Transatlantic Friends: Gender, Authority, and Regionalism in the Early Modern British Atlantic

Abstract

The Quaker belief in universal access to the “indwelling Christ” meant all individuals were considered to be spiritual equals regardless of class, sex, or race. Social and religious historians of the early modern Atlantic have long commented particularly on the relative degree of agency and authority afforded Quaker women in contrast to women of other Protestant denominations. However, the experiences of Quaker women are largely treated in the scholarship as uniform across the faith despite the faith’s early and rapid dispersion across England, Europe, North America and the Caribbean. This thesis argues that regional variations in economies, demographics, and local governance and culture impacted the degree of agency and authority Quaker women held through the medium of their Monthly Meetings. This dissertation investigates the development of Quaker Women’s Meetings in the British Atlantic world between 1670 and 1725 and isolates a key moment of transition in Quaker administration as the faith endeavored to shift from the radical, sectarian movement of the mid-seventeenth century to an established church with an institutional hierarchy of authority after 1670. Through an analysis of contemporary minutes sourced from Quaker Monthly Meetings in four distinct regions across North America and England—colonial Pennsylvania, colonial Massachusetts, the northwestern English county of Lancashire, and the parish of Barking in Essex—this project challenges existing Quaker historiography by underscoring the impact differences in regional governance, economies, and culture had on female agency and authority within early Friends’ Meetings. More broadly, this project encourages historians to situate the experiences of historical actors, and especially women, in their contemporary contexts to better understand the unique regional characteristics which shaped manifestations of authority and agency.