In the nineteenth century, many Cincinnati Friends felt called to address the needs of the city’s most vulnerable citizens: its children. Some had mothers who had been imprisoned and had no other option but to take their children to jail with them or leave them homeless. Some youngsters were under
Quaker History
Quaker Byway: Harveysburg Free Black School
A little more than a decade after its revolution and founding, the United States of America proclaimed its first major expansion, creating its first incorporated territory in 1787, to become known as the Northwest Territory. The incorporation included 300,000 bountiful square miles filled with thick forests, an abundance of rivers
CFM Roots: The Civil War
During periods of conflict in England, the Quaker leader George Fox affirmed that he was “sent of God to stand a witness against all violence, and…to bring [people] from the occasion of war and fighting to the peaceable gospel.” This commitment to non-violence has been one of the most enduring
CFM Roots: Slavery and Abolition
During the nineteenth century, it was impossible for Cincinnati Friends to avoid being drawn into the most contentious debate in the history of our nation: the clash over slavery. Quakers were universally opposed to slavery by the mid-nineteenth century, but it had been a position arrived at gradually. When visiting
Examining the Life of Levi Coffin
While being interviewed recently for a documentary on Agents of the Underground Railroad, I was asked about the relationship between the abolitionist Levi Coffin and the other members of Cincinnati Friends Meeting. And the answer was . . . it’s complicated. By the nineteenth century, all yearly meetings in North