Author:
Donoghue, Norman E., II, author.
ImprintUniversity Park, Pennsylvania : The Pennsylvania State University Press, [2023]
Imprint2023
Descriptionxix, 268 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm
Note:Quaker rebellion -- Quaker refusals -- Friends as enemies -- Quaker arrests -- Peaceable caravan -- Virginia exiles -- Quaker home front -- Quaker peace mission -- Quaker ordeals -- Winter stress -- Shadow of death -- "Entirely an act of our own" -- "Able politicians" -- Release and return.
Bibliography Note:Includes bibliographical references (pages 215-235) and index.
Note:"In 1777, Congress labeled Quakers who would not take up arms in support of the War of Independence as "the most Dangerous Enemies America knows" and ordered Pennsylvania and Delaware to apprehend them. In response, Keystone State officials sent twenty men- seventeen of whom were Quakers- into exile, banishing them to Virginia, where they were held for a year. Prisoners of Congress reconstructs this moment in American history through the experiences of four families: the Drinkers, the Fishers, the Pembertons, and the Gilpins. Identifying them as the new nation's first political prisoners, Norman E. Donoghue II relates how the Quakers, once the preeminent power in Pennsylvania and an integral constituency of the colonies and early republic, came to be reviled by patriots who saw refusal to fight the English as borderline sedition. Surprising, vital, and vividly told, this narrative of political and literal warfare waged by the United States against a pacifist religious group during the Revolutionary War era sheds new light on an essential aspect of American history. It will appeal to anyone interested in learning more about the nation's founding." --Dust jacket flap.
