizing themselves and the world to the evils of slavery can be traced through the evolution of the Book of Discipline, which began in the 1800s as a compilation of notes from the meetings held. The book continues to be updated, revised and reissued to include only those items that remain active regulations within the Quaker society and clearly demonstrate the growing realizations regarding slavery. “As an example of this growth of moral sensitivity, we find under the heading ‘Negroes or Slaves’ twenty-four manuscript pages of entries, dated 1688 to 1790, recording each step of the process by which the Society of Friends in America freed itself from holding slaves.”5 Filtering through these entries, the three steps of removal – no Friend can buy imported slaves, no Friend can buy any slaves, no Friend should own slaves – can be easily seen. By 1776, the same year that Revolutionaries signed the Declaration of Independence for white men living in the Americas, the Quakers had made it clear to their members that no one still holding slaves would be permitted entry into membership. The Quakers became involved in the issue for a variety of reasons, including their general fear regarding religious implications behind the morality of owning another person. This group traditionally had a strong sense of social responsibility and had been provided with excellent examples of leadership at various times in their past. Although their political power was significantly lessened as a result of the Seven Years’ War and suspicions of Loyalism after the Revolutionary War, “they took the lead in a variety of benevolent causes, including antislavery, partly as a means of reasserting their influence, of vindicating their reputation and of restoring cooperative ties with Revolutionary patriots like Franklin and Rush. Social reform helped to give Quakers the sense of being ‘a people among peoples’ and thus a part of the sovereign people.”6 English Quakers, on the other hand, had always been considered outsiders and were even banned from many of the professions that would have provided them with the necessary prestige and power experienced by Quakers on the other side of the Atlantic, but had been able to hold onto a shaky influence with political leaders. Spurred by reactionist actions by Pennsylvania Quakers visiting London, it was only through the deft manipulation of this influence that London Quakers were able to gain hearing in Parliament and press. This led to the publication of their first pamphlet, which was successfully distributed throughout the realm. While the British were able to concentrate on the media campaign, the Americans were able to provide first-hand expertise on the effects of slavery and success of emancipation. This jointed effort was made possible by a vast network of communications systems within the Quaker religion that fostered a sense of tight-knit community through its encouragement of wandering ministers and the involvement of wealthy men from all aspects of society and both sides of the ocean. As early as 1758, Quaker committees were already engaged in urging individual slave owners to prepare their slaves for freedom and were ready to discipline any members discovered importing slaves by 1760. “In 1774, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting finally adopted rules that threatened disownment for any buying or transfer of slave property, that barred Quakers from serving as executors of estates involving slaves, and that required masters to treat Negroes like other servants and to manumit them at the earliest opportunity.”7 To help support their decision, this was the year John Wesley published his “Thoughts Upon Slavery.”8 This article argued several issues point by point beginning with the proof that the land from which the Africans came was not barren, the people were not unproductive and that the means by which they are procured and treated remain inhumane and barbarous. He then went on to outline the reasons other arguments given in favor of slavery are false and directly addressed various aspects of society that should pay attention. In 1775, the Quakers formed the Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage, which was reformed after the Revolutionary War in 1784 with the inclusion of a new objective – the abolition of slavery. The Society for the Relief of Free Negroes spurred action among the London Quakers leading to the eventual formation of a special committee on the slave trade in London in 1783. This group was instrumental in the production and distribution of anti-slavery literature in England. Thanks to their close ties to the Philadelphia Quakers, the group was able to get detailed information about the good effects of the manumission of slaves as well as the negative effects slavery had on the community. By 1787, they had organized themselves into the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade. A great deal of the importance of abolishing slavery was based upon the Protestant principles and concepts of conscience. The first printed protest against slavery is generally accepted to be that of George Keith in a letter entitled “An Exhortation and Caution to Friends Concerning Buying or Keeping of Negroes” first presented to a Philadelphia Monthly Meeting in 1693.9 After arguing that the Negroes and others commonly sold into slavery are most definitely a part of the human race and therefore among those whom Christ died on the cross to save, Keith indicates