USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -As everyone knows, Quakers were and are pacifists, in most cases refusing to bear arms during conflict. They refused to remove their hats to those in authority or who were considered financially and socially their superior. They refused this practice because Quakers believed all men were equal.

Detailed explanation-2: -A core belief of Quakerism is pacifism, which meant that Friends did not engage in violence. Quakers represent a key third group in the American Revolution that chose political neutrality, and were affected by the war nevertheless.

Detailed explanation-3: -Quakers were not only to refrain from fighting in any war, but enjoined toward living their lives as peacemakers. Friends have affirmed that “our witness is not narrow and negative but far-reaching in its scope and intensely positive in the active service for Christ’s peaceable Kingdom to which it calls us."(3).

Detailed explanation-4: -1 Chester Dunhan in The Attitude ofthe Northern Clergy Toward the South, 1860-1865 asserts that when actual fighting commenced in 1861 Friends maintained their pacifist principles just as they had since colonial days. In short, Quakers refused to participate in the hostilities.

Detailed explanation-5: -They believed in pacifism-that war and violence were wrong. They considered any service in the colony’s militia, or even supporting it through taxes, to be unethical. Quakers also held a basic belief in human equality.