ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the Quaker movement from its beginnings with a former shoemaker’s apprentice, George Fox, to its successful establishment in North America with the work of the well-connected and highly respectable William Penn. It describes the initial vision of George Fox and the explosive growth of a Quaker movement. The chapter explores the faith and beliefs of very early Quakers that set them apart from other religious radicals in England. It outlines early efforts to turn a passionate but inchoate movement into a stable and lasting religious society. The chapter shows how Quakers came to be seen as a threat to public order, how they struggled to allay the fears of the government while remaining true to their beliefs, and how they eventually managed to flourish in seventeenth-century England and spread successfully to Jamaica, Barbados, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the Carolinas.