that true Christians will do what they can to set any currently owned slaves free and will not purchase slaves for any other reason but to set them free. He provides five reasons why owning slaves is unchristian beginning with the concept that it is against the principles of the religion to purchase any goods known to have been stolen, and it was known that most slaves were procured by being stolen away from their homes in one way or another. He also argues the Golden Rule, indicating none of those men owning slaves would wish to be a slave themselves. His third argument encourages his contemporaries to give safe harbor to slaves, quoting Deuteronomy for support while his fourth argument quotes Exodus regarding the sin of oppressing hired servants. Finally, Keith claims it is immoral to keep slaves because it is against God to profit from the efforts of those whom one has oppressed.10 These concepts were echoed quite eloquently in Wesley’s 1774 “Thoughts Upon Slavery.”11 In addition to the Biblical reasons why slavery should be abolished, a great deal of the means by which the anti-slavery was organized on both sides of the ocean was through the evangelical efforts of the Quakers themselves. Because the traveling ministers preached as often to English Quakers as they did to American Quakers, they were able to bind the congregations together in a common bond of mutual vision regarding the issue of slavery. The term ‘evangelical’ literally means “of or pertaining to the Gospel.”12 Because of their foundational belief in the idea of salvation through the faith in the death of Christ as atonement for all of man’s sins, this term became widely associated with the Protestant groups of the 18th century. “Evangelicalism stressed the reality of the ‘inner life,’ insisted on the total depravity of humanity (a consequence of the Fall) and on the importance of the individual’s personal relationship with God and Savior. They put particular emphasis on faith, denying that either good works or the sacraments (which they perceived as being merely symbolic) possessed any salvational efficacy.”13 This belief structure made it impossible for them to ignore the inherent salvageable qualities of the Africans and others brought into slavery which contributed to their overall conviction that slavery was wrong. The traveling ministers, evangelists, carried this message with them, uniting all Protestants under the same banner of concern for the individual soul. Despite their involvement in attempting to bring freedom to the slaves, and their early insistence upon providing their slaves with religious instruction, the Quakers have traditionally had very few African members. “In Barbados this led, in 1676, to a law forbidding them to take their slaves to Quaker meetings, which law the Friends consistently disobeyed, suffering in consequence. Another law to the same effect was passed in 1678.”14 Although the Quakers took it upon themselves to ensure the Negroes had a regular meeting to attend, and therefore find their own way to God, with the establishment of a monthly meeting specifically for Negroes beginning in 1756, the freed slaves quickly began forming their own places of worship independently of the Quakers. “The reference to independent Negro churches in Philadelphia leads back to a movement a few years earlier which was extraordinarily close to an independent Negro Society of Friends. Prior to 1787 the Negroes in Philadelphia had attended various white places of worship in the city without any organization of their own. But in that year, due to the growing independence of the free Negroes, and in part perhaps to new discrimination against them … they formed the Free African Society.”15 The primary functions of the organization were to provide charity and mutual aid among the black society, but it contained religious elements in its meetings and showed a definite concern for the moral well-being of its attendees. Although these early ‘churches’ were formed by blacks for blacks, they showed several areas of Quaker influence. “Doubtless many of the Negroes were well acquainted with the Friends’ meetings and discipline”16 and a great deal of their ceremonies and functions were formed from Quaker traditions. However, the churches remained fundamentally different from the Quaker services in the revival of shared and remembered cultural values and traditions from their homelands as the freed slaves began working to establish a new culture for themselves in the new world. Thus, through a peaceful yet well-voiced campaign held on two sides of the Atlantic and with well-informed and coordinated strategies, it was the Non-Conformists of the Victorian Age, primarily traceable in the writings by and of the Quakers, that the anti-slavery movement found its feet. As early as the mid-1600s, Quakers were questioning the morality of the practice of slavery, arguing against the means by which slaves were procured and instructing members to avoid participating in the trade if at all possible. Although not violently-minded, it remained the firm belief of many Quakers that the practice of owning slaves violated the rules of God. These points were enumerated several times in various different documents created by many of the great leaders of the age. Because of their aversion to violence, these groups fell back on media campaigns designed to educate the rich and powerful to bring about social change. Although these groups stood to gain some political