Friends Becoming Enemies

At the end of the 1820s, American Quakers suffered a bitter and longterm division known as the Hicksite schism.Following a boisterous and caustic Philadelphia Yearly Meeting in April 1827, a group of Quaker reformers separated themselves from the main body of Friends, and formed their own independent meeting.The schism in the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting spread rapidly outward in concentric circles disrupting other Quaker meetings throughout North America.By the end of the decade, Philadelphia Quakers had divided into two distinct and hostile factions.Each group became known by the epithet given to it by the other, but their names represented well their differing positions within the Society.Those who retained leadership of the Yearly Meeting and the allegiance of a majority of urban Friends in Philadelphia were known as the "Orthodox" party for their attachment to traditional Protestant doctrines.The other faction acquired the label "Hicksite" for their sympathy with the ministry and teaching of Long Island Quaker Elias Hicks.Each side considered itself the legitimate Society of Friends.1

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• Congenial to Almost Every Shade of Radicalism

  Open Access•Stephen J Fleming, Stephen Fleming•Religion and American Culture A…•2007

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