and financial clout thanks to their involvement in these types of social issues, a great deal of the movement was carried forward by shared moralistic concerns. This was thanks to the well-written documents circulated by the Quakers that enumerated various Biblical passages that tended to point to the damnation of individuals who participated in practices known to be widely used in procuring and owning slaves, such as the theft of property as they were taken from their homes and the profiting from the oppression of others that served to doom the Egyptian pharaohs. These messages were able to remain consistent throughout their evolution from the simple diction not to buy imported slaves to the instruction not to buy any slaves to the directive to not own slaves period thanks to the sophisticated communication system enjoyed by these groups through the common practice of traveling ministers, or evangelists, who traveled the colonies and England sharing their single message of abolition. Although the Quakers played a large role in the abolition of slavery and in establishing proper schools and support systems for newly freed slaves, the blacks chose to form their own religious meeting groups that allowed for more of their own cultural expression than the traditional Quaker service provided. Nevertheless, several of these early organizations show unmistakable Quaker influences in their foundation and organization. Footnotes 1 Helmstadter, Richard. (1979). “The Nonconformist Conscience.” The Conscience of the Victorian State. Peter Marsh (Ed.). New York. Retrieved June 12, 2006 from 2 Fox, George. (1660; reprinted 1891). “A Declaration from the Harmless and Innocent People of God, Called Quakers, Against all Sedition, Plotters, and Fighters in the World: For Removing the Ground of Jealousy and Suspicion from Magistrates and People Concerning Wars and Fighters.” Journal. (8th Ed.). London: Friends’ Tract Association. Retrieved June 12, 2006 from < http://www.qhpress.org/quakerpages/qwhp/dec1660.htm> 3 Ibid. 4 Cox, John. (1930). “A Minute Declining Charge of the City Watch: Pearl Street Meeting, New York City, 1782.” Quakerism in the City of New York. New York: privately printed, pp. 79-81. Retrieved June 12, 2006 from < http://www.qhpress.org/quakerpages/qwhp/watch.htm> 5 Brinton, Howard. (1952). Friends for 300 Years. New York: Harper Brothers, p. 104. 6 Davis, David Brion. (1969). “The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution.” (Ch. 5). The Quaker Ethic and the Antislavery International, p. 222. Retrieved June 12, 2006 from 7 Davis, (1969), p. 215. 8 Wesley, John. (1872). “Thoughts Upon Slavery.” The Works of John Wesley. Thomas Jackson (Ed.). Vol. XI, pp. 59-79. Retrieved June 12, 2006 from < http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/wesley/thoughtsuponslavery.stm> 9 Moore, George (Ed.). (1889). The First Printed Protest Against Slavery in America, Reprinted from “The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography.” Philadelphia: n.p. Retrieved June 12, 2006 from < http://www.qhpress.org/quakerpages/qwhp/gk-as1693.htm> 10 Ibid. 11 Wesley, (1872). 12 Cody, David. (2006). “Evangelicalism.” The Victorian Web. Retrieved June 12, 2006 from < http://www.scholars.nus.edu.sg/victorian/religion/evangel1.html> 13 Ibid. 14 Cadbury, Henry. (1936). “Negro Membership in the Society of Friends.” Journal of Negro History. Vol. 21, pp. 151-213. Retrieved June 12, 2006 from < http://www.qhpress.org/quakerpages/qwhp/hcjnh1.htm> 15 Ibid. 16 Ibid. References Brinton, Howard. (1952). Friends for 300 Years. New York: Harper Brothers. Cadbury, Henry. (1936). “Negro Membership in the Society of Friends.” Journal of Negro History. Vol. 21, pp. 151-213. Retrieved June 12, 2006 from < http://www.qhpress.org/quakerpages/qwhp/hcjnh1.htm> Cody, David. (2006). “Evangelicalism.” The Victorian Web. Retrieved June 12, 2006 from < http://www.scholars.nus.edu.sg/victorian/religion/evangel1.html> Cox, John. (1930). “A Minute Declining Charge of the City Watch: Pearl Street Meeting, New York City, 1782.” Quakerism in the City of New York. New York: privately printed, pp. 79-81. Retrieved June 12, 2006 from < http://www.qhpress.org/quakerpages/qwhp/watch.htm> Davis, David Brion. (1969). “The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution.” (Ch. 5). The Quaker Ethic and the Antislavery International. Retrieved June 12, 2006 from Fox, George. (1660; reprinted 1891). “A Declaration from the Harmless and Innocent People of God, Called Quakers, Against all Sedition, Plotters, and Fighters in the World: For Removing the Ground of Jealousy and Suspicion from Magistrates and People Concerning Wars and Fighters.” Journal. (8th Ed.). London: Friends’ Tract Association. Retrieved June 12, 2006 from < http://www.qhpress.org/quakerpages/qwhp/dec1660.htm> Helmstadter, Richard. (1979). “The Nonconformist Conscience.” The Conscience of the Victorian State. Peter Marsh (Ed.). New York. Retrieved June 12, 2006 from Moore, George (Ed.). (1889). The First Printed Protest Against Slavery in America, Reprinted from “The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography.” Philadelphia: n.p. Retrieved June 12, 2006 from < http://www.qhpress.org/quakerpages/qwhp/gk-as1693.htm> Wesley, John. (1872). “Thoughts Upon Slavery.” The Works of John Wesley. Thomas Jackson (Ed.). Vol. XI, pp. 59-79. Retrieved June 12, 2006 from < http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/wesley/thoughtsuponslavery.stm> Read More